He looked at me, heat kindling in his gaze. “You’ve got the makings of a good soldier. But just being a soldier would waste your talent.”
My pulse kicked harder. The demon leaned in to listen.
I rose to clear the plates. His hand on my wrist stopped me.
“Leave it.” His voice was firm. “Don’t wastetime on that.”
I hesitated, plates in hand, before setting them down. I wiped my palms on my trousers, suddenly unsure what to do with my hands.
“I should probably get going.”
“Stay,” he said softly, yet the word landed with weight. “Things have been hectic, but I’m taking a break this evening. I haven’t seen you in days.”
Longing and need bloomed in me, making my knees go weak. And that was the problem. Something happened to me around them. I didn’t understand it and liked it even less.
It wasn’t just Nikolai. Or Aelindor. Or Caspian. It was all of them.
My blood heated for each one in different ways. Even Drakken, who I didn’t even like, whose hostility should have killed any attraction dead. Yet my body responded to him too. The pull was there, like a tide answering the moon.
Back in the mine, I hadn’t been attracted to anyone. I’d thought I’d end up with Rogue eventually, once we settled somewhere safe—not from desire, but from steady friendship.
That had seemed like enough. But these four heirs turned me into someone I didn’t recognize and couldn’t control. I couldn’t even blame the demon this time.
And how was I supposed to handle all four of them when one alone could undo me? No one would accept a woman who wanted all of them. That wasn’t how the world worked. That wasn’t how anything worked. If the heirs ever found out about this, about my treacherousheart and body, they’d discard me faster than a bad smell.
Had I no shame anymore?
Or was I just wired wrong?
“You okay, Max?” Nikolai asked, his eyes glinting with amusement. “You look like you bit into a lemon by mistake.”
“It’s not that.” I bit my bottom lip, then released it when I remembered how the vampire prince watched my mouth. I didn’t need to cross that line. “Uh—do you have a knife I could use to cut my hair, sir?”
Nikolai gave my hair a considering look. It had grown in the days since I’d arrived—no longer the messy crop of a miner, but edging toward a length that would soften my jaw, frame my face in ways that made the disguise harder to hold.
“I’d like it longer,” he said. The words carried something unspoken, a preference for the woman he knew I was. “But in your case, short is the way to go, for now. And I’ll cut it for you.”
I blinked. “But you’re a prince.”
I saton a stool facing the windows in the drawing room. Nikolai stood close. I could feel the cool aura of his body. Vampires ran colder than humans, and the proximity raised goosebumps along my arms.
His fingers threaded into my hair. The first touch sent a shiver down my spine. His knuckles grazed the shellof my ear as he measured the length, and electric currents raced through nerve endings I’d never known existed.
The scissors whispered. Dark hair fell in soft crescents onto my shoulders and the floor.
Behind me, Nikolai’s breathing had changed. Slower. Heavier. Neither of us spoke. The silence held everything we weren’t saying.
When he finished, he took my hand, cool fingers curving around my warm ones, and led me to the full-length mirror.
We looked good together.
He stood just an inch taller than me, close enough that I barely had to tilt my chin to meet his eyes. Even that small difference felt like a novelty. His pale, sharp features and ash-blond hair contrasted with my midnight eyes and flushed cheeks.
“Look at you, Max.” His voice was soft, the words tasting like sugar apples on my tongue. “You’re a rare beauty.”
I tried not to read too much into his admiring expression. Instead, I focused on my haircut, short at the sides, slightly longer on top, maintaining the masculine silhouette I needed while somehow looking intentional rather than desperate.
“Where did you learn to cut hair?” I asked. “Aren’t you an heir?”
