Chapter 40 · Try Me

"Try me."

"Dorian," I said. "Tell him."

His thumb dragged over the inside of my wrist.

Slow. Deliberate.

Not affection. A threat wearing a gentle touch.

My breath caught anyway.

His eyes dropped to my mouth. He noticed.

Of course he did.

"You want the truth?" he asked.

"I want my wrists back."

"You want the truth more."

"Don't decide what I want." I yanked against his hold. "You've done enough of that."

His face lowered until his breath brushed my lips. The council chamber blurred around us—black coats, hard stares, nobody daring to interrupt.

All I could feel was his body against mine. His heat. The pulse beating beneath his thumb.

"You shouldn't have opened that file," he said.

"You shouldn't have lied to me."

"I was protecting you."

"From what?"

His jaw locked.

No answer.

I smiled without warmth. "That's what I thought."

I drove my knee up.

Dorian twisted aside.