Page 26 of Heir to His Court

“Tease me at great risk, Nya.”

I undulated against him, rubbing on his erection. The revelry continued around us, a kind of privacy. We weren’t the only couple making out. I could slip my hand down his pants and get him off right there and no one would bat an eyelash.

“By my count, I owe you an orgasm,” I said.

Renaud stiffened, and I wondered with some amusement if his control had finally snapped.

His mouth was on mine, ravishing, devouring. Forcing my lips open—not that I had any will to deny him—and plundering the depths of my mouth. Desperation edged his kiss, ruthless lust, the sense that with a kiss he was poised to wrest back control and wield our passion against me.

Renaud kissed me, and it was too simple a word. He reached a hand into my body and wrapped my soul around his fingers, and I was helpless to stop him, to fight the tether. Our bond pulsed, ragged and jagged and healing so slowly, then went taut.

His mind brushed mine, that old sentience both mystifying, and familiar.

I ripped my mouth from his, overwhelmed. He said nothing, turned me in the cage of his arms and settled me on his lap, content to hold me still as we caught our breath and by mutual agreement attempted to get ourselves under control. Though the thought of him bending me over the nearest table and spreading my legs and—

“Aerinne,” he said sharply.

“Sorry.” I turned my head into his shoulder, a little sheepish.

A mental caress. “I understand why you aren’t ready, but the longer you deny us, the more. . .dangerous it will be.”

I licked my bottom lip. “You would hurt me?”

“Not on purpose. There are limits to my control, even in a male my age, my halfling.”

With the deep purr in his voice, this sounded less like a warning and more like a promise. I shivered.

This heat between us was becoming uncontainable even if it wasn’t already complicated with all our issues. I was on the cusp of just. . .saying fuck it. Giving in. Working with what I had because what I had wasn’t going togoanywhere. I didn’t want his death any longer, his death would not—

“Raniel—” My body seized, breath ripped from me.

I knew this feeling. I knew this feeling very well, and stupidly, I had not feared it enough.

The Vow struck, rearing up in displeased warning.

I couldn’t breathe, the magic strangling my neck and burning my insides. Of course I knew why. Because once again, I’d wavered in my deep, unassailable intent to end Renaud’s life.

I’d Vowed to do so and could not break my word without giving my own life in his stead.

* * *

I was so angry. Angrier than I’d ever been as my breath slowly returned. I woke, staring up at the ceiling of my bedroom. Renaud must have brought me home. I wondered who had let him into the house and my bedroom without challenging him.

“Aerinne,” he said in the tone of a male who'd been saying my name over and over again. He stood at my bedside, impossibly calm if one didn’t know better. Which I did.

I rolled away from him onto my side. “I’m fine. You need to go. I am certain you have things to do.”

He didn’t ask what happened. He didn’t have to. He would have assessed and understood faster even than I, the damn person being punished.

Silence, and then his hand on my shoulder, flipping me around onto my back. His hands bracketed my head as he stared down at me.

“I am not leaving you in this mood.”

He wasn’t referring to the aftereffects of the Vow. Just as I knew how he was feeling, he knew my emotions as well. This dangerous, intimate blade cut us both. It was difficult to hide anything from each other, though he’d had more practice.

“How is this supposed to work between us, Prince?” I stared at him sightlessly, recognizing the growing numb I felt, the flatness. I needed Juliette, or Numair. “I have Vowed to kill you. There is no way around it. Either you die, or I do.”

His gaze remained calm. “I have already said it is not the disaster you think.”

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