Page 68 of What Lurks Between the Fates

“Will you draw her a bath please, Nila?” Caldris asked, his voice tempered.

I turned to find him staring at me, his eyes soft as he turned them to my handmaid.

“Of course,” she said, nodding as she hurried to do his bidding.

“I don’t want a bath,” I protested, flinching away when Caldris wrapped his arms around me.

He touched his fingers to the unblemished part of my throat, where Mab hadn’t replaced my collar for the night. I couldn’t help but wonder if Rheaghan held more influence over her than I’d initially suspected. If his protest of my treatment had actually made a difference, perhaps there was a way that could be used to our advantage.

Fallon was his niece. If he had any kind of loyalty to her…

I turned in my mate’s arms, facing the window once again. His fingers dropped to the laces at the back of my gown, loosening them until air filled my lungs slowly. It was easy to forget how much the corset had restricted my breathing once I’d adjusted to having less, but the sudden shift made me vow to never wear another.

The loosened fabric and boning shifted away from my skin, gaping at the front as I slid the narrow straps down my arms. It caught at my waist, the fitted waistline taking some maneuvering as I shimmied it down my thighs.

I headed for my bed, stepping out of my heels as I raised my feet to get over the pile of fabric. Caldris moved with me, scooping me up and carrying me away from the monstrous, comfortable bed to lower me into the warm water of the bath.

I glared up at him, crossing my arms over my chest as I settled into the basin, and he lowered his fingers to the laces on his tunic. “I said I didn’t want a bath.”

“You’re cold,” he said, as if my chilled skin was explanation enough.

“The furs on the bed would have been plenty to warm me,” I snapped, shifting as he stripped off his clothes and moved into the water on the opposite side of me.

Nila peeked her head out from the little room where she stored any supplies she might need, getting an eyeful of my mate’s ass as he moved. Caldris was unbothered, settling himself into the tub and turning to look at the blushing Sidhe woman with a kind smile as she spoke.

“Will you be needing anything else, my Princess?” she asked, bowing her head.

I couldn’t fault her entirely, knowing that Caldris’s presence was almost too much for me to bear sometimes. Even when he was clothed, he cut a formidable figure, but when he was naked and the corded lines of his muscle were open to view…

“That will be all tonight, Nila. Thank you,” I said, channeling that same calm authority that Caldris had used with her.

She might have been tending to my needs, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be treated with kindness while still trying to find a way to maintain boundaries.

Those seemed important suddenly when I was nude in the tub with my mate; our evening activities greatly foreshadowed.

“I have to be able to look at her in the morning, you know,” I mumbled as she scurried from the room, closing the door behind her quickly to limit the view she afforded to Malachi, who seemed to guard my door at all times of the day and night.

“Are you ashamed of me,min asteren?” Caldris asked, cocking his head to the side in that arrogant way of his. “Does it bring you shame for your handmaid to know that I plan to spend my night inside of you?”

“It isn’t shame,” I pouted, sinking lower into the water as my cheeks heated.

“I think it is. It may not be because of me, but rather because of you. You were raised to believe that sex was shameful, and no matter how many times I fuck you in front of an audience, I cannot seem to rid you of that notion. Sex is beautiful. It is not something that must be enjoyed in private and quietly behind closed doors. You are my mate, and the drive to have me inside of you is something normal that should be embraced,” he explained, smirking as he leaned forward and touched a thumb to my lips. The next words were a taunt, meant to dampen my foul mood, but Mab’s threat rang in my ears. “How else will you give me my heirs one day?”

I sputtered, choking on my own breath as I sat up straighter and glared at him. “Don’t go there.”

Caldris laughed, snagging my bottom lip as he trailed his thumb over my chin and down the front of my throat. His touch continued, sliding through the valley between my breasts as he touched a flat palm to the slight swell of my stomach.

“Don’t worry. We will not be bringing a baby into this world until we’ve fixed it for them, as much as I would love to see you swell with my child.”

“I thought Fae pregnancies were incredibly rare?” I asked, swallowing back my nerves at the prospect of becoming a mother. I wasn’t certain I even wanted that, let alone to be discussing the possibility of it so soon, and there was no part of me that would even consider it until Mab was dead.

In Nothrek, there were teas that could be taken to prevent unwanted pregnancies. The Ladies of the Night took them daily. If a Fae pregnancy wasn’t impossible, I would take those until the day I died if need be, rather than see my child bound to Mab as Caldris had been.

“They are. I’ve never heard of a pregnancy occurring within the first century of a completed mate bond, and that is not for lack of trying,” Caldris said with a chuckle. “We’ve not yet even completed our bond and children cannot happen until we do. You have plenty of time to decide how you would like to proceed in regard to children.”

“To decide?” I asked, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip as Caldris trailed his hand lower. It drifted over my lower stomach, teasing the flesh at the top of my pussy as my legs spread instinctively.

“Greedy little thing,” Caldris murmured with a tsk, tapping his fingers against me and sending a jolt of pleasure through my body. “Yes, to decide, my star. If you decide you don’t want children, I’ll not force it.”

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