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I spread my hands. “Yes! Yes, I’m serious! What is the problem?”
He looked torn between exasperation and disbelief. “You know the problem! You explained it to me. And I do not intend to spend the rest of my life bound to the wishes of a—” He cut off abruptly.
“Of a what?” I could feel my temper rising.
He recovered quickly. “Of a young lady who, however charming, knows so little about our world.”
“I’m learning fast,” I said, “and don’t patronize me.” I was pretty sure the word he’d almost uttered had been “child.” And whatever else was true of me, that wasn’t. Not since the age of fourteen, when I’d run away and learned exactly the kind of world I lived in.
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he said, unruffled. “Any more than I would dream of completing such a dangerous spell.”
“We’re not completing it! Two of us would have done that. The fail-safe wouldn’t have worked if we’d had sex in London, because all three of us weren’t there. But here and now, it will override the geis.”
“You can’t be certain of that.”
“Maybe not. But I can be certain that you’ll die if the geis isn’t broken. Would you prefer that to living under someone else’s mastery?”
“I cannot say,” he replied mildly. “Having never had a master. But I did die once. It wasn’t so bad, as I recall.”
“Mircea!”
“Cassie, would you listen to yourself? You expect me to believe that another version of me is in there”—he nodded toward the snare—“and that the three of us must copulate to break the geis despite the fact that one of us is very likely mad?”
“You think I’m lying to you?”
“I have already told you what I think—that you have been deceived. You must—”
“I must do nothing. I’m Pythia. Which, in case you missed it, means I outrank you.”
Mircea caught my hands, which had been trying to get the loops of silk that served as buttonholes on his shirt loose from their toggles. I really wanted that damn thing off. “You are Pythia because we put you there!”
I gave a sudden push. He ended up sprawled on the bed. “Dulceata?—”
“I have the title because I’ve damned well earned it! Stop assuming that I’m the same little girl you left at Tony’s. I’m not.”
“Mages are treacherous,” he said stubbornly. “And this one has obviously—”
I stopped him by placing one foot on the edge of the bed, between his legs, while balancing on the other. I didn’t spend much time in four-inch heels, and I wasn’t sure how long I could stay there. “Take it off,” I ordered, nudging his inner thigh with the toe of my shoe. I’d let Sal talk me into ice blue satin heels with a strap around the ankle and toes studded with crystals in a starburst pattern. I’d thought they were a little much, but for some reason she had absolutely insisted on the shoes.
“A pretty thing. Much nicer than your last footwear selection.”
I gently nudged him again, and this time I didn’t hit his thigh. He breathed in sharply. Mircea could pretend all he wanted, but at least one part of him wasn’t completely indifferent to my proposition. “Cassandra,” he began, his tone menacing, and I repressed a grin. Okay, now I knew I was getting to him.
The shoe continued its work, moving in circles that grew bigger with every sweep, grazing but never quite touching. Just a little encouragement, though it didn’t feel like he needed much. “It’s too risky,” he told me stubbornly. “If you’re wrong—”
“I’m not wrong.”
“You don’t know that. You admitted it yourself.”
I nudged him again and his eyes dropped to half-mast. “I thought family were the only ones you can trust. So trust me, Mircea.”
He didn’t answer, but his hand slowly closed around my ankle, then smoothed down over my heel to the spike. He stroked his thumb over the silken material, up and down, until I started to feel a little giddy. I was beginning to understand why Sal had pushed for the shoes.
“I told you to take it off,” I repeated. I could already feel my leg going wobbly. Mircea managed to get the tiny jeweled buckle around my ankle undone one-handed and slipped the pump off. Then his lips were on my foot. It wasn’t something I’d expected, and it caught me off guard. The feel of his tongue dragging along my arch, was enough to make my toes curl and my breath catch.
“What about the other you?” I asked, while my brain could still form sentences.
“What about him?” he murmured, before his teeth closed over my heel. He bit down, a fairly gentle nip, but my knee buckled from the sensation. I twitched and wobbled, and had to grab the bedpost to keep my balance.
