Emrys smiled against her skin . If she had phrased it that way in an attempt to be provocative, he could certainly appreciate her methods... though a nagging voice at the back of his mind was worried she meant something else by this. There was still a chance that she'd let their previous interaction eat away at her, and would eventually try to pry an answer out of him. He was on guard for any attempt, and as she spoke his mind tried to see if that was her angle, somehow — if this line of dialogue would somehow connect back to that central point, and she would start to question him when he, true to his word, declined to expound on the subject.

Were they doomed, then? Had one bad interaction spoiled months of pleasure in the past and foiled months of the same to come? As much as he would have liked to believe they weren't, he had a plethora of experience with how these liaisons drew to a natural close, and this was beginning to show all the likely signs.

"I certainly would never forbid you," he said lightly, hoping that she'd only meant something physical and not... that she wanted to be his emotional confidante or his bosom companion, or something. They were a little too old, both of them, to be playing at things like that.

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