Page 37 of Lord of Dance and Desire

Nothing was perfect. But perfection led to complacency. And complacency was just another word for corpse.

By the Dark, I was even beginning tothinklike a High Fae.

I turned to him. “You don’t have to let this Dartanyon thing interrupt your schedule. Let Con handle it.”

“Do you think Court is more important than an attack on my consort?” he asked in his quiet, even voice that always heralded one of his spurts of temper.

It was so funny. He kept insisting he was a mild-mannered, even-tempered man, when he was almost exactly the opposite. What he was, was a bomb at the end of a long fuse. That wasn't the same thing as having an even temper.

ButIwasn't going to argue with it. At his age, if he wanted to delude himself into thinking he was a sweet little lamb, more power to him. Maybe that was part of how he coped. Everyone needed an aspiration.

“No,” I said. “But your life is important too.” I turned to the chest of drawers, rifling through lingerie to find plain cotton panties. “Andrei,pleasestop replacingeverythingwith silk and lace. Women need moisture wicking down there.”

Was I going to have to have a secret practical underwear drawer? This was getting ridiculous. At least he understood the function of sports bras, though he’d swapped some of those out too.

“Mathen is yours, but he isn’t your bonded consort. He isn’t your Lord.” Andrei came up behind me, his hands sliding around my hips as he pulled me into his arms. “Tell me. Don't make me take what I want.”

I sighed, leaning the back of my head against his chest. “When I was in the fairy circle, I felt Dartanyon touching me.” Andrei stiffened. “I thought he might have assaulted me, and I had them check for that along with other injuries.”

He didn't move, his chest didn't even rise or fall with breathing.

I turned in his arms, looking up into his face, the whites of his eyes stained with incandescent teal. It didn't frighten me as much anymore.

“I’m fine. There was no evidence he touched me in that way.”

“Perhaps not physically, but I doubt you were imagining things, Hasannah.”

I shivered.

“He wants to die.”

I frowned. “Come again?”

Andrei’s arms tightened around me. “His actions make no sense otherwise. He's taken dancers, toyed with them, broken them, but he's never attempted his games with one who belongs to a Lord who could utterly crush him. Who belongs, by one degree of separation, to the High Lord. He wants to die.”

“So what, suicide by Sahakian-Casakraine?”

“Yes.”

I shook my head. “You know you’re all sick, right? Why hurt me if he just wants someone to shove a blade in his gut? Why not just walk up to you and ask you to do it?”

“Because it's more fun this way, Hasannah. And because there's also something in you he wants to taste before I take him out.”

“Do you know the worse part? He made me like it. I was so. . .happy. As if there were no cares in the world, no pain, and whatever he wanted I wanted.” I tried to smile. “It felt like a rollercoaster ride from my childhood. I could even smell the cotton candy in the air.” I shuddered again, completely creeped out. “I don't want to talk about this. I have to dance for your mother in two days, and I’ve been warned it had better be good. I don't need this mess.”

Andrei drew me tighter in the circle of his arms, lowering his chin to rest on the top of my head. “I'm sorry. Mathen said you were only in there for minutes before they broke through the illusion, but mere minutes is all it takes.” He paused. “From now on, someone will be in the room with you.”

I shrugged one shoulder, resigned, and didn't say what we were both probably thinking. That if Dartanyon was that determined to die, he'd get to me, eventually.

“He made Taima an offer,” I said.

Andrei sighed. “I’ll have her watched. And the lovely boy.”

“Samuel?”

“Yes, him. The Ninephene female can take care of herself.”

“Cora? Yes. I think she can.”

---