Page 52 of The Duke and the Disciple

When she tried to bury her face again, he clamped a hand onto her arm, startling her into looking directly at him. “You may be many things, Aesylt Wynter, but I would not lump you in with the fools.”

Her head lolled back. She stared up at him. “Is this why you’re against partnering with me then? Am I as a sister to you?”

How I wish it were so simple.But he couldn’t find words that were close enough to the truth to be worthy of speaking.

“And you’re just feeling... protective, is that it? You don’t want your little sister compromised by the darker side of learning?” Her words sounded petulant, but her tone was warm, almost solicitous. She was inviting discussion, not provoking an argument.

“That’s...” Rahn studied the serious expression staring back at him. “There’s a difference between choosing intimacy because you truly want it and giving into it because you feel you have no other choice.”

Aesylt considered that for a moment. “How does that make it different from anything else we study?” She shook her head. “If the matter comes down to free will and agency, then is it not on the same level as everything we do? My commitment to studying the stars is a choice, so why can I not make an equivalent one about this?”

“You make a reasonable point,” Rahn conceded. He rolled onto his back. Overhead, the auroras danced in ribbons of violet and turquoise, a phenomenon he never would have believed if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. So much about the White Kingdom was a wonder to him, particularly when he had no memory of his own homeland of Ilynglass. “Is that really how you see it? That the matter comes down to the simplicity of choice? Nothing more?”

“Only if you see choice as a simple matter,” she replied. He felt her watching him, reading him. “If you really want to know, Scholar, I view the assignment as a challenge. If I want this life, then Imustbe able to separate feeling from fact. What subject offers such a test as this one? As the one thing in all the world peoplecannotbe rational about? If I can do this, then I can do anything else the Reliquary sends our way. And then I’ll know, without question, that I am made for this life.”

Rahn was lost for response. He’d spent most of his life teaching others, but every day with Aesylt was an unexpected lesson. No one else had made him question his way of thinking. If the assignment was her personal challenge, perhaps she was his. And if she could apply such pragmatism to the matter, he should be capable of the same rationality. “I hadn’t thought of it that way. Perhaps we understand each other better than I realized.”

Aesylt’s sleepy laugh pierced the air. “What a revelation. Been telling you that for months. Maybe...” She buried her face in the blanket and yawned. “Maybe you could even look at me one day and see a reflection, rather than a precious vase one foul wind away from shattering.”

Rahn’s long exhale shuddered out of him. He rolled his head toward her. “I don’t see you that way at all. I never have. Not for a moment.”

“You’re a confusing man, Rahn Tindahl.” Her hand inched across the blanket and settled close enough to his for him to feel her warmth. “But I’m glad you came to Witchwood Cross.”

For the rest of the night, and the ones to follow, he would wonder what in the stars had compelled him to climb his hand closer. What the gods he’d been thinking when his pinky tickled hers and linked with it. He could have stopped her when she slithered closer... should have said something when she hesitated, as though waiting for him to object, and then nuzzled her face to the side of his shoulder.

Aesylt’s thigh half draped over his was the end of him, he knew it even then. All that remained was to determine the haste of his decline.

Her leg slid up his as she adjusted, coming dangerously close to brushing the rock-hard betrayal he was failing to will away. Her breath against the exposed hollow of his neck was enough to make him turn, but they were locked together in a suspended moment, neither able to speak or move.

Rahn’s cock throbbed in aching rebellion. If he could just shift her, even slightly... but he didn’t. Couldn’t. He measured each breath, no longer thinking about the stars, the stag, the sky, or any of it. Perhaps the problem was entirely him; Aesylt might be able to throw up a wall, but she’d been crumbling his stone by stone since the day he’d met her. There was no victory ahead no matter what he did. He would either suffer through watching her with another man or suffer by agreeing to her challenge.

Aesylt adjusted again, wrapping her leg further over his, locking her groin to his thigh. Her verydampgroin that moistened his trousers. He was certain she’d withdraw then, embarrassed, but the only thing to follow was the soft shift in breathing indicating she’d drifted off. Their hands were still linked on the blanket, an awkward joining with the way she was lying but one he couldn’t make himself sever.

Light drool trailed from her mouth, coating his shoulder. How it wasthat,and not the sensuality coursing through her and into him, that made his toes clench was confounding, but it was also the start of the end. Stars of another kind exploded behind his eyes, his body lurching through his weak attempt at control as an orgasm involuntarily ripped through him. Cum coated his trousers, spreading evidence he’d never be able to hide if she woke.

Rahn rolled his head back in a silent, desperate pant.

Gods help me, he thought, as he realized the depth of the decision he’d made without being fully aware of it. The future awaiting them both. The restraint he’d failed to preserve and would no longer need to. Even if he changed his mind in the few hours left to them, it would not alter the course of his thoughts, forever reformed. He’d been silently fighting his entire life, but never harder than he’d battled to evade the temptation of the most enchanting, gifted, and beguiling woman he’d ever known.

Rahn breathed deep and fixed his gaze on the magical auroras, searching for the calm that could only be found after resolve. He’d need to wake her soon to return to the real world—and the even more real danger still brewing just beyond their walls.

He had until then to find the right words to tell Aesylt he would be her new partner.

Chapter13

Principals of Neutrality

Apprehension followed Aesylt through the morning. It began as she helped Rahn pack up their scrolls and charts, attempting to catch his eye but equally hoping to avoid it. The hand he’d held was still warm with the memory. She still felt the strength of his thigh pinned under hers and the way their breathing had matched, uneven and inadequate.

He’d nearly run into her when carrying a trunk back to the door, forcing them into an awkward dance of shifting and flattening against the nearest surface. He’d squeezed past, his hip brushing hers, and she stopped breathing until he was clear.

The farther she moved from him, the more she felt as though someone had taken a scooper to her chest.

Once back in their quarters, he seemed more relaxed, even glancing her way a couple of times. She turned, locking his gaze, and caught him smiling.

“What?” Aesylt feared the answer. The past week had felt like pressure gradually building under a geyser, but that morning was different.

Rahn shook his head and returned his gaze to the window, folding his hands around a mug of cider. “The others always worked hard at whatever we assigned them, but you... I see now, it was always personal to you. Your concern for the work is more than a question of ethics.”

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