She leaned closer, her expression both mischievous and sincere. “She’s from Earth, Addan. Earth girls don’t know about Resonants. They don’t grow up knowing about the bond. They have no such thing on her planet. Quite the opposite, actually. She might not even realize what you are to her.”
“What are you saying?” I asked, my voice rough.
“She’s saying—" Catriona sighed “—that you’re being an idiot.”
“We talked to Paige,” Sorcha continued. I felt like I was being assaulted from both sides. “Asked about Earth men. It seems they’re very different. Earth girls expect the man to make the first move,” Sorcha continued. “On Earth, it’s the men who usually initiate the claiming. They pursue. They initiate sex. Then, after a ridiculously long time of doing things together like walking and eating, which makes no sense to me, she said the men do something called a proposal. That’s when the male asks to claim the female. The male has to say that he wants to be with her. Declare it to her. Vigorously.”
Catriona piped up. “Their mating customs are strange and completely backward, and it was clear when we talked that she has no knowledge of our ways. She probably thinks you don’t want to be with her.”
“That is not possible.” I thought of all the ways I’d pleasured her. Touched her. Made her come all over my cock.
“Sex is one thing, big brother. Did you tell her you wanted her? Or were you simply doing your duty and—umm—” It wasunusual for Catriona to blush, but her cheeks turned a bright red as she blurted out the rest. “She might think you were just servicing her. Because that’s what Insuri males do.” Catriona cleared her throat as if relieved to have the uncomfortable words set free. “Please tell me you didn’t tell her about that Insuri custom.”
It is my job to service you.
Of course I’d said that to her. I’d then made her command me to fuck her the night I found her in the kitchen.
I paused.
Stilled.
Thought back to the first time I saw her, under my desk. How confused she’d been about her desire. She had insisted that she was acting strangely. Out of character. That she didn’t understand why she was so eager to fuck me, especially so quickly.
I’d believed at the time that she was playing a role, behaving the way I’d seen other noble females act when in the presence of a healthy, virile male they desired. Demanding. Aggressive. When her transport was delayed, I’d fucked her all night. Insisted it was my duty to service a female in need. She’d been insatiable. Her body overly sensitive. Responsive. Greedy for more.
Did Paige now believe that’s all she was to me? Every touch a duty I was obliged to perform? Every orgasm I gave her a service I felt obliged to fulfill?
My mouth dropped open, realization dawning.
I stared at my sisters, one then the other, my mind spinning. Could what they said be true? Could Paige’s initial actions have been because we were Resonants, but she had no idea what that was? Or that the concept even existed?
Had she–as the Earth woman she was raised as–been waiting for me to declare my feelings and intentions? Waitingfor me to claim her? All this time, when she’d said no, she’d done so because she didn’t know what yes meant. Of course, she said no.
FUCK!
I’d thought I was giving her space, respecting her freedom to choose like an Insuri female. But had my silence been a mistake? Were the mating customs on Earth truly so different? I tried to imagine an entire planet where the females did not select their mates, instead waited and hoped the male they cared for might choose them. That the male was in charge. That–
Oh fuck.
No wonder she wanted me to take charge from the very beginning. She hadn’t been playing at being submissive. She hadn’t craved to have me be the dominant because she did so herself on a daily basis, like Insuri females.
No. She really did want me to take control because that was her nature. I missed it all and that was incomprehensible. And unforgivable. Fuck.
I growled. Actually made a sound that made my sisters stare at me wide-eyed. It was me who now had his eyes wide open.
“Then why is she marrying Prince Martainn? If we’re Resonants?” I asked aloud.
“Because she doesn’t think you want her, Resonant or not,” Catriona said. “Because her mother made the match. Because she’s been told since she arrived that she had a duty to the planet. That she had to follow our customs now.”
Fuck. Was it too late?
The transport slowed as we approached the palace gates, the glittering spires casting long shadows over the cobblestone courtyard. My sisters shifted in their seats–a little nervous now that I was behaving like a… a crazed male whose Resonant was about to be wed to another–and smoothed their dresses and adjusted their hair.
I barely noticed. All I could see was Paige. How I could get to her. Keep her. Steal her away. Gods, steal a transport ship.
The transport came to a stop, and the doors hissed open. Catriona and Sorcha stepped out gracefully, their gowns catching the morning light, but I stayed frozen in place.
“Addan?” Catriona glanced back over her shoulder, brow furrowed.
