He wasn’t that smart. Or maybe he simply wasn’t thinking with his brain at that moment. Either explanation could be true. Possibly both.
He hadn’t come upstairs for sex, though. At least, that hadn’t been his primary motivation. He simply needed to see Kylie again, to be near her without the distraction of their temporary guests or the plans of the nocturnis. She had burrowed her way under his skin, and the only way to soothe the constant itch was to be near her, to smell her, to touch her, to feel the warmth of her small energetic body that somehow appeared restless even while lying still.
“I guess not growing up with a strict bubbeh, or you know, at all, means I shouldn’t give you too much grief for not knocking.”
Her voice floated out of the dark, quiet and relaxed, more amused than annoyed. Dag let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I did not wish to wake you if you slept.”
“Yeah, not sleeping.” She shifted, her skin shushing across the smooth sheets. He could see well in the dark, but she remained curled on her side, the puffy height of her covering obscuring her face from his angle near the door. “You might as well come in.”
He crossed immediately to the bed and reached for the blankets.
“Whoa! Hold up there, Quick Draw,” she said, holding out a hand to stop him. “I meant come into the room, not climb into my bed. I’m pretty sure we still have a few things to talk about.”
Dag swallowed his disappointed sigh and sat on the edge of the bed, on top of the covers. He noticed the smaller size of this mattress compared to the one downstairs and couldn’t help but picture how close they would have to curl together to both fit. His mate wished to talk, so he would talk with her. He just wished he possessed more skill at the activity.
“You have questions,” he guessed.
She frowned. Now that he sat beside her, he could see her expressions clearly, and this one looked confused but not angry. He felt a stirring of hope.
“Actually, I’m not even sure I do,” she murmured. Both of them instinctively kept their voices low, unwilling to disturb the intimacy of the quiet, darkened room. “I mean, I think I understand everything everyone has told me, so I don’t need to ask how this all works, or what the legend says, or what my role is in all of this. My mind gets all those things. At least, it gets that they’re things you all think are true, and I have no concrete evidence to disprove any of it.”
Dag struggled to sit still and listen, to not lean toward her and try to make her see things the way he did. He might not have known this female for a long time, but he already knew that trying to rush her or pressure her would only result in frustration for him and more stubbornness for her.
“The only question that keeps popping into my head is why,” she continued, tucking one arm under her cheek to raise her head on the pillow. “And it’s not even clear to me which why I mean. Why me? Why you? Why would Fate care about the love lives of ordinary women and a bunch of stone statues? Why do men have nipples? Honestly, at this point they all seem equally relevant. So no, I don’t have any questions, because I don’t even really know what it is I want to know.”
He tried hard to wrap his head around her words, which as usual she had strung together and knotted into sentences that took him time and effort to untangle. Finally, he said, “I cannot think any of those questions has an answer. Even if they did, I am unsure the answer would satisfy you.”
She pulled a wry face and stuck her tongue out at him. “That big a balagan, am I? A big, crazy mess?”
“No.” Dag shook his head. “But you seek answers that do not exist, because Fate does not operate in ways the living can understand. She has Her own rules and Her own agenda.”
“Yeah, I think that’s pretty clear.”
He had to gather himself before he asked his own question. “Do you object so strongly to me that you wish to deny our connection?”
She gave a long, heavy sigh. “That isn’t it. There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with Fate. There’s not even anything wrong with the situation. I mean, if you take away the Demonic evil and its madcap minions. I’m not even sure what I feel is an objection to begin with. I don’t really know how to articulate any of what I feel.”
In the dark, his hand reached out and closed over hers. He rubbed his thumb over the back of her dainty fingers and squeezed gently. “Simply try.”
Kylie looked away from him, turning her gaze to the shadows filling the room. “I think maybe I’m kind of hurt.”
She spoke so softly, he had to strain to hear her, and when he did, he felt a jolt of shock and guilt. “I have hurt you?”