Page 99 (1/2)

The light of passing street lamps flashed across his face He squirmed in his seat and stared at his knees

"You can’t even look at her in pitch from frustration

"It’s not appropriate," he quietly replied, balling his hands together on his lap

"Looking at me is not appropriate?"

"No I mean, none of it I shouldn’t have" He shuddered

She leaned forward and spoke in a whisper in case Dr Silk had chosen to breach the trust of his peers and the Hastings Livery Co a way to eavesdrop "Is it because I’m not like the empire’s women, obedient andlike that On the contrary I" And now he also leaned forward and whispered "I like that about you, that you are different I find itsti and waited for hio on, which only seemed to add to his discomfort "Well, it’s inappropriate"

"Why, because the empire likes to hide its women behind veils and cloth and treat them like children?"

"No" He paused, then, "Like children? Really? Is that what you think?"

She fixed hiuess I can see that," he s of iently rocked as it rounded another corner I sick of those words "Then what is the probleht you of all people would respect," he replied

"And what is that?"

He licked his lips, moved in even closer so he could whisper directly into her ear "My aspiration to be a Weapon, a true Weapon" His breath arainst her cheek "To protect Arhys without distraction"

"But I’ve helped you with your training I wouldn’t call that a distraction"

"I am to be celibate" He’d whispered it so softly she almost didn’t hear him "I must be so I can focus on ht, and then realized that it insinuated he’d considered its opposite With her She did not knohether to laugh or be pleased that the idea had entered hisHer neck and face warain

"Weapons do not marry," Cade continued "You must know this They coan thoughtabout e

"It’s true, Weapons do not marry," she whispered, all too conscious of his pleasant musky scent, of the heat he radiated from so intimate a proximity, "but it does not mean they are celibates"

"You know this for certain?"