“Annoying, isn’t it?”
He came toward me. “Annoying, fun—same thing.” He jabbed out so quickly that he almost got me. I blocked his shot and then pivoted behind him. I jumped onto his back and put my hands on his shoulders, pulling him down with me to the floor. He turned at the last moment to take the brunt of the fall, allowing me to scramble on top of him.
I sat on his chest and pinned his arms down. “I win!”
“Trust me, I don’t feel like I’ve lost at all,” he said, his intense and amused gaze taking me in. My hands were flat against his forearms and I could feel power flowing into my palms.
“You’re not going to fight back?” I asked.
“Why would I?” The blatant invitation in his eyes had my heart beating violently in my chest as my breathing went shallow and uneven. “Although this hardly seems like a fair fight.”
“Aw, does the poor little prince not lose very often?” I teased, trying to tamp down my desire by covering it up with humor.
His eyes twinkled with delight. “I am neither poor nor little.”
He was correct on both counts. I was currently sitting on his massively broad chest, which proved his point.
“Do you feel it? As if you’re being drained?” I asked, needing to think about something else.
“A bit,” he said. “Not very much.”
“It wasn’t like that for me earlier. Maybe it’s because you’re goddess-blessed.”
Then the pain started.
It was duller than it had been the night before, but it came on suddenly. My arms went slack.
“What is it?” he asked, sliding his hands out from my grasp and resting them on my thighs. “Are you all right?”
“The pain.” I swallowed hard. I could manage this.
Xander took both of my hands and put one against his throat, the other on the exposed part of his chest so that I was still touching his skin. He returned his hands to my legs. “What do you need from me?” he asked.
“Talking helps. It distracts me.”
“Stay here and touch me and we’ll see how long you can bear it,” he said. “Who else has the light?”
“Um, my adelphia. You. Quynh’s baby.”
“I heard about that today,” he said carefully. “How did that make you feel? Finding out?”
“I’m happy for her.” His skin was so warm. He was slowly moving his hands back and forth, and I was certain he meant for it to be a soothing gesture but all he was doing was causing my skin to heat and prickle in response. “She’s going to be the best mother.”
“And believe it or not, Thrax will be an excellent father.”
I nodded. “But I was also ...” Another wave of pain. It was starting to increase even with Xander’s light.
“What?” he prompted.
“I’m sad that I can never have that. Because of my vows.”
“Would you like that for yourself?”
“Yes,” I said far too quickly. Not wanting him to read too much into it, I said, “What about you? Have you thought of having a family?”
I was struck with the memory of him telling me he’d give me a dozen children if that was what I wanted, and I pushed it out of my head.
His hands came to a stop. “I’ll need to have children to secure the kingdom. But even if I didn’t, yes, I think I’d like to be a father.”
