OhGod.
Images of sucking him, licking him...right there on the terrace.
Behave. Behave. BEHAVE.
I did my best to sober up before I did something that would alert the staff that Lucien was well and truly living up to his name of Furnace Heart. I eyed up my empty cup. “You know what? I’m cutting myself off. I’ve had way too much.”
He just leaned over and splashed more deliciousness into it. “I’m curious to see how much more it would take before you stopbehavingand straddle my lap right here.”
“You heard me?”
“Mm.”
“I hate you,” I whispered, hiccupping a little.
He chuckled with a smug smirk. “Only because you know you want it.”
The double entendre set my cheeks blazing again.
The sun crept higher. The valley glowed. And somewhere in the distance, another flock of birds took flight, blissfully unaware that the real threat to the local infrastructure wasn’t the weather.
As companionable silence fell, my thoughts inevitably went to all the things I was avoiding. My fingers strayed to my empty throat, wincing a little at the loss of my pendant.
If Lucien was right and it had been the cause of all my suffering, I should be glad it was gone...
Sighing heavily, I made the mistake of thinking out loud. “Tomorrow...or today when we wake up after we sleep off this wine...I’m going to call Frank.”
Lucien shot me a lazy glower. “Do you think that’s wise?”
“Probably not but Iamthe boss and hedoeswork for me, and out of anyone, he’ll know if my parents truly did dosomething to us. He might know all about this R gene business and—”
“And if they did?” He narrowed his eyes. “If theyarethe ones who did this to us...how did they even get access to me? I was born here. To twins that were forced against their will to create me. I never left Ashfall Cliff. Not until the day Marcus took us to England to solidify his takeover.”
I froze, recalling what Laura had said.“Apparently, his parents were brother and sister. They were forced to have a child because the board wanted the purest blood to run it.”
“So that’s true?” I hiccupped, trying to stay focused despite the alcoholic haze. “Your parents were related?”
He looked away as if the subject was painful. “They were. And they killed themselves because they refused to make another.”
My hands balled as anger billowed. A quick snowstorm flurried, covering Whisper’s black pelt in little white flakes.
The panther snorted in his sleep.
“Marcus and all the men who did this to your family need to pay.”
Lucien nodded with a tight smile. “Don’t worry. I plan to make them pay a thousandfold.”
The way he discussed murder so coldly, so resolutely...I winced at the destruction he would deliver. Especially now. Especially with the type of firepower he wielded.
Focusing on the positive side of such slaughter, I asked, “When you take Brimstone back, can you let Laura and the other girls go?”
He tensed. “You care that much about them?”
“It’s the right thing to do.” I finished my cup. “Besides, I like Laura. She’s perfectly ordinary and was only there due to a breakup, a shitty ex-boyfriend, and a bad decision.”
“Fine.” Lucien scooted a little further down his lounger. “After I’ve slaughtered the Brimstone board members. Once I’ve climbed a mountain of their corpses and swam in a sea of their blood, I’ll ensure the girls are given back their freedom.”
I shuddered. “That was a bit dramatic.”
