Twin Flames by Elizabeth Winters Page B

barely know you.”
    He shook his head. “Damn.”
    “I need to go home. Now.”
    “You can’t.”
    The words were so soft she had to ask him to repeat them.
    You can’t go home. Ever.” He leaned against the purple velvet headboard, staring down at her.
    Raven rose to her elbows to glare at him. “You can’t be serious,” she snapped.
    “There’s nothing to be done. That is how the cycle works. We’re bound together now.” He pushed his hair from his eyes.
    “You’re saying I’m stuck here forever and there’s nothing I can do about it?” Anger sizzled in her stomach. She let it have its way, better to chase away the panic.
    He must have sensed her mood. His arm wrapped tightly around her waist and pulled her against his naked body. “It’s not that bad,” he murmured. “We’ll be together. It’s the way of things.”
    She shut her eyes and tried to gain control of her emotions. “So, I’m supposed to do what? Be your housewife?”
    “We have no such things here. Our women are pampered and sheltered.”
    Her jaw dropped. “And you assumed that’s what I would want?”
    His grasp tightened around her waist. “That’s what all women want.”
    She shoved him away. “Get off me.” Jumping to her feet, she paced nude beside the bed. “That may work for some, but not me. I want to go back, and you’re going to make it happen.”
    He sighed, brushing one hand through his hair. “If you go back, I must follow. I’m needed here.”
    “So I must stay,” she finished.
    Nodding, he rose and began to dress. “There is no other choice. You must learn to understand.” He eased a shirt over his broad shoulders. Even furious, she couldn’t help but sigh at the ripple of those powerful muscles.
    “I’m not going to learn to understand.” She threw his words back at him. “I’m going home. You can’t keep me here.”
    His golden gaze settled on her face. “I don’t have time to discuss this. I have a meeting with Chalice.” He leaned down to kiss her lips, but met only her cheek. “At least try to understand. I don’t want to force you to stay, but I will.”
    Incensed, plans fluttering in her mind, she watched him pull on his boots. He had dismissed her with a simple shrug of his broad shoulders.
    Damn him. If he wouldn’t help her, she’d help herself.
    He left soon after, seemingly unbothered that her heart was breaking in two. She would find her way home and he would not stop her.
    Her plan concocted, she dressed in the burgundy silk slip dress Devlin had laid out on the bed and ventured outside the bedchamber. The guard who had been so kind to her the night before stood waiting.
    How dare he put her under guard as if she were his captive?
    She gave the guard her best nonplussed smile. “I thought I’d take a stroll around the castle. It’s extraordinary.”
    He flushed at her flirtatious tone. “I’d be happy to escort you, my lady, but a Council meeting has been called. I’m afraid you’ll have to wait until I can return.”
    A playful frown on her lips, she stared up at him and widened her eyes. “What harm could I come to on my own? I just want to look around.”
    His hesitant glance betrayed his unease and she was quick to reassure him. “I promise I won’t go far.”
    The guard cocked his head, his glance steady. “Don’t leave the galley.”
    She had won. She pressed a quick kiss on his cheek. “I won’t. Don’t worry.” She hurried away before he could change his mind.
    The halls of the castles were eerily silent. Everyone must be in the Council meeting. Even the women? She still wasn’t convinced they weren’t locked away somewhere to await the men’s pleasure.
    She grimaced. What a life that would be. No thank you. Earth may have had its chauvinist pigs, but it beat the hell out of this society.
    She plunged through the darkness, determined to find her way back to the village. Without fear of either citizens or guards, she moved freely through the halls. The