Cassian held her gaze without wavering, and Cixi, though half-bewildered, could do nothing but return it. Silence spread between them, but his last words did not recede with it. They became even clearer.
Then he spoke once more, and this time there was no trace of jest in him at all. "Even before you were born, you were mine...." The heat that had already begun to climb in her sharpened at once.
'Mine?'
"Without the coin, you were mine, Without any contract, you were mine—You were always Mine." His voice had lowered again, sounding declarative and absolute. "And with or without your kissing contract, you remain mine still, Lousy Kisser."
The words should have resembled a confession.
But they were not. He was not offering his heart. He was asserting his claim over her. He did mention before when he had saved her from committing suicide when she jumped from the building rooftop, which he forgot, and yet when he said the same words, it felt more obsessive and possessive.
