Page 26 of Forged Absolution (Fates of the Bound 4)

“Somehow I doubt she’s talked to the Massons on my behalf, no matter what my father has said, not when she’s emptied every account I own as a last fuck-you. If I’m sentenced to a slave’s term tomorrow, I won’t have one single credit to my name to pay for my mark after I’ve served it. There will be a bidding war for me, and I’ll sell for too much money to ever work it off. Any term is a life sentence, and I already guaranteed one with what I admitted in court.”

Another moan filled the air.

Not Katia.

Tristan.

Lila curled deeper into Dixon.

Chapter 6

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Lila covered her ears as the headboard smacked against the wall in the other room—a headboard she was quite familiar with; a headboard she and Tristan had broken almost nightly when they’d been together.

A headboard now being grabbed by another woman during morning sex.

Her eyes cut to the clock on the bedside table. Seven o’clock. It was as good a time as any for her to get up. She had work to do. Always work.

Dixon stirred and flopped a barely conscious arm around her, tugging her closer. He pressed his hand against her ear and pushed her head into his chest, kissing her forehead.

Another muffled thump broke through his grasp.

She wiggled away. Dixon was hot. Very hot. Even wearing nothing but boxer briefs, his skin radiated heat like a volcano. She couldn’t dwell so near lava, not under so many blankets.

Thump.

“Katia,” Tristan said, moaning.

Katia answered, groaning as she climaxed.

“Tristan and I weren’t this loud, were we?” Lila whispered.

Dixon shook his head, his face covered in red sleep lines from his pillow.

“You’re very diplomatic. We woke you up often, didn’t we?”

He shrugged.

“Gods, I’m sorry.”

Murmuring broke the moans next door.

Great. Now Tristan and Katia would talk about the morning sex they’d just had.

Lila rolled her eyes. She’d had enough. She untangled herself from the blankets, eyeing Dixon’s shorts on the floor. She’d been wearing them when she went to bed, but she’d somehow kicked them off during the night, most likely due to the heat. Thank the gods she still wore her tank top and panties.

So far, sleeping in the same bed as Dixon hadn’t bothered her. It hadn’t made her horny and frustrated, a common problem when highborn slept so near another. She supposed she was too upset by the trial, La Roux, and Tristan to have any sort of libido. She really didn’t want to test it, though. Dixon was her friend, and getting into a sexual relationship with her ex-lover’s brother was both tacky and fraught with drama.

Besides, she rather liked Dixon as her friend. She liked him as a best friend even more.

She had precious few of either at the moment.

And more importantly, her gut and her heart said she could trust Dixon, and she needed at least one person in her life that she could depend on.

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