Page 115 of A Pact of Blood

I offer a crooked smile. “I’m sure he’ll sort himself out. I’m not overly put upon.”

To emphasize that point, I swivel my fingers in the gesture for,It’s fine.

I catch sight of Lorenzo beyond Raul, turned away from me but with his hand curled by his side. It twists in a subtle motion.We’re here.

I’d take a lot more comfort from their surreptitious display if my husband wasn’t loping back toward us at this very moment.

“Wife!” Marclinus flings his arm around my shoulders and yanks me toward the waystation. “Let’s get on with that dinner. I’m sure our princely companions have better things to do than badger you.”

He casts his gaze toward both Raul and Lorenzo with a slight narrowing of his eyes that sets my nerves on edge.

I force a giggle. “I’m sorry, husband. Prince Neven asked for a little advice based on my gift, and Prince Raul was simply ensuring he hadn’t been imposing. I am quite hungry. Let us eat.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Aurelia

With a reasonable man, my explanation about Neven would be the end of any trouble. With a reasonable man, there wouldn’t be any trouble at all over one of his foster brothers asking me a brief question.

But no one needs to tell me that Marclinus is far from reasonable.

We sit together in the waystation’s dining hall, quite a bit more cramped than the palace dining rooms and with humbler furnishings but still cushioned with velvet and lit with crystal fixtures that mimic splashing water. Jurnus is one of the godlen of the sea as well as overseer of all travelers, after all.

Marclinus grins, guffaws, and hollers to thefellow nobles as if he’s in high spirits. But every lift of his voice and jerk of his knife across his plate makes me tense up.

There’s a frenzied energy beneath his buoyant mood, something darker and more vicious that I can only hope won’t seep through the cheerful façade.

He speaks to me only a little, asking me thoughts on each dish. They’re all pleasant enough, up to imperial standards.

Then, when the servers have cleared dessert dishes, he stands abruptly without giving the nobles any motion of dismissal.

Grasping my elbow, he tugs me to my feet with him. He leans close, grazing his lips and then his teeth along the edge of my jaw.

I will myself to relax into his embrace. I knew where this night was heading, after all.

Except I didn’t really. Because after he mashes his mouth against mine, he grips my waist and heaves me up to sit me on the edge of the table with a thump.

The nobles around us—at the same table and those throughout the room—all glance over if they weren’t watching already. Even the few local courtesans who’ve been circulating the room, seeing if any members of the court want to partake of their services, pause to watch.

Marclinus smirks down at me with an unnervingly chilly glint in his gray eyes. He pitches his voice to carry through the room. “I don’t think I’ve had quite enough dessert yet. I’m going to indulge in my second helping right here.”

As the meaning of his announcement sparks a jolt of horror in me, he slams his lips down on mine in a kiss that feels more like a punch. He grasps the folds of my skirt and jerks at the silk. In a few violent yanks, he’s dragged the fabric up over my ass, pooling it on the table and baring my drawers to anyone at the right angle to see.

My gut lurches. Most of the nobles around me have witnessed me outright naked before, but Marclinus didn’t do more than paw at me a little during that trial.

Does he actually mean to fuck me in front of his entire court as if I’m another dinner course?

Gods help me, I won’t be able to stop him. I can’t drug him into delusions in front of all these witnesses.

My pulse skitters with the first swell of panic. I clutch the front of Marclinus’s shirt, kissing him back with whatever shreds of feigned enthusiasm I can summon, my mind scrambling for a way out.

The men I love are watching this too. Is he trying to provoke them, still testing just how invested they are in me? Is this a punishment to me for some transgression I can’t guess at?

Are they all going to be able to keep their cool while he ravages me here on the table in front of them?

Marclinus leaves off plundering my mouth to flick his gaze toward the noblemen nearest us with narrowed eyes. Perhaps he suspects some marchion or viceroy of having designs on me. This could be a test for his entire court.

He lowers his mouth to suck on the side of my neck hard enough to bruise. His hands fumble with my gown’s lacing at the same time. His hasty fingers rake across my back.

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