“Please,” she calls again, louder this time. I gape, watching her hand roam over her breast and up into her hair. What I wouldn’t giveto be that hand.
She writhes again, like a cat in the sun. I have to literally bite my knuckle to keep from groaning.
I can’t take anymore. Surging from the bed, I dart out of the room.
Heavy breaths rock my chest as I press my palms to the door. I can still feel her from the other side. I can feel her pleasure as if it were my own. It sings in my veins, rolls through my blood, through my body.
Pushing off the door, I stalk through the torchlit halls, up the winding staircase leading to one of the spiked towers. I burst through the darkness toward the glassless window. It isn’t until my fingers wrap around the cold brick sill that I realize I’m not alone.
“Needed a little space from your bond?”
Alix’s low, raspy voice has me turning. Bitter blue eyes roam over me, peering out through the shadows.
“I didn’t realize anyone was in here.”
“No shit.” Rising from the rocking chair in the corner, she steps into the sliver of moonlight. Her head tilts as she sinks her hip into the wall beside me. “Did you forget this was my favorite place to go and think?”
“It’s also the most haunted place here.”
“Why do you think I like it so much?”
How could I forget? Alix has a bit of a kink for the paranormal.
Alix, Eaton, and I used to come up here all the time during the witching hour, hoping to catch something supernatural happening. Supposedly, this was once a nursery for a queen whose child was stolen in the night and never found. She locked herself inside this tower and died in that rocking chair, waiting for her baby to return.
Alix studies me for a moment, then reaches out to wrench my jaw to the side. “I was worried I’d permanently damaged your pretty face. Females everywhere would have rioted.”
She releases me.
“Alix. I’m sorry for the way I left?—”
“I don’t want your apology, Zadyn.” Her tone is clipped. “I shouldn’t have expected things you weren’t capable of. I was only ever Eaton’s little sister to you.”
“That’s not true. You were my friend.”
“I thought so. But friends don’t do the things we did together. And they certainly don’t leave the way you did.”
“I had to. I didn’t really have a choice.”
“You could have said goodbye. I would have understood.”
“You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” She snorts, crossing her toned arms over her chest. “You haven’t changed a bit.”
“Why do you say that?”
“You show up here after thirty years like it’s your gods-given right, and my brothers welcome you back, no questions asked. Then you and Eaton immediately take off on some mysterious quest, and once again, I’m left behind. You were always doing that. Running off to be boys, to go find adventure. I was never a part of your little brotherhood. Much as I wanted to be.”
“Alix—”
“Why did you come back here?”
“It’s a long story.”
She tosses out a jaded laugh. “Of course it is. Did it ever occur to you that I might be able to help with whatever big secret you’re keeping? I’m smarter and sharper than my brothers. Always have been. I can best any of them in a match. But that was never enough, was it?” I give her a look of regret. “Even after all this time, I’m still just a second thought to you all.”
“I didn’t ask you because I didn’t think you’d want anything to do with me.”
