“Lassit,” Arden said. That was all.
Lassit’s face tightened. “Do you think I wanted to? I didn’t. It was necessary.”
Arden held his gaze.
“I’d have made itbetter,” Lassit snapped. “You would have forgotten, Arden. I’d have made sure. You’d have been happy. Tucked away, kept safe. I’d havecherishedyou.”
“I don’t think I’d have forgotten. I do know that I would have never forgiven you.”
He blinked. “Yes, you would.”
Arden lifted his hands boldly to Lassit’s face, holding him firmly as he looked him dead in the eye. “If I’d been taken by someone I didn’t choose, Lassit, I would have never forgiven you.” Lassit’s eyes slowly widened. “Not ever.”
The library was silent for a long, frozen moment as they stared at each other.
“I do believe you think you mean it,” Lassit said eventually.
Arden’s hands fell away. As soon as they did, Lassit caught Arden’s chin again. Softly. Cradling it from below, his thumb resting just below Arden’s lip. Lassit tilted his head.
“I do mean it,” Arden said. Lassit wasn’t going to believe him, was he?
Lassit’s eyes bored into his. “I’d have made you forgive me,” he said.
“I wouldn’t.”
He talked over Arden. “I’d have taken the pain away.”
“You’re the one who would have caused it.”
Lassit’s mouth curled in a confident smile. He ducked low enough for Arden to feel his breath on his face as he whispered, “I’d have made you forget, Arden.”
“There’s nothing you could do that would make me forget.”
“Oh,” Lassit said, “you have no idea what I’m capable of.” He very gently tapped his thumb to Arden’s bottom lip.
Lassit’s words haunted Arden,even though he knew that any petition to the Council for annulment would be swiftly rejected.
The contract was signed years ago. Their families had been friends for generations. Jack was more powerful than Lassit, and the gods only knew how much richer.
Lassit could hardly argue that he was a fortune hunter who had flattered Arden into an elopement.
Arden wanted to be married to Jack, and he’d shout it from the rooftops let alone in a court room, if that was necessary.
Although he hoped it wasn’t.
He knew that there was no way Lassit could undo their union, but it made him uneasy that his brother even wanted to try.
It was because Lassit and Jack had always been competitive, wasn’t it?
Jack had swooped in, whisked Arden out from under Lassit’s nose, and denied Lassit whatever disgraceful payout he was expecting from whoring Arden out, because thatwaswhat he’d intended to do. But Jack had also taken the burden of Arden from Lassit’s shoulders, and Lassit had got his money anyway, through the marriage contract.
Would he really take being bested by his former friend so poorly that he’d try to claim Arden back?
On the long journey home to Avendene, Arden’s mind returned again and again to those last words, and the look on Lassit’s face as he uttered them.
You have no idea what I’m capable of.
No. Arden didn’t. And he didn’t want to think of it.
