Bound by Sin Read Online Free PDF Page B

you to know me?” he asked of her, his tone hard.
    “Nonsense,” she said dismissively. “You wish to know me, and so I must know you.”
    “I never said I want to know you.”
    “Of course you do,” she said with a lift of her chin. “All men find me curious and compelling. They always wish to know about me and my kind.”
    “Your kind?”
    She brushed past the inquiry. “Tell me, have you children? A wife?”
    These questions irritated him further, so he almost did not answer. But in the end, he said, “I did once. What of you?”
    “Oh, I do not have a wife. Nor do I have children.”
    He fought the urge to smile. “And what of a husband?”
    She frowned. “There is one who wishes to be my mate, but I do not wish it in return.” Her frowned deepened. “He cannot understand that…” She trailed off, clearly not meaning to speak aloud on the matter because she looked at him as though in surprise. It was strange because he felt as though she was otherwise open to his questions…when in fact she had smoothly dodged some of his return inquiries.
    “I need to get back to my brothers,” he said, trying not to sound as full of consternation over that fact as he was.
    “Your brothers depend on you a great deal? Or is it you who depends on them?” Before he could work up a reaction to the affront, she said, “My brothers do not depend on me at all, but one thinks I should depend on him. But the only one I truly depend on is my father. I am in his care until such time as I take a mate. Then I will be in my mate’s care. That is the way of things with my people.”
    “You keep saying ‘my people’ but never tell me who your people are.”
    “You have not told me who your people are. Where do you come from?”
    “Nowhere. Everywhere. I used to say I was from Barost. It was the city where…where my wife lived.”
    “With your children?”
    “Yes.”
    “What happened to her?”
    “She died. Look, I do not wish to talk about her.”
    “All right. Where are your children?”
    “They are dead too,” he snapped at her, “and an equally taboo topic!”
    “I see.” Her mouth drifted into a sad little frown and her exotic eyes went soft with pain. “I did not mean to make you angry. I only wished to know everything about you. I find you so fascinating. I find you different.”
    “I am no different from any other man,” he said.
    “Other men do not burn like a star.”
    Well, she had him there. “Is that all that fascinates you about me?” he asked. “I am not some freak show meant for your entertainment.”
    “Believe me,” she assured him in the face of his biting tone, “I find nothing about you to be any more freakish than you might think I am.”
    “You do not burn every night.”
    “No. But we all have our trials, and we are all different and strange in our own ways. And that’s what is so beautiful about most living creatures, don’t you think? If everyone were the same, it would be quite boring.”
    “Who
are
you?” he asked intensely, reaching to take her head between his hands and boring a stare into her eyes.
    “I—I am Jileana. I am daughter to the warrior Creasus. I care for my people’s young when they must hunt or farm. I have a brother who is a warrior just like my father. They defend our home from our enemies and I am very proud of them for that. My mother is a great woman with compassion in her soul and a firm hand.
    “I love the feel of the warm sun on my body as I lay beneath it, and the coolness of the ocean waters as I swim through them. It is a simple life, the life I lead, but it is a good one.”
    Jaykun had to admit it sounded like a good one. Some days he thought he might trade his soul for the joys of a simple life…but it only took an instant for him to quell such a notion. There was too much at stake in the life he had to lead, too many people whose fates were dependent on him staying the course.
    “I don’t have time for this,” he muttered, releasing