Page 83 of Heir

“Bossy,” Sirsha murmured, but she stood, and he took her fingers in his, slowly pulling her closer, inch by inch. His heart thudded strangely—something he tried not to think about—and he didn’t look away from her. She smiled slowly, understanding his intent.

“Why, Quil,” she purred, “is this an excuse to kiss me?” A few loose locks of her hair fell in his face as she leaned over him, and then her scent, pine and sky. He breathed it in slowly and looked up into her brown eyes.

“Too obvious,” he said, and pulled her into his lap, wrapping an arm around her waist. The shape of her alone was enough to heat his skin, make him ache for more. Sirsha, not to be outdone, traced his jaw with a soft hand before tangling her fingers in his hair.

He was not prepared for how it felt to have her hands on him. For the way the curve of her waist—which he’d tried and failed not to thinkabout after seeing it bare weeks ago—felt beneath his hands, just a thin layer of leather between his skin and hers.

This is an act, he reminded himself sternly.Sell it. Don’t believe it yourself.

“We should establish a baseline level of affection.” He cleared his throat. “This will do for now, I think—”

But Sirsha had ideas of her own. She took his hand, and his pulse stuttered as she stroked the skin of his palm, hardened from holding a blade but sensitive to her touch. Then she leaned forward, her breath tickling his ear and sending a spike of desire straight into the pit of his stomach. “Prince,” she whispered. “You’re assuming I’ve never seduced a man.”

He wanted to assure her that, in fact, he made no such assumptions, hadn’t even considered such a thing, because it was of little to no interest to him, except in regard to making her sister uncomfortable. But his attention snagged on her lips, full and berry-red and curved into the most enticing smile that was making it very difficult for him to focus on what he was supposed to do next—kiss her…yes…

No!He was to disentangle himself and make his way upstairs.

She pulled back and tipped his chin up. Her gaze roved over his face, like it was terrain she wished to know better, and her fingers traced spirals on his chest, his stomach, lower.

He caught her wrist. “Behave,” he whispered.

“I never have,” she said, her lips a breath away from his. “Why would I start now?”

She held herself there for a maddeningly long moment, nails scraping against his nape, before shifting away, dark eyes glinting. The necklace at Quil’s throat grew pleasantly warm.

“Well then.” She glanced over her shoulder. The Jaduna were gone. “That did the trick.”

Quil shifted, suddenly very aware of how awkward he felt, of how close she was to him. After a week on the road, he couldn’t possiblysmell as good as she did, and why was he even noticing her smell and why hadn’t any of this occurred to himbeforehe’d put his hands all over her? “We should—ah—”

“Yes.” She stood up so quickly that she nearly upset the table. “Of course.”

They were quiet on the way to their room, and Quil was relieved, at least, that Sirsha appeared as tongue-tied as him.

Their lodgings were small but clean, with a separate bathing chamber and two beds.Drat it, Quil found himself thinking, before he squashed the thought into a ball and threw it out the window of his brain. It wasgoodthere were two beds.Excellent, in fact. Quil dropped his pack onto the bed closest to the door, and Sirsha wordlessly took the other.

“You can have the bath—”

“Why don’t—”

They both spoke and Quil felt too big in his own skin.

“Why don’t you go first,” he said. “I’ll make sure Suf and Reli haven’t murdered each other.”

Quil stepped outside the room to get a bleeding grip on himself. Yes, Sirsha was smart and funny and beautiful. He couldn’t stop thinking about the warmth of her skin or the heat in her gaze. He wanted more. He wanted to undress her slowly and kiss her lips impatiently. He hadn’t kissed anyone since Ilar—

With that thought, the tingling in his skin went cold, as if he’d been dunked in a snowbank. He’d known Ilar. She’d had her secrets, but she was inherently good. Honest. Sirsha, on the other hand, lied and manipulated to serve herself.

By the time Quil had checked on Sufiyan and Arelia—both alive, miraculously—and changed after his own bath, he felt calmer. A sensation that vanished the second a wight flew through the window.

The creature dropped a scroll on his head, and Quil stopped it before it disappeared.

“Wait.” He handed the wight a message he’d written a week before, detailing what Kade had told him about the Kegari force in Jibaut. A flutter of wings and the wight was gone.

Quil opened the missive with shaking hands, crumpling it up only seconds later.

Silas destroyed. Antium evacuated. Serra stands. We need what he has. Hurry. —AH

Silasdestroyed. His father’s ancestral home was there. Silas was where Quil met his grandparents. Where Gens Farrar was based. Where Arelia’s parents still lived. And the Kegari had wiped it from the map. He didn’t even know if any of them had escaped, or how many in Silas had died.

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