Page 42 of To Bleed A Kingdom

Tristan's cheeks puff out and he blows on the parchment to remove charcoal shavings, passing it to Aurora with an oblivious smile. “No need. Everything I need is right here.”

“Thank you,” she mumbles, grabbing the vellum from him.

“Alura’s tits!” Amara rolls her eyes. “She's interested in you, you idiot.”

“You’re interested in me?” he asks Aurora, his brows knitted together.

Aurora curls an errant piece of hair behind her ear and nods.

Always so suspicious, he narrows his eyes. “Why?”

Amara slaps her head onto the table, and we both groan at his response.

“You seem interesting and you're attractive.” Avoiding his gaze, Aurora looks down at her hands while picking at her nails. “I just thought it could be fun.”

He stiffens, blinking rapidly. “Huh.”

Amara groans again, a long, drawn-out sound as she drags her hands across her face, comically stretching the skin of her cheeks.

I laugh and lightly smack her arm. “Stop it.”

Face resting between her palms and wide eyes she asks, “How can he be so oblivious?”

“He just isn't used to female attention,” I defend weakly. “He's always with Zander, and most females are too googly-eyed over him to notice how attractive Tristan is.”

He huffs, “I'm standing right here, you know.”

“We know,” Amara and I say in unison.

Blowing out an irritated breath, Tristan faces Aurora, his ears pinkening as his stare skims the top of her head. “Dinner sounds wonderful.”

Lifting her gaze, Aurora shows all her teeth in a blinding smile that he quickly mirrors. “Perfect.”

“Aww,” Amara coos. “They’re so cute.”

“Absolutely adorable.”

Tristan shoots us a glare and I lean to the side, whisper-yelling to Amara. “I think we're embarrassing him.”

“Definitely.” She raises a finger, drawing a circle in the air. “See how red his face is getting? He looks like he's having a stroke.”

He growls and it finally hits me that we should probably stop talking.

The bell at the front of the store rings and boots thunk in our direction. Aurora moves to greet the visitor, but when a large hand peels the curtain back and Darius walks through, she returns her attention to Tristan.

Ever since I left Darius last night, I tried convincing myself that he wasn't that attractive. That I had imagined this connection, this longing. But as soon as he fills the entryway and I meet those glacial blue eyes, I realize how wrong I was as every emotion I felt the night before slams back into me.

Heart racing with a hum that ripples beneath my skin, confusion and trepidation wars with desire as my pussy pulsates and swells from an irrational, almost animalistic need. But along with that want, along with that raging desire, something else appears. Something that is neither wanted nor needed, something I could have never foreseen.

I suck in a shocked breath when a crackling sensation suddenly spreads throughout my chest. Recognizing the feeling for what it is, helplessness and horror fills me as that sensation quickly roots and braids beneath my breast, twining into an electrified cord that suddenly springs out towards Darius, attaching beneath his chest.

A cosmic link. An unbreakable bond.

Well, it’s unbreakable as far as I know since I haven't a clue as to how to break one. That’s not a question I ever thought to ask since all the bonds I've already formed with others were intended to be permanent. But with those, I chose to initiate them, whereas with this one, I certainly did not. Never would have with someone I just met. But that's not even the most glaring difference between this connection and the others. It’s the feeling of arousal the tether blasts into me, strumming into my chest and electrifying my nerves as it travels until there's not a part of my body that's been untouched by the intoxicating, yet disconcerting sensation. And I'm beyond grateful in this moment that I never had a similar reaction with the other links I’ve formed.

That would have made awkward dinner conversation.

A burst of laughter rips from me, an unflattering, panicked garble that has Tristan, Aurora, and Amara staring at me as if I’ve gone mad.

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