Page 63 of Gemini Kings
But her jaw is tight, her eyes sharp with suspicion. She jabs an accusatory finger in my chest. Even that brief contact makes my cock spike. I barely refrain from dragging her into my arms so she can feel her own visceral effect.
She consumes me.
I am consumed with desire.
“Last time we met, you were talking smack about my guys.” Apparently unaffected by anything like what I am feeling, she tips back her head and scowls up at me. “Remember?”
“I said that I would kill them,” I agree.
Behind her, Romanov exhales an eloquent breath.
Her dangerous eyes narrow. “That still your plan, big guy?”
A wave of comprehension breaks over me. She wants my word that I will not harm her lovers. She is that protective of them.
Well, I am prepared to say what I must.
“I swore an oath,” I say gruffly. “An oath not to kill while I am on Academy grounds, unless I myself am attacked—or unless you are.” This last was not asked of me, but was an addition of my own crafting. “But only so long as I am on these grounds and behind these wards.”
“Huh.” My sovereign tilts her head to study me. I am dismayed that her suspicion of me persists, even after hearing what I have sworn.
“Mr. Rasputin has read the Academy Codex,” the wolf announces, “and given his sworn word to honor it. As long as he shares our home, that oath precludes him from posing any physical threat to anyone here—unless, as he indicates, he is attacked first.”
“Oh, I say, nowthere’sa thought.” Standing like a king in his outlandish finery in this well-appointed room with its high ceilings and antique furnishings and blazing fire, this room whose pretty comforts are so unlike the barren confines of my dragonlair in the tundra, Vasili bares his teeth at me in a poisonous sneer.
I ignore this threat because my mate still lingers before me, close enough to touch, filling the air between us with pheromones and mating scent. My cock lunges against my zipper like a chained dog, the barb weeping precum that drenches my crotch.
She is new to shifting, she cannot yet imagine how deeply and fiercely her body will welcome mine—
“You gave your word, huh?” My queen hoists her teal brows and folds her arms across her tantalizing breasts. “Exactly how much isthatworth, Maxim? Just because you swore, we’re supposed to believe you?”
My brows rush together in a scowl. “Yes.”
Does she doubt my sworn word? Does she think so little of my honor?
Again the wolf comes to my aid, striding across the floor to loom at her side, scholarly in his tweed jacket and tie. “He swore on his dragon, Zara. That’s an oath no shifter would ever violate, no more than I would if I swore on my wolf. In this particular matter, strictly within the agreed parameters, we may trust him.”
“We’ll see about that.” Bracketed by her lovers, she studies me.
Holding my gaze, she slides an arm around the wolf’s rangy frame to draw him close on one side, while she tucks up against the curly-haired boy in spectacles on the other. The boy nestles up against her without hesitation. Lucius, more cautious and reserved, pauses before he wraps a firm arm around her waist to claim her.
I think she is testing me, to see how I react to seeing her with her lovers.
My dragon does not like to see another shifter so close to our mate, it is true, but he has an abiding respect for scholars of all breeds. For that reason, and because we have sworn, he is tolerant of this wolf.
Within limits.
The curly-haired boy, my dragon thinks, smells sweet. The boy is resolute in his queen’s defense. Yet, under our stare, he is blushing like a girl.
Perhaps this boy will submit to us, and serve us, and thus be allowed to live.
I will only kill them if I must.
“Yeah,” Zara breathes, and I recall with a start that my mate has shown some aptitude for reading my thoughts. “I don’t think trust is on the menu right now. He might’ve promised to behave while he’s here. But he’s still up to no good.”
“That’s it, then.” The Brit with the black mane—Ronin Pendragon, the warrior—strides forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Lucius. “If Zara doesn’t want him here, he’s history.”
I square my shoulders and stand my ground.
