“Are you sure you don’t want to come with me?” I asked Katherine for what must have been the tenth time, though it came out softer this time, edged with something I couldn’t quite hide.
Her eyes lifted to mine, sharp and unyielding, and for a moment I forgot how to breathe. That look of hers—half irritation, half challenge—always did something to me. My lips curved into a grin before I could stop myself.
“Stop teasing me, Vier,” she muttered, her mouth twisting into the faintest pout.
The grin only widened. God, she made it too easy.
“But I want you to come with me,” I replied, my tone deliberately steady as I held her gaze. I didn’t let her look away—not right away, at least.
And then it happened. That flicker of color in her cheeks, blooming faintly against her skin as if my words h
