He stalked closer. “Aside from last night, there hasn’t been a single instance. You’ve seen the scars on my body, but not all are from battles. Many were from when I was imprisoned as a boy and repeatedly beaten. In the centuries since, I’ve let few people touch me in friendship, fewer still as a lover, but none in anger without extracting my vengeance . . . yet you struck me, and I did nothing.” His voice deepened. “If you don’t find sufficient apology in that, then you don’t know me at all.”
