“Evander.” She says it too loud and yet too soft. It’s not a confession of love back. “I... I’m so confused. Drawn to you, to all three of you. It’s twisting me up inside. For you to say that you would give up your realm, your crown, for me? It’s too much to take in. It’s...”
“Then don’t take it all in now. Because my love isn’t going to change. If it takes me the rest of the six months to convince you, I will. You have a contract. Think about how bad it would look on your CV if you left.” I laugh and wipe a tear from her cheek with my thumb. I bring it to my lips.
Roark growls.
But I suck the tear from my pad. “Raine, I need you.”
“I need you, too, Duchess.” Roark glares at me.
“Please.” I take her hand from my chest and hold it over my heart. My heart that’s threatening to leave my body if she goes. My mark is on fire. The lightning will happen. But even if it doesn’t? I need her. I inhale her scent, filling my lungs.
“I mean, I should go. It’s not right to make Kieren give up his family. His birthright.”
“Stay and let Kieren tell you what he wants.” My eyebrows shoot up. I didn’t mean for it to come off so direct. But that’s who I am. Direct. I kiss the side of her hand. I’d pull her into my arms, but Roark’s holding on to the other half of her tightly and I’d risk splitting her in two like a wishbone.
Let go, he growls in my head.
You let go.I glare back at him. His glares worked the first few years of our thunder, but that that time is long passed.
Let go of her. I will comfort her. Roark narrows his eyes at me.
You couldn’t comfort a kitten by a fire with a bowl of milk on your lap,I push to him.
You couldn’t comfort a sheep in the middle of a rainstorm.
Now it’s my brow that’s knit.What?
Your arms are too scrawny.
My eyebrows rise.That’s the best you’ve got?
“What’s going on?” she asks quietly and cocks her head to me and then to him.
68
RAINE
They freeze. And my throat tightens. Evander blinks his brown eyes first. His gaze roams up and down my body. I think they’re talking telepathically. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, but Roark pulled information from my brain that first day I met him. The day I blacked out. Back when my world was a very different place. When I didn’t fear not having them in my life. When I would have laughed at the thought of one of them as my boyfriend, let alone all three. When I thought I’d gotten an amazing job, not a glimpse of a life full of love I couldn’t imagine.
“Evander and I were having a stare-off,” Roark says.
“He blinked first?” I ask, cocking my head to the side. I tuck my loose hair behind my ears.
“Indeed. That makes me the winner.” Roark rockets to his feet. He snatches me around my waist and throws me over his shoulder. Evander opens the door and surges fromthe collection room. My roommates fling themselves across the hall like they weren’t just eavesdropping.
“Raine!” Ellen calls after me.
I turn my head to the side. “I’m good.” I smack Roark in the ass. “Stop.”
“No,” he growls.
“Slow down, then.” I smack him again, and he slows. “Find Leo—Leopold. He’ll give you rooms for the night,” I call to the girls.
“You’re sure you’re okay?” Chanda shouts down the corridor.
“She’s the best kind of okay,” Kate answers for me, and Roark turns the corner, speeding away from them.
I’m expecting Roark to take the stairs off the dragon’s eye foyer up to my suite, but he bypasses it. He also leaves the door to the office behind us and heads to the side entrance.
