But she had no idea what I was capable of.
“Because you wouldn’t listen any other way,” she said from somewhere in the crowd. They stood like flesh-covered statues, and I fought to keep from looking at those I loved. And then, like she could read my thoughts, “They are distractions, aren’t they?”
“No,” I said, taking a step into the crowd, ducking under an arm raised here, stepping over a leg raised there. “They can’t be. Not ever.”
“Oh, chava,” she said, sounding disappointed. “There is much for you to learn.”
“I’m not like you,” I told her, stepping around Pete, my old friend Pete, a small smile stuck on his lifeless face. I shuddered as his shoulder brushed mine. “I don’t just banish those I love because they don’t follow the path I lay out in front of them.”
“And yet here you are, hoping I would be banished for a path I’ve laid before you.”
“I don’t love you. I don’t know you.”
“I am your blood.”
My skin itched. “There is so much more to this world than blood.”
“Chava,” she said. “There will not be a world. The things I will show you. What is to come. You will be begging me to lead you. Because the only way to keep them safe is to leave them all behind. They will burn in the fire of a thousand suns unless you accept your destiny.”
There was a moment of tense silence, and then the world snapped back into place. The crowd erupted around me, cheering wildly. I spun in circles, trying to find Vadoma in the throngs of people. She was nowhere to be seen.
“Sam?” Gary called above the noise. “How the hell did you get all the way over there?”
The raucous jeering around me gave way to groans and sounds of confusion. I turned back toward the front to see Ryan had dropped from the bar, eyes wide as he pushed through the crowd toward me. “What happened?” he asked when he stood before me. He gripped my shoulders tightly, fingers digging in almost enough to hurt. “You’re… I felt it. Something.”
I smiled weakly at him. “Nothing,” I said. “It was nothing. Just thought I heard… it was nothing.”
He frowned like he didn’t quite believe me. “Sam, are you—”
“And what was happening in here?” I asked, deflecting as best I could. “You look like you’re showing our guest the assets of Verania.”
“Um,” he said, flustered enough that his grip on me loosened. “Would you believe me if I said I had no idea?”
I watched as a droplet of sweat trickled down his neck to the hair on his chest. “Not at all,” I said, though I might have squeaked it out just a little bit. I kept reminding myself that pretty much everyone in the castle was staring at us right now, including my parents, so it probably wasn’t a good idea for me to lick my boyfriend’s chest, no matter how much I wanted to. Even if it was right there. With nipples and everything.
“You sure about that?” he said, moving close enough that I could smell his skin. That swagger was back, that infuriating, sexy-as-hell swagger that made me want to punch him in the nuts as much as suck on them. Vadoma’s voice was echoing in the back of my mind, but this was Ryan. Not even her thinly veiled threats could wash the sight of him from me.
I glared at him, standing my ground as he tried to crowd me. “It looked to me like you trying to prove something you don’t even need to worry about.”
“Oh, I’m not worried.”
“No?”
He shook his head. “I’ve got it on good authority that you’re a sure thing.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Keep talking like that, Knight Commander, and you might find yourself with pull-ups as the only form of physical release you’ll get for a long, long time.”
He laughed at me openly. Gods, how I loved that sound so much. Because when I heard it, it wasn’t from a dashing and immaculate Knight Commander with a chip on his shoulder, but a green-eyed boy who I wanted everything with. “You sure about that?” he asked again, but it was soft and playful.
“Oh my gods,” Gary groaned from behind us. “Would you two just go fuck already? This is so godsdamned disturbing to watch. It’s like you’re face-fucking me with a dick made of sugar. Stop it. You stop it right now and go fornicate before the rest of us get sucked into your black hole of love.”
I pulled away from Ryan to find everyone in the gym staring at us with varying looks of lust and disgust on their faces. I was pretty sure the elderly man next to me had an erection that he kept trying to touch me with.
“I like you,” he whispered to me.
“Uhh,” I said. “That’s sweet. And also terrible. We’re gonna go somewhere else that’s not where you are.”
Ryan grabbed my hand and started pulling me toward the exit. I heard his knights hooting and hollering after us. “Get some, Knight Commander!” one of them yelled. “You’ve got that shit!” He didn’t even turn around but raised a fist in victory to acknowledge he’d heard.
Of course he tripped over his feet when my mother said, quite loudly, “Young man, no one has gotten that shit, because that shit is my son. Let me tell you a little bit about respecting your partner—”
I squeezed his hand as I laughed. I could see the blush on the back of his neck.
I stopped laughing when I saw Vadoma out of the corner of my eye, standing near the back of the crowd.
Soon, she said, mouthing the word.
It felt like things were starting to spiral.
Ryan glanced back at me. I smiled at him as best I could.
He believed me, though.
That’s what was important.
IT STARTED in the empty hallway near the top of the stairs. I’d been trailing behind him the whole way, barely taking my eyes off his ass in front of me. He wore low-slung trousers, the tip-top crack of his ass visible with every step he took. The muscles in his back rippled, and he didn’t let me go.
I almost crashed into his back when he came to a stop. “What are we—mmgh—”
His mouth was on mine as he pressed me up against the wall. Keeping in mind that sexy is as sexy does, I just sort of sagged against him as his tongue swiped over mine. He rolled his hips against me, a quick, practiced move that never failed to make my knees a little weak. His hands were on my hips, his sweat-slick chest bumping mine. He broke the kiss and trailed his lips along my jaw. I turned my head to give him better access to my neck.
“You know,” I said, slightly strangled, “I’m totally on board with this plan, but maybe we could—” And then he did that one thing he did so well involving his teeth and my ear. I jerked my head back, smacking it against the wall. “Ow. Motherfucking ow.”
He chuckled against my face, reaching up to put a big hand between my head and the wall. “You’ve got to be more careful,” he chided gently.
“Yeah, well, maybe you shouldn’t be so good at eating my ear.”