He had said he would be King, and he’d been right. They needed him, and he’d lived up to their expectations. It was a damn important trait for a King, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit of respect for himmyself.
Afterwards, he asked me to join him back in the palace. The traitors had completely trashed his quarters, desperately searching for his magical spear. I helped him clear it up a bit, stacking torn books against the wall and sweeping up broken glass. In the end, his room ended up close to as clean as it normally was, which wasn’t saying a greatdeal.
He sank into the sofa and dropped his head into his hands. “Everything is spinning out of control, and I don’t know what to do about it. Tonight I put these fae’s lives in danger. That’s not even counting the fact that Saoirse is still in trouble. I hate that she’s out there and there’s nothing I can do. If anything happens to her, I’ll never forgivemyself.”
I pressed my lips together. “We’ll find her. We just need to think two steps ahead of the enemy instead of two stepsbehind.”
Not that I had any idea how to dothat.
“I should do something.” He pushed up and stalked to the broken window, glaring out at the dark night. It was almost midnight. There was nothing we could do. “I should go out there and rip the city apart until we findher.”
“Lugh. I’m not sure using your brute strength is the right course of action right now, not in a city full of innocenthumans.”
Softly, I stepped toward him and joined him at the window. The cool breeze fluttered my hair away from my shoulders, making me shiver. With a glance down, he wrapped an arm around me, rubbing his warm hands along my chilledskin.
I tried to keep my face blank. It was impossible. My whole body had lit up from his touch. Even after everything that had happened, all the danger and the terror, I still wanted him more thanever.
“There must be something we can do,” he insisted. “Something they don’texpect.”
An idea sparked in my mind. “Actually, I do have an idea. Uisnech got some photos, right? I’ll send them to Kyle, who is this master hacker friend of mine, and he might be able to get a trace on them. I bet they won’t see that onecoming.”
Lugh didn’t look particularly thrilled by my brilliant idea, but he didn’t argue as I made the call. Even at this late hour, Kyle answered. I quickly filled him in on what had happened and shot the photos over to him. He promised he’d at least find something for us within the day. Thanks to CCTV, he’d be able to get a hit on their faces by hacking into the humandatabases.
I hung up the phone and gave Lugh a weak smile. “Kyle’s on the case. He’s going to use his famous hacking skills to track down their registered addresses. Now, we just have towait.”
“I don’t like asking for help from the Queen,” hemuttered.
“Well, that’s fine then,” I replied in a snap. “Becauseyou’renot asking for her help. All I did was call up an old friend ofmine.”
“It’s more than that, and you know it. He’s a member of herCourt.”
I propped my fisted hands on my hips. “Is that what you’re upset about? If that’s how you feel about help from members of Clark’s Court, then you should have sent me away in the first place.Iam a member of her Court, too, you know. Why the hell keep me around if the Queen’s help bugs you somuch?”
“Because,” he growled, but I never heard the end of his sentence. He twisted toward me and sank his lips onto mine. With a gasp, I leaned into the kiss, wrapping my hands through his tangledcurls.
His hands slipped down around my bum, and he lifted me from the floor. I wrapped my legs around his hips and arched against him. He growled, and his hard length dug into mythigh.
His kiss deepening, he began to stride across the room with his arms wrapped tight around me. He carried me into the bedroom and kicked the door shut. Heart pounding, I pulled back and stared into his inkyeyes.
“I thought you didn’t want to do this,” Iwhispered.
“I didn’t want to do it when Sapphire was rushing through our veins,” he murmured, teeth nicking my neck. “But I very much want to do it now, knowing that your want for me is real, not manufactured bydrugs.”
Oh, it was real. It was very, veryreal.
Lugh set me gently on the bed. He stood back and surveyed me, his fingers dipping to the buttons on his jeans. Swallowing hard, I watched as he stripped to nothing. His clothes formed a pile around his feet until nothing but his full masculine glory was before me. Heat flooded through my body as I gaped. His entire body was corded with pure muscle that rippled as hemoved.
“Your turn,” hemurmured.
I stood and pulled my shirt over my head without missing a single beat. As he watched me with fiery eyes, I pushed down my trousers and toed out of my panties. Even though he’d done nothing to touch me since the moment we’d begun undressing, my core was aching and my nipples hadhardened.
I didn’t even know how I was breathing.WasIbreathing?
Lugh grabbed my hips and lifted me onto the bed where he tipped me back onto the blankets. Spreading my thighs wide, he leaned over me. His length pressed against me, teasing me, making shockwaves of desire shoot through my core, but all he did wassmile.
I reached up and dug my fingers into his thick strands, pulling his mouth down to mine. He groaned against me, tongue twisting with mine. His fingers trailed up my sides, and his hands cupped mybreasts.
My thighs tightened around his hipsinstinctively.
