Page 51 of Lord of the Hollow Court
Braam’s voice was frigid. “What was your plan?”
She shrugged lightly. “Once you were no longer a lord, you’d have no reason to stay in the New World. I want you in Lindendam, where you belong. With me.” She could not resist baring her teeth as punctuation.
Her words turned Braam’s stomach. Madeleif had always come and gone in his life, quicker than the storms that ranged up the coast. He had not thought her attached in any way. But perhapsattachedwas not even the right word—possessive was more apt.
“What of Aleksandr?” he asked. “Was he part of your plan?”
“I would have preferred his support.” She shrugged, shifting the fur collar once more. “The little shit was simply too prideful. Given more time, I could’ve reined him in, as I once did you, but he was such an annoyance—disobedient to his marrow. I was glad when he left.”
She tried to treat him as she did me,Braam translated,and he would not stand for it.
Braam squeezed his eyes shut. He’d thought Madeleif the perfect woman. He’d idolized her. Now he wondered whether she’d merely shown him what he wished to see, so that it would be inconceivable for him to love another.
As Braam reopened his eyes, he saw Madeleif clearly for the first time. The Lady of Lindendam was exactly the person he’d beheld on Samhain night—that predatory creature who crawled through his garden, eager for the scent of another thing she could consume.
“I have duties,” he repeated, stepping past her. But Madeleif’s grip tightened.
It occurred to him, with instant lucidity, that he’d forgotten it was not Bakker’s disapproval that made his trysts with Madeleif so dangerous. The image of her clawing her way through the misty grounds of his court flashed through his mind. He’d known she could destroy his body with ease. He’d been reminded of it during their final time together.
“You won’t be attending to them,” Madeleif told him, teeth flashing. “If I have it my way, not ever again. Fortunately, Fenna de Groot is sympathetic to my wishes, if only for her own gain.” Madeleif’s nails dug into his shoulder. “You have been summoned to the Court of Claws, Lord Braam. And I have come to deliver you to Fenna.”
A shiver ran through Braam. “Stop this, Madeleif. You no longer have any part of me.”
Her other hand pressed into his chest, rising with discomforting pressure until she grasped his neck, palm resting tightly against the cartilage at his larynx. “No, Braam, you could not be more wrong. I have every part of you—even if I must have you in a cage.”
All it took was a soft breath in Braam’s face, the tang of fine magic spreading like tendrils toward him. It smelled—familiar. Like something he remembered from when he was still young. Vanilla and honey milk filled his nostrils, twisting his thoughts and sending a spark down his middle, toward his heating groin.
He associated that smell with her. It was the way she’d smelled the first time he’d met her, and every time since.
A coach with the linden tree emblem on its door awaited them on the gravel drive. Drawn by her enchantment, he followed her from the colonnade without protest. Impatient, wispy bearded court horses flicked their sharply curved ears and stamped on the cobbles, the feathering on their fetlocks swinging. A driver peered down at him curiously as he opened the door for Madeleif, then hastened in after her.
Braam smiled as she began to undress him. She paused only to bid her driver to go and draw the curtains, then leaned close to Braam’s ear. “I can’t make you do anything you don’t want to,” she whispered. Her breath was hot on the ridge of his ear, sending tingles through his body. “What I can do is remove all that unpleasantness between us, so you’ll forget the way we parted, the way you took up with another so quickly and thoughtlessly.” She stuck out her lower lip. “Watch, dear Braam, as I turn back time for you.”
Braam blinked at her, a buzzing filling his head. “Who have I taken up with? There is no other but you.”
“That’s right,” she cooed, raking a nail beneath his chin. “No one but me.” She cast her coat on to the floor of the carriage, laughing at the way his eyes widened at the sight of her lithe, naked body. “You’re going to be mine, my filthy, groveling, low fae lord, forever. Once we’re done with Fenna, you’ll return home with me, and then we’ll take care of Bakker once and for all.”
Braam frowned even as he reached for Madeleif’s bare shoulders, bringing her to the seat beside him. “Take care of him how?”
“He’s ruled far too long,” she said, as if that explained everything, then grasped the sides of his face. “It’s time I take his place.” She kissed him passionately, then moved onto his chin, his neck. Braam groaned.
She began to unbutton his trousers, then paused, looking into his face earnestly. “Tell me you want me.”
“Yes,” Braam replied breathlessly.
“Tell me you want only me.”
“Yes,” he repeated.
“Make a vow to me that it will be me and no other, for however long you shall live,” she urged.
“Yes,” he said, urging her to continue. “A thousand times yes.”
“Be with me now. Say yes.”
Braam laughed. “Yes, Madeleif! How many times must I say it? Can’t you see how badly I want you? After all these years, must you still make me pay for the one time I turned you away?”
A slow, sly smile spread over her face. “I only wished to be sure.”
