Page 39 of To Curse A Knight

“Mi Reina.” His voice was barely audible as he pulled the platinum ring from its bedding and held it up to the light.

The ring was custom-made, worth a small fortune, and inlaid with a precious Mozambique ruby. The round cut gemstone was almost identical to the necklace he’d gifted me years ago.

He noticed.

“Almost a perfect match.” He pulled off the elaborate gold family crest ring he wore on his right ring finger and replaced it with mine. “Perfect fit.” He mused, then pulled me tighter into his arms. “Thank you.”

“Rubies represent passion and protection.” I wrapped my small fingers around his large hand and squeezed, smiling up into the warmth of his eyes. “Fitting, right?”

“And wealth.” Lucky piped up before Aaron could respond. “You two are the wealthiest fuckers I know, so makes sense to me.” He flipped me a lazy wink. I flipped him the finger.

“Your turn, Viking.” While distracted by Aaron’s opening, I hadn’t missed the fact that Kellan hadn’t taken his eyes off his present, holding it in his hands as if it were a bomb about to detonate.

He wasn’t used to people being generous without an ulterior motive, and it showed. My heart ached for the man who’d learned to trust no one so young. My lessons had come much older.

When he lifted his gaze to meet mine, I glimpsed his warring emotions, but I could not separate any single one from the whole. What I would give to decipher this man’s thoughts.

Would the man ever be able to let me in? Could I lethimin?

He let out an exasperated sigh, then ripped open the package between his palms, far less delicately than the careful businessman. He held up the pendant in front of his face, scrutinizing its details.

“It’s tungsten.” I stood, clasped his hand and turned it over in his palm. The hand-crafted amulet was a replication of Thor’s Hammer, with the engraved Viking trident symbol,Algiz.

“The trident symbol means protection.” Taking the amulet from his hand, I reached around and secured it around his neck. The pendant fell just below his sternum between his pec muscles. Cupping his bearded cheeks in my palms, I stared deep into conflicted, navy pools. “You have always been my sword and shield, Viking. Thank you.”

Gifts made him mute, apparently. He cleared his throat gruffly, acknowledged my words with a brief nod, then lightly gripped my wrists, removing my hands from his face.

“Thank you,” he muttered, though fingering the amulet at his chest. The air was thick with unnamed emotion, so I hurried on to my final giftee.

“Your turn.”

When I turned to Lucky, he was staring at me with unbridled curiosity. For a brief moment, his eyes carried none of the mischievous, calculating energy; instead, they held a softness, an openness I wasn’t used to seeing. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but the sea-glass tone was a brilliant shade of moss green—pure and captivating.

As soon as I saw it, the window into perhaps thetrueLucky melted back into the impish glint of a naughty boy.

Good. He would like his present, then.

He tore into the wrapping like said naughty boy and unwrapped a theater-sized bag of Skittles.

“For me?” He gasped, playing up the gift like he’d received a priceless prize, and held it to his chest. “I simplycouldn’t, Blondie. You really know the way to a man’s heart.”

He ripped open the bag and promptly popped an entire handful into his mouth.

“Thank you, love.” He turned his attention to the other two men in the room, whose brows were furrowed into matching frowns. “Gentlemen, I’m the winner tonight. I don’t care how much you can pawn your trinkets off for. Skittle?”

When he held the bag out to me with a wink, I wrinkled my nose in distaste. “No, thanks. Enjoy.”

I padded back to the oversized chair to cuddle back up into Aaron’s lap. We relaxed into an unsettled silence. Kellan’s brooding emotions and Lucky’s obnoxious candy chewing filled the void for the better part of several minutes.

Attempting to create a Christmas day with the two men I cared about and our captive probably hadn’t been my greatest idea. Gifts for them likely wasn’t the best play, either. But spending Christmas in a bunker, avoiding our toxic bloodlines, and removing us from the insanity of our lives for just one day had been the only move I could make on the board today.

The gnawing feeling in my gut told me our lives were about to get so much worse.

“Let’s play a game,” Lucky drawled, naturally the one to break the silence. His mischievous gaze flicked back and forth between the three of us. “Never have I ever? I’ll start. Never have I ever… had a threesome with a man between me and a woman.”

He grabbed his drink from the coffee table before a dastardly smirk split his lips in two. “No, wait. Done that. Lots, actually. What do you say, Kell-Bell? You taking a drink?”

“No,” came Kellan’s stilted reply, thick eyebrows raised in exasperated annoyance.

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