But…she’s depleted.
It’s clear in the hollows around her eyes, the dullness to her skin. She needs replenishment in a way no bread or bottle of wine can give her—not now. She’s gone too far. She’s too damn stubborn to drink my blood, so worried that she won’t be able to stop.
She might not be wrong.
The truth I don’t want to face is this: I don’t think my blood alone can satisfy her. Not my prayers, not my cock. Which meansIcan’t satisfy her. I’d lay down my life for her, let her drink me dry, but even then, she’d soon need more.
But with two of us…
Rian and me…
Together, we might be enough.
The thought cuts me like a blade, so wrong, but also necessary.
All this tears through my head as Rian slowly wipes the back of his hand over his mouth, then lowers, painstakingly keeping his eyes on me, to my boots.
A silent question.
A silent offering.
He touches his lips to the leather, all dirt and soot and damn, probably even horse shit.
He murmurs wryly, “Glory to King Basten.”
I flinch, ready to grab him by the scruff and tell him to fuck off, but I stop myself.
There’s a strange feeling in my chest—a hot, dark kind of pride. Maybe…I see what Sabine gets out of this. For all the times I’ve said Rian and I were like brothers, it isn’t true. Not really.
He always had the money.
The title.
The power.
Until, well,now.
I glance at Sabine, and she meets my gaze with a question in her eyes. She steps forward, combing her fingers tenderly through my hair, her lips full as she murmurs, “You said you’d follow me anywhere, Basten. Will you follow me here? End this tension between the three of us, once and for all?”
My pulse slams.
She stares at me, and I stare back, at a loss for words.
Finally, I unclip my belt that holsters my knives, pull it off with a snap of leather.
Whatever is about to happen? Hell, it’s going to be dangerous enough without blades.
I toss the belt and holster across the polished floor.
“He can touch you,” I say to her, low and possessive. “Kiss you. Worship you. But onlyIfuck you.”
Chapter 27
Sabine
At Basten’s words, a ripple of pleasure tears through my body, catching me off guard, like a dash of water. My body reacts as if it belongs to a stranger: my thighs trembling, breath growing strained beyond my control.
It’s the fae in me.
