Chapter 11
Capitolo Undici
In a short period of time, Saturnino’s voice had become irritatingly distinct in her mind.
She could pick it out of a crowd, hear it from miles away.
But the way he spoke to her just then felt different.
It was a voice suitable for a bedroom. Meant for whispering against bare skin.
Spoken in a hush against a pursed mouth.
And he knew it.
Saturnino could use his beauty as a weapon, one that he’d no doubt spent decades sharpening.
Anger skipped up her spine. But that wasn’t why it irritated her.
People would go to any lengths in the name of survival.
This immortal was no different. And, if she were being honest with herself, neither was she.
Ravenna was irritated because Saturnino had suddenly decided to use his weapon against her.
“Will you not face me?” Saturnino asked in a husky whisper.
She was no coward, but she hesitated nevertheless.
Saturnino was everything she despised, a killer, but he had an enigmatic quality that drew her eye, an undercurrent of mystery that reminded her of the promise of uncut stone.
His cold beauty was like marble, her favorite medium to work with.
A mortifying thrill at his nearness spread through her.
There was no helping it, she could only acknowledge it for the weakness that it was, and never give in to it.
Ravenna turned around.
Slowly.
Saturnino stared at her, one brow archly lifted as if he were asking, There, was that so hard?
Yes, it was.
Because for the first time, his eyes displayed a subtle hint of emotion.
Nothing she could easily define, but if she had been forced to name it she would have guessed it was amusement that gleamed back at her.
Ravenna furrowed her brow. Suspicion swept her senses into a whirlwind—what was the immortal up to now?
Gone were his cold manner and latent malice, the hostility brimming underneath the pale skin. He was behaving like a human.
A calculating human.
“What were you and your maid speaking of, I wonder?” he mused.
Annoyance tugged at her. He must have seen her at the opposite end of the corridor, waiting in the shadows like the abominable sneak that he was.
“Spying on me?”
“Nothing so dastardly,” he said neutrally. “I’m on my way to share a meal with my family.” He frowned at her. “Have you met your maid before now?”
She flushed, silently berating herself. From here onward, Ravenna had to remember that she was trying to survive a game where everyone played to win, using deception and intrigue and gossip and secrets.
No one was above suspicion, and to someone like Saturnino, who suspected everyone, a lengthy conversation with her maid would draw notice.
“No, I haven’t. We were talking about my ensemble,” Ravenna lied. “She thinks I ought to have gone with a different color.”
Saturnino’s dark eyes dipped from her face down to the expanse of skin the wool gown failed to cover; the column of her throat, her collarbones, the swell of her breasts.
Then his gaze lifted, an unexpected gleam of interest shining back at her.
A warm feeling spread through her, as if someone had poured a vat of honey over her head, and it was moving slowly over her body, delicious and sweet.
Ravenna was appalled by her reaction.
“You look presentable to me,” he said, and in his tone she heard how the bedroom door opened, beckoning her to enter.
“Stop flirting with me.”
“Why? Scared by how much you like it?” He winked at her.
“Actually, yes,” Ravenna said, and he blinked as if he weren’t expecting the truth from her. “You can’t mean anything by it other than to hurt me, which is cruel. So stop with your come-hither bedroom voice. You’re wasting your flattery.”
“Bedroom voice?” Saturnino repeated.
“As if you didn’t know,” Ravenna said, with an impatient wave of your hand. “And while there’s nothing you can do about your face, I’d appreciate it if you never winked at me again.”
He stared at her, incredulous, but the corners of his mouth tiptoed upward in an almost smile. “What’s wrong with my face?”
“Nothing, and that’s the problem.”
A beat of silence followed, buzzing with unexpected tension.
“There’s nothing wrong with your face, either,” he said softly.
Ravenna gave him a severe look. “You can’t say things like that to me.”
Saturnino’s smile was brief, but dazzling and real. “Do you mean the truth?”
She narrowed her gaze. “Is it the truth?”
A lock of black hair fell across his face, and he tucked it behind his ear. The gesture was so human, so soft, it felt incongruous with the sharp planes of his countenance, the hard line of his broad shoulders, the way he had rudely dismissed the steward from the day before.
His voice was a husky whisper. “It is.”
“Then I’d prefer you lie to me,” she whispered back.
His amusement vanished, replaced with an attentive curiosity that unsettled her.
“Why?” he asked.
Ravenna backed up a step. His need to puzzle through her words and actions surprised her. Trying to understand another person was the beginning of empathy. It cracked a window into a person’s mind, opened a door into the mysteries of their heart and mind.
“Why do you want me to lie to you?” he pressed.
“Because you’re using honesty to try to torment me,” Ravenna said. “And I won’t have it. So stop.”
“Then stop lying to me,” he said. “Servants ought to be invisible, but your maid engaged you in a lengthy conversation that looked heated and emotional. Tell me, what did she say to you?”
My God, he really was suspicious of everyone. As if at any moment he expected a knife in the back. “I told you it was nothing, a trifle. We spoke about my wardrobe—”
Saturnino reached her in two strides.
Ravenna didn’t have time to react, to move. He clasped her arm with a light touch, but the chill from his fingers seeped through. “I like you better when you’re honest.”
“I don’t want you to like me.” She tried to shift away but he held on to her. “I don’t want you to notice me at all.”
He smiled, a grim sort of smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Too late.”
Ravenna inhaled sharply. She expected her magic to pour out of her in defense, but it stayed dormant, quiet in the arms of the immortal.
Saturnino brushed his thumb across her bottom lip.
She shivered; from his touch, from his cool breath whispering across her face, from her hair standing on end at the nape of her neck.
A frightened, embarrassing squeak rushed out of her.
Saturnino stilled his movement, and something in his posture loosened. His eyes dropped to her mouth. Tension spooled between them. Slow and painful and intoxicating. She’d never felt anything like it. He wanted to kiss her. He would kiss her.
He would be the first.
She always imagined it would have been done by one of the village young men. The baker’s son, or Luca, who owned an apothecary shop near the main piazza. She never expected or wished for Saturnino.
But his alpine scent swirled between them, and the smooth expanse of his face hovered above her own.
His dark winged brows were furrowed, a faint line etched between them, his expression turned calculating.
Lucifer’s dark twin. Ravenna held on to her dislike of him as if it were an indomitable shield.
The magic within her stirred, and panic spiked her blood.
“Do not kiss me,” she said.
His hold on her softened, almost imperceptibly.
He lifted his hand, brushed his finger against the curve of her cheek.
Ravenna relaxed against him. Her mind told her to flee, her body demanded she stay.
This was the height of idiocy, she knew that.
But his dark eyes held her enthralled. They glittered with a suppressed emotion swirling in their depths.
And despite herself, it was that hint of emotion behind his stony exterior that ignited her imagination. What was he hiding from her? The world? Himself?
Stop it, Ravenna, she thought.
“Why resist something you want?” he whispered.
“Because I don’t,” she evenly. “Release me.”
Abruptly, he did. He took in the defiant lift of her chin, her narrow shoulders blade-straight.
It felt like he was taking the measure of his sparring partner.
His amusement returned in slow degrees. The tone of his voice held uncharacteristic mischief.
“Keep your secrets for now, then. But I’ll warn you only once, Ravenna.
” His voice dropped to a silky whisper. “I will learn them all by the end.”
Saturnino deliberately winked at her.