Merrick’s lips curled, a half smile playing across his face as his hand brushed the hilt of his sword. “Like you. That’s why I gave it to you.”
As she stuffed both the daggers into their sheaths, her brows crashed.
“This was a mating gift, wasn’t it?”
The corners of Merrick’s lips lifted higher. “It was.”
“But…”
Merrick wrapped his arms around her again, leaning his hands on the railings as he kissed her, softly this time—with no urgency, as if they had all the time in the world. “No but.”
Well, damn.
She hadn’t given him anything.
“You have given me everything.” Merrick leaned his forehead against her own, his eyes refusing to let hers break away. “Everything, Elessia. If I die tonight, I’ll do so having everything I ever asked for and many things I never thought to.”
Her throat constricted at the raw emotion in Merrick’s eyes, at the slight tremor of his voice as he yet again whispered “You’ve given me everything,” and she was just about to respond when an apologetic voice broke in.
“I am so sorry, but we have a slight issue.” A mixture of amusement and concern filled Raine’s voice as he spoke behind them.
“Damn it, Raine,” Merrick rasped, a sharp edge carving around his words that Lessia couldn’t help but agree with.
Did he always have to interrupt?
As he spun around, he kept an arm around her, and they both stared at the three males approaching them.
Raine kept his eyes everywhere but on Lessia’s.
Kerym grinned at her, and for some reason, she didn’t like the male’s smile at all.
Loche’s expression was even worse.
Walking a few steps behind them, he looked as if he were on his way to his execution, wide eyes fixed on his feet and shoulders slumping.
“What issue?” Lessia asked, the worry tightening the males’ eyes rushing into her own body.
Kerym’s gaze slowly slid over the arm Merrick kept around her waist, his look pointed when she stepped closer to Merrick, wrangling her arm around his back.
“Fuck,” Merrick snarled beside her, and her brows snapped up when he stepped away from her.
Lessia attempted to follow, her brows flying even higher when he held up a hand to stop her, such a thunderous expression on his face it didn’t take much for her to falter.
“What is going on?” Her head whipped back and forth between Merrick and the others until her gaze snagged on Raine’s flared nostrils.
Oh.
Lifting the collar of her jacket to her nose, she breathed in.
Merrick’s scent was so strong that she almost swayed.
Her body reacted instantly, and that heat—that overwhelming heat—licked her veins.
“Your continuing to react like that will also be a problem,” Kerym laughed, and she couldn’t stop the warmth traveling up her neck, spreading across her face like wildfire. “Although I guess we can’t blame you, since it’s barely been a day.”
“Kerym.” Merrick’s warning growl was so cold even Kerym’s smile fell off his face.
“He’s right, though.” Raine approached them, his large body tenser than Lessia had ever seen. “If Rioner gets one whiff of her, he’ll realize what you’ve been up to… And while we might get him to believe Lessia is the one controlling us—emphasis on themight—from what I’ve seen in her mind from their last interaction, he will not believe her to be so wicked that she used magic to compel you to share a bed with her.”
