A tear escaped and her throat worked. It definitely hurt her to hear him say it. She did feel their bond despite everything she said to the contrary. She tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her. “I chose you, Candy. I didn’t have to but I did anyway. I wanted to. It is important that you know that I am attracted to you in a big way. I haven’t so much as given that other female a passing thought since bringing you here. I’m glad things ended up the way they did. Let’s work on it. I really want us to give this a chance.” He moved away from her and gave her some space.

“Thank you. I appreciate your honesty. I am still struggling to accept that I am stuck in this room…” She looked around her, her eyes widened here and there as they roamed. “As beautiful as it is. I’m essentially a prisoner here until you either let me go or I have sex with you. It’s not an ideal situation. Why can’t you just tell everyone that we’re dating…” She pulled a face that spoke of panic and gripped her temples. “I haven’t dated anyone in a very long time. This is so… unexpected.” She huffed out a breath. “I don’t understand why I need to be locked away. It’s not like I can escape or anything. We’re in the middle of nowhere.”

They were moving forward. He needed to come clean about everything. “Everyone thinks that I have fully claimed you.”

“What?”

“My people think that we are mated.”

“That we had sex?” Her brows lifted.

Torrent nodded. “If you go out, they will know that it is not true. When we do rut… consummate our relationship, you will scent of me. It will be subtle but there.”

“You had to”—she paused—“pretend to… you know… the whole dress lifting thing.” She looked flustered. “Is that how they got the wrong idea about this?”

“Yeah, that. I made those males believe that I was claiming you. I had to. Some of them were water dragons. They came back here and spread the word that I had mated you.”

Candy nodded. “I see.”

“I obviously didn’t really do it. You were already half unconscious and I could never…”

She waved her hands. “Yeah, yeah, I know. So everyone thinks we did the deed.”

Torrent nodded. “I should’ve said something when we returned here. Set the record straight. It is acceptable to fool one’s opponents but I felt a need to protect you. I was worried about you. You’d been out cold for a long time. There were short bouts where you opened your eyes but I could see that you weren’t really awake. It scared me. Non-humans are still governed by instinct. It is my responsibility to protect you.” He paused.