Pushing them off the door gave her just enough time to see him stumble back, then lunge for her, eyes wild and dark. The movement wasn’t slower than usual, but she could somehow track it, giving her just enough time to react. Heart pounding, Lilac ducked and rammed him around the waist.
Garin landed on the floor at the corner of the bed with a softthud, still with the grace of a cat, and in the next second, she was straddling him.
“Or what? Or else you’ll snap my neck?” she snarled. His hardened cock strained against her ass, only fueling her anger. “Or else you’ll entrance me? Control me?” Her voice wavered with emotion, looking down at herself, at her powerful limbs. “Isthiswhy you’re so angry you had to save me?”
He tossed a dark curl out of his eyes. “I am not angry about saving you.”
“Then what? What was the cost?”
He said nothing under her, absorbing her fury in silence.
She looked down at herself, pressed against him, bare beneath her thin nightgown, willing herself to stay focused. “There was a cost, was there not? Something is bothering you. Is it why I am able to do this?” She brought her hands before them. “Fight you? Are we bound, Garin?”
She did not know whether to laugh or cry at the thought of beinghisthrall. Every emotion she felt was most unpleasantly rampant.
“I told you, it’s all the magic in your system. The witches both agree that theGuàiremedy and my blood are still a volatile combination, even if it did not kill you. Andyou,” he said, slowly propping himself up on his elbows, then his palms, chuckling. “Fightme?” He didn’t take his eyes off her lips, and before she knew it, their mouths were barely brushing. His aroma enveloped her senses again, and her anger dissolved; she leaned in to kiss him, utterly unable to help herself, but Garin’s hand rose to caress her cheek, then lowered and wrapped around her throat. “Look at me.”
Want and fear warred inside. When she tried once more to shove off him, there was the cool of a blade—her blade—against her neck.
“Isaid,look at me, Eleanor.” This time it wasn’t tender, and there was no question.
The urge was too strong. She was drowning in him, in his scent and with her body against his. It wasn’t even because of the long, lethal fingers wrapped around her throat or the blade that made her instantly stop struggling against him.
It was his voice—both the tide and the raft—coaxing her further out to sea.
Lilac’s eyes rose to meet his. The room once more began to shimmer around them.
“You’re going to follow my instructions.” He spoke softly, and somehow this was much more terrifying than any command he’d barked before. He raised his brows, gauging if she was listening. “Nod if you understand.”
She gritted her teeth, and there was a flame of anger that burst somewhere in the distance, but that was all too far away now. She nodded.
“You’re going to get off of me and put your cloak on.” He cocked his head pointedly over his shoulder at the coat rack in the corner of the room, to the right of the hearth, where her wool cloak hung. “It’s rather cold outside this morning.”
She hated how he spoke to her, like she was an insubordinate child. However, he was right; the mornings were often chilled at the castle, and she couldn’t imagine how much colder it would be in Brocéliande. She moved to shift onto her feet, but he released her jaw and caught her by the forearms again. His thumbs moved soothingly against her flushed skin, trailing down to her hands.
“I wasn’t done.” Garin spoke around his fangs, his eyes like muted starlight filling her with hope and a distant dread that floated further by the second. “You will do it on your hands and knees, please.”
There was a stab of rage as she strained against his will. But he showed no anger back; his features were softer, gentler. He’d saidplease.
“Now, get off.”
She slipped under his spell and did as she was told.
Before she adjusted herself, Garin was already striding across the room, and he came to stop beside the coat rack. He tossed her dagger onto the bed next to her bag and folded his arms. “Go on then. Crawl to me.”
Lilac felt her body act, but by now there was little protest in her mind to something so ridiculous. On all fours, mildly aware of her thighs rubbing together beneath the thin layer of her nightgown, the queen crawledthrough the dust to the tapping boot awaiting her. In the time it took her to get there, his control began to wane; her ears grew hot, and humiliation began to find its way into her buzzing subconscious.
Garin bent to meet her eyes. She tensed her muscles to get to her feet, but Garin only hummed in disapproval. “Mmm. I did not say to get up.”
“You ass?—”
“Stand.”
She immediately obeyed, and when he offered a wolfish smile and praised her, a rush of relief flooded her body, momentarily quelling her fury.
Then, all that was left was betrayal.
She stood still, the room spinning as it returned to normal with every breath, every blink, the shimmering quality of the air dissipating. Garin unhooked her cloak and strode behind her, the heat of the fire easing its way into her aching, buzzing joints as he patiently helped her into it. One arm, then the other. Then, he circled to her front, assessing her.
