But…if we had sex—just sex—it could take the edge off. Maybe long enough for us to get Daphne out of the Sons’ hold. And after that?
We’d just have to figure it out.
“My turn,” Avi said, meeting Olivia in the middle of the mat.
Lyric and I moved to the other side of the training room, watching quietly as the princess and bodyguard faced off. They’d clearly done it a thousand times because it looked more like a lethal dance than an intent to best the other.
“I’m going to do it,” I whispered to Lyric, my heart racing at the verbal acknowledgment. “As long as Lachlan wants to. Maybe it will help us both—”
“He’ll want to,” she cut me off, laughing again.
“What is so funny?” I demanded.
She glanced at me then, pity and love in her eyes. “I want your plan to work, I do,” she said, reaching out to gently squeeze my shoulder.
“But…” I arched a brow at her.
She pursed her lips. “But, I speak from experience with this. You may think one time will be enough. Just once, and then you can breathe.”
“Yeah, exactly. Satisfy the bond’s needs and move on.”
She shook her head. “That’s the thing,” she said. “Satisfying the bond? That’s something that never goes away. Once is never enough. There’s always a part of me that wants Alek, needs him on a level I can’t even put into words—”
“Not all mating bonds are as perfectly matched as yours and Alek’s,” I argued.
She looked at me, but nodded. “Sure,” she said. “That’s fair. I mean, it’s not like you and Lachlan have anything in common, right? You’re not both stubborn, strong-willed, and snarky people who will stop at nothing until they get what they want.”
I gaped at her, but she merely shrugged and headed toward the door. “Good luck,” she called over her shoulder. “All this talk about bonds…well, I have to go see about a king.”
“Ew!” Avi called from the training mat, and we all laughed. “He is my brother!”
Lyric waved to her as she left the training room.
Avi and Olivia started sparring again, leaving me to my thoughts.
Lyric had been right about one thing—possibly many things that I would so not acknowledge right now—but Lachlan and I were the same in one regard.
We didn’t stop until we got what we wanted.
And what I wanted right now more than anything was to be clear, balanced, sharp.
Sharp enough to stop the Sons and save my cousin.
And if that meant letting Lachlan claim my body for a night, then so be it.
“Okay, you have to go!” Avi said, stopping to glare at me from across the room.
“What did I do?” I asked.
“We can smell you!” She laughed, and Olivia joined in. “And it has Lachlan’s scent wrapped all around it. Go! Before you make us both vomit.”
I chuckled, heading toward the door. “Aren’t you going to wish me luck?”
“You don’t need it,” Olivia said as I closed the door behind me.
I lingered in the hallway, chewing on my bottom lip. Nervous shivers danced along my skin, my breath tight in my lungs.
What if I did need it?
Sure, he’d kissed me like I was his dying wish, but this? Sex? That was a whole different kind of game.
I wasn’t sure he wanted to play with those kind of stakes.
But I sure as hell was about to find out.
9
Lachlan
“Whoa,” Ransom whispered under his breath, grabbing my shoulder as he looked across the dining hall.
I glanced at his grip, then lifted my eyebrows.
He winced and lifted his hand from my black dress shirt, giving me an apologetic look before motioning his head back toward whatever had stunned him.
My attention skipped over Avianna and Olivia, who hovered at her side, and I barely even noticed Lyric was a part of the group. How could I when Valor stood there in a dress that highlighted every curve and clung to her body like a second skin?
I hissed.
“Exactly,” Ransom said, thrusting a cold drink in my hand. “You two still doing the whole fight-the-bond-idiocy?”
“Aye.” Fuck, that dress must have been made for her. The dark green silk contrasted her auburn hair and pale, creamy skin. It was short and strapless. A tug either way, and I’d have her in my mouth.
No. You know what happened last time.
Last time we’d let ourselves be swept away by the physical power of the bond and lost her cousin in the process.
I’d never been unmanned by my baser needs before in my life, and yet this female—this woman—was slowly unraveling me without even trying.
“That’s ridiculous,” Ransom said, waving to one of the nobles as he walked by. I didn’t bother even looking to see who it was. There were more nobles in residence than ever. Combine that with the fact that I had to put on a fucking dress shirt to eat on the evenings Alek decided to socialize, and it only fueled my need to bring the Sons down faster so I could get back to the normal peace and quiet of carrying out justice in clothes that didn’t fucking wrinkle.