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“Prince Evren.” She and her sister quickly stood and dropped into a bow that didn’t dip nearly as far as they had with Gavril, but they were showing him honor just the same. “I was hoping to see you before you left.”
“I’m not heading out until after the ball.” Evren moved toward the table, and I finally looked up at him when he stopped directly across from me and lifted a strawberry to his mouth before nodding in my direction. “Starblessed.”
“Evren.” I watched as he bit into the berry, and I couldn’t look away as he traced the juice from his lips with his tongue.
How could that one move turn me on far more than his brother caressing my skin with his fingers?
“Prince Evren, are you attending the ball alone, or are you bringing someone?”
I tensed against Gavril as I heard the question. I hadn’t even thought of Evren bringing someone else to the ball. I hadn’t thought about what it would be like to watch him with someone else the way he was forced to watch me.
“It will just be me and my sword.” Evren smiled at her and my chest ached with jealousy. “I am a member of the guard, remember.”
“And a member of the court.” Quinn smiled up at him playfully. “I can remember several things that you’ve done that had nothing to do with your duty to the guard.”
“Hear, hear.” Gavril chuckled as he lifted his glass of wine, and I turned to him to avoid seeing the way Evren was now looking at her.
Gavril looked back at me, a smile playing on his lips, and he ran his fingers back over my braid as his gaze ran over me. “Duty and pleasure.”
“Is that what you and the Starblessed are calling it?” Evren asked with a laugh that felt like a curse. “The two of you look awfully intimate over there.”
“We make a beautiful couple, do we not?” Gavril looked back to his brother, but I refused.
“That you do. Adara will make the loveliest queen we’ve ever seen. Don’t you agree, Quinn?”
I looked back at him then, and I watched as Quinn looked back and forth between the two of us quickly.
“She will. Absolutely lovely.”
Gavril’s hand slipped from my hair and fell against the small of my back. He pressed his hand there, drawing my attention back to him as the feel of him thrummed through my mark, and he lifted his other hand to trace along my jaw.
“And she’s all mine.” He smiled up at me, but I could see his possessiveness staring back at me. Gavril was being kind to me, but everything about him felt like a game.
“Well, and the kingdom’s.” Evren chuckled as he took a seat at the table. “She is here to save us, after all.”
“True.” Gavril nodded but didn’t pull his gaze away from me. “But everyone else can simply look upon her. They can dream of what her mark will feel like under their fingers and running through their veins. None of them will ever be able to truly experience that besides me.”
I glanced up at Evren just in time to watch his jaw tense. This was exactly what Gavril wanted. Brothers or not, Gavril was making it clear where things stood.
“Can you imagine the envy in their eyes?” Gavril chuckled before slowly running his hand down my arm.
Chill bumps broke out across my skin, but it wasn’t because I was liking what he was doing.
I wanted him to quit touching me.
Especially in front of Evren.
But he did no such thing. His hand tightened along my forearm, and he lifted my arm. His fingers tangled with mine before he gently turned it over and exposed my wrist to him. He looked back up at his brother then, just as he was lowering his mouth to my skin.
“I would be wild with jealousy if I wasn’t able to taste her.”
I went rigid against him, but he didn’t notice. He was too busy watching his brother for a reaction.
A reaction that Evren refused to give him.
“It’s a good look for you, brother. Although, I can’t imagine you tied down to just one woman. That’s going to be a change of pace for you, isn’t it?”
Gavril laughed although it held no trace of humor. “I’m more than willing to pass them all down to you. Give you your fair share of the spotlight.”
