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“You really think you can get through to him?” Zale asked. Nikolas tended to do whatever worked for him, including abdicating.
“I don’t have another option,” Lukas responded. His weariness threatened to dim my anger. “This shit has to stop. It would be a bad look in any circumstance, but on top of everything else…” Guilt flashed through my chest at the reminder of the issues my absence caused. “He’ll stop on his own. Or I make him stop.”
Nikolas had gone off the rails. He played the perfect part of the god fallen from grace, pouring out of clubs at the early hours of dawn looking thoroughly intoxicated.
“If he’s getting that drunk, he’s probably being rather loose-lipped,” I said, the space in between my shoulder blades itching at the chink in our armor.
“Funny you say that Daphne,” Zale said in his classic shit-stirring tone. “Lukas said the exact same thing before you came in.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Am I supposed to be surprised that we agree? That’s a bit of a habit at this point, don’t you think?”
Lukas was silent save for a low rumbling from deep in his chest.
“Not surprised,” Zale responded. “More pleased that things went back to normal so quickly.”
Lukas and I looked at each other at the same time, something mournful swimming deep in his eyes while the same slithered through my chest.
“That’s why I’m going. To knock some sense into him. Make sure he knows to keep his mouth shut,” Lukas said, speaking directly to me.
I could see Zale nodding out of my peripheral vision. “Okay,” I said, feeling the meeting start to close. I fought the urge to keep the conversation going. “What about dinner?”
A muscle in Lukas’s cheek jumped. “I will try to make it back on time. There are people expecting us.”
There always were, especially at a dinner with the entire court. I’d keep a practiced smile, force casual conversation, and try not to poison anyone’s wine when they made an underhanded comment about the Athena line. Simple, really. “I won’t be heartbroken if you don’t.”
Lukas chuckled lightly under his breath. “And rip you away from your fans? I wouldn’t dare.”
My efforts to get his court to accept me had worked better than imagined for the majority. There was a fair bit of anger involved too, fighting to make all the people who looked at me as a young girl and decided I wasn’t fit to lead look like fools.
My parents among them.
“I won’t go if you aren’t there,” I said, and because that statement illuminated my historic desire to be around Lukas as much as I could, I added, “It would be better to reintroduce me with you.”
“Smart girl,” Lukas joked almost passively as he rose from his seat. He was looking down as he said it. A good thing, seeing as I jerked forward in my chair, a sharp snap of arousal spiking in my stomach at that old tease.
If Zale noticed, he chose to ignore it. Wise. If he’d mentioned it, he would have found himself pushed off his chair.
Lukas nodded briskly, signaling the end of the meeting. I walked toward the door first, not leaving without a look back over my shoulder. I gave Lukas a small, supportive smile. Because even if I was certifiably pissed, I could recognize what a difficult conversation awaited him.
I just prayed Nikolas’s stupidity hadn’t added to the threat against us.
Chapter 6
Lukas
Trying to get through to my shithead older brother after the day I’d had was like slamming my head against the wall over and over until it broke through.
I’d figured the time away from Daphne would be enough to knock myself back to straights. Figured that the anger would replace the burning arousal.
No such luck. Everything I’d felt and repressed had just resurfaced, churning even stronger. Especially given the last time I’d seen her, she’d finally been in my arms, giving me access to that talented little mouth of hers.
I’d thought about that more than I cared to admit over the past year, the memory replacing the other fantasies I’d spun up where Daphne was concerned. For years, my only relief was those fantasies, because the thought of turning to someone else sounded about as appealing as eating rotten fish.
I deserved a fucking medal in self restraint for pulling myself back from everything I wanted to do to her. Passive touches and barely contained jealousy still made it through, but the full extent remained hidden.
I couldn’t force her to be with me.
Daphne had no choice when it came to me. She was hardly able to exist outside of our engagement. She’d told me once—after a fair deal of persuasion on my part—that men had steered clear of her, scared of getting involved with an engaged woman. Fear was the only thing that could have stopped an endless line of suitors. She was too beautiful to stay away from, unless fear disrupted desire.
