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‘So why can’t I force you to trust a few more people?’ I rubbed my palms over my face and added, ‘It would make this trip significantly easier if you didn’t have to play the invulnerable fae prince every minute of the day.’
You …He didn’t look like an invulnerable fae prince now, magic and wings and pointed ears be damned. Still that same lean, muscular body, still that gorgeous, sharp-edged face that had once made me think of him as an overly favourable portrait in the flesh – but I’d learned to see below those surface layers, and the tense lines around his lips and the erratic motions of his fingers weren’t hard to read.You really want us to go on that trip with half a household around.
Yes. No. Maybe.
‘Is there any reasonnotto take them along?’ I said, throat dry.
Just the fact that you still insist on keeping secrets from them no matter how much you tell me you trust them. There was a biting exactness to his gestures.Hiding this affair isn’t going to get easier if we’re forced to spend every single minute of the day with an audience. For what might be weeks.
‘Ten days at most,’ I muttered, which was the weakest possible counter to the least important of his arguments. ‘We should be able to hide this for ten days, shouldn’t we?’
Shields or not, the piercing weight of his gaze caught me like a deer in a trap.Because you want to or because they want you to?
I didn’t even know the answer to that question anymore – could no longer distinguish between obligations and wishes, needs and duties, in this tangle of conflicting opinions. Did they want me to? Yes, but not for the sake of hiding me, not for the sake of propriety or parental expectations. Just for the sake of winning a war, and wasn’t that the main thing I strived for, too?
‘I don’t want to cause trouble.’ I hated how that sentence echoed the first twenty years of my life. Why was I the one complicating everything again, when I’d come here to save them all? ‘So much can go wrong already. If the people who know the Alliance best think I’d deter potential allies by going out with you alone, I don’t want to risk that.’
Creon nodded, but there was little conviction to the gesture.
‘Do you still think we should go just the two of us?’
I don’t know.He averted his gaze, rubbed his forehead, and added, staring at the floor,It’s a risk whatever we do. We’ll cause a stir if we sneak out together. Then again, if we go tramping around the continent with half an army …
I let out a laugh. ‘As long as you and Tared don’t kill each other, not much can go wrong.’
We’ll be slower.He chuckled as he looked up – a joyless chuckle, but the light was back in his eyes.And there is the risk, of course, that you’ll throw yourself into my arms before the week is over.
‘Prick,’ I said with a snort. ‘You’re not thatirresistible.’
His wings shifted suggestively.I seem to remember some fae party where you told yourself you could resist me perfectly well.
And where we’d ended up fucking against a wall, dress torn and teeth bared, like animals in heat. I sucked in a cool and urgently needed breath and managed, ‘I’ve had practice looking the other way.’
Really?His smile was of the most dangerous sort, sensuous and arrogant and wild to the core. The sight of it sank through me in disconcerting ways, lighting sparks of senseless lust on its way down.Are you making any progress?
‘I thought we were discussing our plans,’ I said hoarsely, the tone of my voice the only answer he could need.
Were,he confirmed, running his free hand through his hair in that way he damn well knew never failed to catch my attention. Strands of dark silk danced around his face, emphasising every whetted line of his features.Astute observation.
‘We don’t even have a plan yet!’ But my body didn’t care, the warmth between my thighs deepening at nothing but thesuggestionof seduction. Zera help me, I was hopeless indeed. ‘This is not the moment to take breaks and hope all will be well!’
There’s very little we can do until Lyn has played her pieces.Somehow, the motions of his fingers told me there was in fact quite a lot we could be doing right now.I’ve lived without a voice for a hundred and thirty years. I can miss its dulcet tones for a few more minutes.
He was playing this game so damn easily – was winning it so damn easily. I grabbed the first lifeline I could think of, anything to keep my mind from fixing itself on the promise of blissful ecstasy, and managed, ‘And what ifIcan’t wait? What if I’m just too damn impatient to find out what your voice even sounds like?’
High and squeaky, he retorted without batting an eye,and reminiscent of the yapping of a lady’s lapdog. Does that suffice?
I burst out laughing despite myself. ‘Liar.’
You sound very confident.He leaned back in his chair, muscular legs sprawled in a way that seemed designed to draw my eye to the apex of them.What sort of sound were you hoping for?
‘Liquid sex,’ I suggested dryly.
I’m afraid it’s closer to the braying of a donkey.With a lisp.
The hand I clenched over my mouth was not nearly enough to stifle the hysterical shrieks welling up in me. ‘It’s not!’
And how would you know?His shoulders strained deliciously as he leaned forward, resting his elbow on his thigh.
