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I can’t let him touch me this way. No matter how good this feels. It’s wrong.
I cleared my throat. “No.”
“Please,” he begged.
“Ian, I love Xander.”
“You do love him, and you are his queen. That I believe. But. . .”
My heart boomed in my ears.
“Can you not be my queen too?”
“Where is this coming from?”
“You know where it is coming from.”
“I do not.”
Sadness filled his eyes. “I am lonely. I want to be soothed.”
I looked away. “I can soothe you in other ways, but not with my blood or body.”
“But you are enjoying my hold on you?”
I remained silent, not willing to tell him how true he was.
“You don’t have to say anything, little queen.” He left a trail of kisses from the curve of my neck to my shoulder and then stepped away. “I can hear how fast your heart is beating. Your blood is singing to me too and not a soft humming song. It’s throbbing hot in your veins, demanding I taste you.”
“But you won’t.”
“No.”
I slipped away from the wall and placed more space between us.
Ian watched me, but didn’t come my way. “I am not sure two kings can share one queen.”
“Me either.”
“I doubt it’s in our make-up. And even if it was, one of the kings will always be left alone, wondering if the queen ever truly loved him.”
“Is that how you felt, when Nai and you shared Phinova?”
“At times.” Ian lowered down to the ground and gestured for me to come with him. “I must admit that Phinova and I spent a lot of time away from Nai. Surely they must’ve did the same while I rested or was busy.”
I got down on my knees. Surprisingly, the carpet was as comfortable as a mattress.
He wrenched his shirt off.
My blood had done him well.
Like Xander, he boasted an impressive display of abdominal and pectoral muscles, like some ancient sculpture chiseled to perfection. A wide valley of tanned chest, tapering down to a narrow waist.
Ian folded the shirt, lay it next to him, and scooted over to me.
I looked at him. “Do you regret Nai and your sharing of Phinova?”
“Yes and no.” Ian lay down on his back. “We. . .in the beginning. . .we were engulfed in a powerful and seductive love that constantly swirled around us. Our desire was palpable, radiating from us like a white-hot heatwave that left us entangled and completely lost in each other. Time seemed to stand still as we became one, a single body united in the throes of passion.”
I parted my lips. “In the beginning?”
He laughed. “You caught that. Yes. In the beginning it was all great.”
“Then. . .later?”
“Then Phinova’s tribe was getting ready to leave as planned. All three of us became worried that we’d be separated.” Ian pressed his lips together. “We did things that we shouldn’t have. Things that changed us on the inside forever. It. . .irrevocably altered us.”
“What things did you do?”
Xander’s voice boomed through the room. “They killed their parents.”
Ian and I looked his way.
Xander entered. “Ian, Phinova, and Nai wanted to be together so bad that they killed their parents.”
Ian looked at his hands.
Xander directed his gaze to Ian’s shirt on the floor and then to Ian’s bare chest. “Am I right?”
I looked at Ian.
Ian remained silent.
“Last time when we were in the wagon leaving Octavia’s party, you told us that Phinova made a potion and poured it in the soup at the goodbye feast.” Xander crossed his arms over his chest. “Then your father died the next morning and you and your brother became kings. You never said what happened to everybody else.”
I watched Ian. “What happened to the others?”
“It happened so long ago.” Ian shook his head.
Frowning, Xander walked over to us. “We should still know. What did Nai, Phinova, and you do?”
Ian closed his eyes. “Everyone who drank the soup died in their sleep.”
“What?” My mouth went dry. I put my hand on my chest. “You never said that. You told me Phinova’s tribe left and—”
Ian sighed. “There were tribal members still alive—guards, a few of her protectors, and one or two members that didn’t drink the soup. The surviving tribe fled with their dead and never looked back. They knew Phinova did it, but now that she had become our queen, they couldn’t challenge her on the murders.”
I rubbed my face with shivering hands. “Your mother, aunts, cousins, they all died too?”
“Correct, Queen.” Xander sat down beside me and rested his huge hands on my thighs. “They were murdered.”
I centered all of my attention on Ian. “Was that truly the plan? Did you know that what Phinova put into the soup would kill them.”
Ian nodded. His eyes remained shut tight. “I did not know, but I should have figured it out. Honestly, I never paid attention to their plans. I only wanted Phinova. I never considered any of the consequences. My only focus was my queen, her blood, her body.”
