“Are you all right?” Rhys asked, his voice serious and hard.
Kiril sighed. What did he do? If he lied, Rhys would know and come to Ireland. If he told the truth, there was still a good chance Rhys would come anyway.
“Truth, jerk,” Rhys said, as if sensing that Kiril was weighing his options.
“What has Con told you?”
Rhys grunted loudly through the phone. “He keeps it brief, as he always does. He did mention a female Dark. I told him there wasna a chance in hell that she could seduce you.”
Kiril squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them with his thumb and forefinger. He then dropped his hand onto his leg and went back to staring out the window.
“Fuck me sideways,” Rhys hissed. “Are you kidding me?”
“She didna have to seduce me. I went right to her knowing exactly who and what she was.”
“All right.” Kiril could practically see Rhys nodding his head as he spoke. “Do you think you can turn her to our side as Con mentioned?”
Kiril thought back over his conversations with Shara. “No’ a chance. I gather I’m a test. If she sets things up so I can be captured, she’s back in with her family. If she doesna…”
“They kill her,” Rhys finished, his voice tight.
They sat in silence for a minute, their minds running through every possibility.
Rhys cleared his throat. “If she has to prove herself to her family, that means she did something they doona approve of.”
“Aye.”
“Use that against her. Turn her, Kiril. We need to know what the Dark are up to, or more importantly what they’re searching for.”
“I like her, Rhys.”
“You’ll be fine if you have no’ bedded her yet.”
Kiril blew out a breath. He wouldn’t lie to Rhys.
“Oh, fuck.”
And that was putting things mildly. Kiril dropped his head back on the sofa. “Aye, my friend.”
“No wonder you’ve no’ slept. What can I do?”
“Remain at Dreagan. It’s nearly time for Con to contact me for our morning chat.”
“Are you going to tell him about the female?”
Kiril lifted his head. “Nay. It might have happened millennia upon millennia ago, but I remember vividly what we did to the human female that betrayed Ulrik.”
“So you think this female Dark will betray you?”
“It’s likely. It’s her family. What else is Shara to do?”
“You have two choices, my friend. Walk away. Or get her to fall for you.”
Kiril leaned forward and dropped his head into his free hand. “I can no’ walk away from her.”
“Then you have just one choice.” Rhys sighed loudly. “I’d feel better if I was there watching your back. I could remain hidden.”
“They’re already onto me. To bring another King here would be like offering up a buffet to a starving man.”
“It should’ve been me,” Rhys repeated.
Kiril shook his head, and then remembered Rhys couldn’t see him. “Nay. This is playing out just as it was meant to.”
“I wouldna be falling for a Dark,” Rhys ground out.
That made Kiril smile. “I’ll bet you my new Mercedes that you’ll fall for someone soon enough.”
“Bite me, jerk wad.”
“Ah. Did I hit a sore spot?”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“I did hit a spot.” Kiril sat up, on instant alert. “Who is she? What does she look like?”
“There’s nobody.”
“I think you protest too much.”
“Whatever. Be safe, jerk.”
“Always, dick.”
“I’ll call soon,” Rhys said, right before he disconnected the phone.
Kiril set the mobile phone aside, a smile on his face. For a few minutes Rhys had taken his mind off the situation—and off Shara.
Yet he couldn’t help but wonder who it was that Rhys had found. Did the others even know yet? The fact Rhys wouldn’t even talk about it spoke volumes. No one else knew, and had he not been joking about it, Kiril was sure he wouldn’t have even put the pieces together.
He was smiling when he stood and walked into the bathroom, disrobing. That smile soon faded as he caught sight of the scratches on his shoulders in the mirror. Instantly a vision of him and Shara rolling around on the entryway floor sprang to mind. His cock hardened. He wanted inside her again, to feel her tight walls, to hear her scream as she peaked.
It wasn’t just his need. He was worried about her. There was a chance that everything she’d told him was a lie, but he knew when she was acting and when she was herself.
It was the way she held herself so stiffly, as if she were waiting for him to call her a liar. She was much more relaxed when she spoke the truth. Of course, just because she might be telling the truth didn’t mean he still wasn’t being led into a trap—a beautiful, beguiling trap, but still a trap.
He looked himself in the eyes through the mirror and grimaced. He was in way over his head.
“Shit.”
CHAPTER TEN