Page 30 of Conquering the King of Storms

“But that’s if I was a fae, right?” I whispered.

Sirus’s eyes widened slightly. “Fuck.”

I closed my eyes.

The throbbing was getting stronger, the heat unfurling inside me.

“Give me your hands. Let me make sure they’re not still in your skin,” Sirus said, picking them up as he spoke. I felt his wind on my hands, and winced at a few sharp pin pricks.

They had still been in my skin, apparently.

Not a great sign.

“How do you know about plants?” I asked him, trying to distract myself from the desire that was starting to rage within me.

“We moved around a lot when I was a child, remember? Lived in the wilderness much of that time, which required an understanding of the plants around us.” He continued inspecting my hands.

“What can we do?” I opened my eyes. The dizziness was still there, but that warm feeling in my lower belly was growing impossible to ignore.

“Eat. The more food you have in your system, the less the drug should affect you.” He lifted another fish roll to my mouth, and I let him put it in.

I was pretty sure it was already too late, though.

“You’re not going to be able to run with me crawling all over you, trying to get you naked,” I told him, after swallowing the bite of food.

“You’re not going to be affected that strongly by it,” Sirus countered, his voice and expression returning to neutral as he picked up more food.

“Stop shoving your damned sushi into my mou—”

He stuck the sushi in.

I glared at him as I chewed.

He held my gaze, picking up another roll.

“Fuck you,” I grumbled, though it sounded more like “duck coo”.

“I am not prepared to handle you being strongly affected by an aphrodisiac, Sway.” His voice was calm and collected, but the wind was moving around him in agitation. “Eat the fish and we’ll hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“What the hell does that mean?” I shot back, after swallowing that mouthful.

He put more food in my mouth, and I glared hotter at him.

“It means that the wind has been telling you bits and pieces of what I want to do to you since we’ve met, and with the mating instincts breathing down my back, I don’t know that I’ll be able to keep things friendly between us.” His gaze left mine, lingering on the food as he picked up another sushi roll. “So we’re going to assume that isn’t going to happen. You’ll get dizzy and tired, and I’ll protect you while we sleep.”

Instincts.

Ivy had mentioned those. Well, ranted about them, more accurately. Flame had told her that fae men had instincts that pushed them to be attracted to their mate, to claim their mate physically, to… well, to have sex.

She’d told me that once, Flame had lost control entirely and she had to slap him in the face to get him to stop trying to go down on her.

And fucking hell, that did not bode well for me, or the heat that had started soaking through the rest of my body, relaxing me and turning me on.

“That’s not what’s going to happen,” I said to Sirus. “The damned drug is already affecting me.”

The king’s eyes closed, and he let out a slow breath.

“You’re tired; will that help keep the instincts at bay?” I asked hopefully.

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