“No, sweetheart. My House will receive the wealth.” I stepped closer to her. “Iwin a chance to play with you.”
I hadn’t realized until I’d said it how much truth existed in that confession.
But it was a motivating factor.
Because this female had piqued my interest. Which I knew was a result of the fated-mate bond throbbing in my chest.
But her energy appealed to me, too. And the potential role she could play in my House.
The more I thought about what it would mean to possess such a powerful player, the more I wanted to keep her.
I hadn’t been lying when I’d told her the values of my House—valor, wealth,prestige. We valued it all.
And this female was built to be a queen of that sort of empire.
Which is precisely why the others will never allow this, I thought, thinking back to The Great Sacrifice. Just twenty-four years ago, the Houses battled one another for power. Many people had lost their lives. And a tenuous truce had been formed.
But the political rivalries remained. They were just quieter now, the movements on the chessboard much less obvious than before.
However, I saw many of those moves throughout the Houses.
Perhaps Nyx would become my powerful move.
She was my fated mate. Could I use that point as an argument for her staying in my House? Or would they all vote to have her removed?
I would have to see how my allies reacted first to know the answer to that.
Which required this beautiful being to accept my proposal. It might be a rash decision on my part, but I’d given myself a way out with the wordtemporary.
Just as I’d technically provided her with an escape, too.
“What do you have to lose?” I asked her. “Take the free trip to Reykjavik, see if my resources can help, and we’ll go from there.”
“While also promising to minimize my power and live with you,” she reminded me.
I grinned, my thumb circling her wrist again. “I thought you wanted to lick me, Nyx.”
Her gaze narrowed. “Maybe I would rather test your power first.”
I arched a brow. “Does that mean you’re rejecting my offer?”
“Hmm.” She considered me for a moment. “No.”
Fuck. My grip tightened on her wrist. “Nyx—”
“No, I’m not rejecting your offer,” she clarified, her smile telling me that she’d been testing my reaction. “But it’s good to know you want to taste me as badly as I want to taste you.”
She drew her free hand up my arm and grasped my shoulder.
I held her gaze as she went up onto her tiptoes.
Then she pressed her lips to my ear. “Which, by the way, is the only reason I’m accepting yourtemporaryasylum.”
My lips twitched at her seductive tactics. I wrapped my palm around her nape and held her in place as I whispered, “I think we’ll be doing a lot more thantastingone another.”
She shivered against me, her arousal a sweet perfume to my senses.
My gaze went to Kaspian and Slater on the side of the road, their matching expressions telling me they weren’t thrilled by this development. I was definitely going to receive an earful from my second later. Probably from my thirds-in-command, too.
