Page 39 of Dark Sun (Wicked Lovely 6)

He held open his arms, inviting. “All yours, Katherine. I said I wanted to show you what we are.”

“I don’t want to use you . . .” she admitted. “And I’m not ready for . . . all the things I want. I don’t want to get you all”—she forced herself to meet his heated gaze—“aroused and then . . . make a bad decision.”

Katherine was relieved that he didn’t laugh. It seemed awkward as hell to talk about these things, but she also had thought about this potential situation man of times late at night since she’d met him.

“I trust you, and I ask that you trust me when I say that being aroused isn’t a bad thing. At all. You are not the onlygancanaghwho has spent nights alone with fantasies and a hand.”

She forced herself not to look away.

“I have imaginedyoutouching me.” He smiled encouragingly. “Today, I give you my oath, Katherine of Miller. I will not have intercourse with you, and you are free to touch me until your heart is content.”

She stilled at the fact that he had just given her a vow, felt the weight of it as he said the words.

“And Katherine?”

She waited with her pulse thumping like a drum.

“All I’m swearing is no intercourse,” he clarified. “If there’s anything else sexual you want of me, say the word.”

She nodded and treaded water toward him. “I want younotto touch me right now. Can you . . .”

Her words trailed off as smoke coalesced at his wrists, like manacles holding his wrists to the stones of the hot springs.

“At your mercy, Katherine.” Urian watched her with more predator than prey in his gaze. “Until you say the words, these arms are bound.”

ChapterEighteen

Aislinn

Of all the people Aislinn expected to find at her doorstep, her almost-lover, the former Summer King was the last she expected.

“Ash.” Keenan looked different now. No less regal, but he certainly was not glowing as Summer Court faeries tended to do. He was the son of the last Winter Queen, who was killed by them a bit over five years ago.

My co-murderer.

In fairness, the last Winter Queen had attacked both Seth, Aislinn’s beloved, and Donia, the current Winter Queen who had been Keenan’s beloved for a century. It was self-defense, as well as in defense of those whom Beira had attacked.

Murder and sharing the throne of the Summer Court had left them with an awkward bond.

“Where is Donia?” Aislinn prompted, leading Keenan away from the loft that had been his home, then their shared home. She always felt strangely awkward there with him.

“We thought it might be easier if I spoke to you informally,” Keenan said, offering her his arm in a way that was habitual and gentlemanly.

Aislinn rested her hand in the fold of his arm, gently. Summer and Winter had an affinity, but the two of them also had a history.

The last person to kiss me other than Seth.

“So we are meeting as friends,” she teased. “Pretending this is not business or rumors that bring you to my doorstep?”

“Can we not be friends?” Keenan led her toward the center of town, away from the gossiping member of the Summer Court.

“Were we ever truly?” Aislinn kept pace, focusing on her emotions and her sunlight.

Keenan, like Donia, was filled with the ice of winter. Deadly to her if he were stronger, but he was alone. Half of Winter. So she was the danger here, and they both knew it. He came alone, so as not to be a threat.

Politics, not real friendship.They weren’t at odds, but they weren’t close.

“I think of you as a friend,” Keenan murmured, surprising them both when the direct words fell easily from his lips. “Donia does, as well. This is why I am asking you directly—as a friend—why the Dark visits your house of late.”

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