Page 91 of Fate

Left her to blush and hide it amongst her belongings, pulling it out only when she was certain Eris was fully asleep.

Not that it was wrong. It was only knowledge, after all. It held other topics, as well. Small healing, with recipes for tinctures and salves that could help small household ailments. She’d read it all, but yes, she’d focused on just the page Lucian now held open, shameless and bold as he studied the pictures.

Held fast as she clutched and tried to pull it back toward her.

To shove back into her trunk where he’d never find it.

Or burn it.

No, not that. It meant something to her, despite the mortification that shivered through her. “I expect an answer!” she insisted, huffing away from him as he refused to relinquish it.

“I started on your trunk,” Lucian amended. “And then I found this. And I’ve read all the books in my trunk, so I thought I would simply... peruse.” His eyes drifted toward her, and she really was outraged, and he really was a wretch, because he should have put it back when he realised it was of a personal nature.

Was it, though? When it delved into his anatomy just as thoroughly as it did hers.

“See what floats about in that head of yours,” he continued, as if... as if that should be anything shocking given what they enjoyed doing with one another.

It didn’t make it any different if it was written on a page. Or if it was... drawn.

They were notpeople. Not exactly. Just... parts. And their functions.

All reasonable in one’s education.

“You are being terribly unfair,” Firen complained. “You’re making it seem... sordid.”

He turned his head, his thumb in the pages even as he closed them. As if he actually intended on completing hisperusaldespite her upset. “Sordid,” he repeated.

She fidgeted, smoothing down her tunic. She should change, and perhaps she would. Slowly, and with no care for just how much skin Lucian would see while she did it. Then she would put on her thickest nightdress and keep to her side of the bed, and wait to see what his apology might be for embarrassing her.

“Did it displease you?” she asked tightly. “That I had some knowledge of... of intimacies before you had your way with me?”

Lucian rolled his eyes and did close the book then.

Handed it back to her.

“I have quite a different recollection of that night,” he answered, and she’d hurt him along the way. Which was notwhat she’d wanted, and yet she’d been careless and it happened, anyway. “Mostly that you were intent on havingme.”

She must be careful. He’d already expressed his concerns that she indulged him rather than was an equal participant in their affections. Old wounds. Worries that came from a world she did not care to know.

She rubbed at the spine of her book, old and cracked. It could use with rebinding, but she couldn’t bear the thought of it. “I didn’t...” she huffed out a breath. Held it back out to him. “I might have overreacted.”

He hummed. Took it back. Opened it to much the same place he had been, although he had to thumb through three pages to get the exact spot. “Have I ever given any objection to your knowledge?”

Her cheeks burned, and she plucked at the bedding beneath her, abashed. “No.”

“Do you think I did not have similar books?”

Her mouth grew dry.

“More than one?”

He turned, and there was a glimmer in his eye that spoke of mischief. “A library can be full of many things. And I intended to put what I learned to good use.” He smoothed his finger down the page. The one on... on female anatomy. With its tight script and arrows that seemed so impersonal before, but not felt almost lewd for him to touch it so.

Her breath caught, and this was ridiculous. It was just a book. And it was just a long, elegant finger.

It shouldn’t make her squirm. Shouldn’t make her think... anything at all.

But it did.

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