Though he didn’t let her go.
They stood there like that, him holding her close to his tall, wire-honed body as he stared down at her and she up at him. He was a lot stronger than he looked, Ariana mused as he held her close, his muscles far more firm and sculpted than his slender height implied. His summer blue eyes were deep compared to his beautifully ash-blond hair and eyebrows, his coloring far more alive compared to the Vampires. As she’d fallen backwards, Ariana’s hands had come up, and rested now on his silken grey garb, something like a Fae assassin’s outfit like Alleno’s this morning at the cemetery. Beneath the hard muscles of his chest, she could feel Prince Lucca’s heartbeat.
Racing just as fast as hers as his full lips fell open.
“Forgive me.” He spoke at last, though he still didn’t release her, as if holding her close was precisely where he wanted to be. Though she’d never expected it, something about being so close to him was perfect tonight, and Ariana didn’t pull away even though her better senses told her she should.
“For what?” She asked, her mind not really working that well as she was held so close to the utterly handsome Summer Fae Prince.
“Startling you.” He chuckled now, low and masculine in a way that completely did it for Ariana. It was male and deviant, sexy but lighthearted all at once – and she realized suddenly that she needed that in her life right now.
A little lightheartedness after Quinn’s destructive darkness.
“I’m okay being startled.” Ariana bantered back before she could stop herself. She had to remind herself that Prince Lucca was yet another man she knew almost nothing about, and that his father wanted her dead. With another sexy chuckle and an amused lift of one ash-blond eyebrow, Lucca gradually set Ariana back on her own feet. She hadn’t even realized she’d been leaning into him, practically held up by his arm around her waist until he stepped back. Executing a formal bow, he kept his penetrating blue eyes on her as he backed away. But as he straightened, she saw his eyes brighten two shades.
As glimmering rainbows whirled around him in the moonlight.
“Forgive me for interrupting your evening,faeadonnaSummers.” He spoke again, more formally this time. “But I have news that cannot wait. And cannot be entrusted to anyone.”
“Not even to your man Alleno? Or is the Summer Fae Prince accustomed to stealing out at night like a brigand and accosting women?” Ariana asked as she quirked an eyebrow at him, feeling strangely feisty again tonight as her tongue got away from her. She supposed it was simply her magical exhaustion after dealing with Quinn and his dark passion; when she realized suddenly that she was standing before Prince Lucca in her skimpy Vampire negligee and draping silk robe. They were so thin they basically left her nude, though everything was actually covered, and a heat of racy embarrassment suddenly flooded Ariana. Pulling the edges of the robe closed, she crossed her arms to have a bit more coverage – though she suddenly realized it made her cleavage stand out in the thin silk, and her nipples, too.
Prince Lucca didn’t miss it, his gaze straying to her breasts for just a moment before he met her eyes once more, though humor was in them now. “The Fae Prince is accustomed to doing as he likes with his evenings. And dressing in a brigand’s garb has its advantages.” But sobering now, his blue eyes darkened two shades as he continued. “My errand tonight is of the utmost importance, however, Ariana. And my man Alleno is busy at the moment.”
“What errand is so important that you have to dress like a thief to steal in through my window at midnight?” Ariana asked, trying to be serious now, though she realized it still came out as flirtatious.
“Only this.” Prince Lucca spoke quietly back, missing her innuendo now as he held her gaze with his summer blue eyes darkening two shades more. “I have secured a date for you to appear before the Magistros of the Summer Fae Court so they can hear your case and perhaps incite my father the King to make an exception for you with our laws. Your date to appear before them in court… is tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow!?” Ariana’s mouth fell open as she stared at the Summer Fae Prince now, a deep shock whirling through her as her magics flared with a subtle shimmer in the room. “But… I’m not ready! What do I say? What about time to build my case? I’m not a lawyer, I don’t—”
“I’ll help you.” Taking a step forward, Lucca Bellari’s eyes shone with a bright sky blue now as his aura suddenly glimmered with rainbows all around – reaching out and easing Ariana’s sudden heave like a warm summer wind. “I would not put you in a position to fail with the Magistros, Ariana, I swear it. But they were firm on this matter: they will hear your case tomorrow or not at all. I believe my father had a hand in it, thinking we could not produce you in time. But if you come with me, tonight, I can take you to a safe place where we can spend all night going over your case and what to say. I know the laws of my people – I know what the Magistros will want to hear.”
“Go with you? Now?” Ariana fretted as her dark power surged harder, worrying about leaving Quinn’s hospitality. She was terrified that she might never get her amnesty back if things went badly at Fae court – not to mention because Quinn and the Prince were apparently adversaries in some way. With Quinn’s jealousy earlier, and with everything that had happened tonight at the concert, Ariana wanted to talk with him to figure out where they stood. After their magical explosion of passion tonight, she wasn’t even sure Quinn’s offer to protect her was still on the table.
And if she ran off with the Summer Fae Prince, she wasn’t sure it ever would be.
“But… what if I lose at Fae court?” She whispered, her heart thundering in her chest as her rainbow-dark power truly swirled up around her now. Raising a hand to her chest, Ariana swayed as she felt that energy heave from her spine again, aroused by intense fear this time. But moving forward, Lucca Bellari reached out, taking up her hand. His fingers were so warm; warm like a midsummer sun shining over the earth, and Ariana melted into his touch, feeling it soothe everything inside her. As his power flared up around hers now, shimmering with rainbows of light in the darkness and soothing her with curling flows of wind, Ariana suddenly felt the dark worry within her heat to a beautiful golden glow.
As her aura flickered with actual rainbows now like Lucca’s rather than oilslick-dark ones.
“I can protect you. Even if things go badly tomorrow, I can protect you.” Prince Lucca breathed as he stood close, lifting her hand between his and stroking his thumb over her fingers. “I can’t keep you at the palace, or for any great length of time in Summer Fae lands near Florence, but there are ways.”
“So I would have to live in hiding.” Ariana’s heart sank just as it rose, feeling damned if she gambled on Prince Lucca’s option for her life but also feeling damned if she tried to stay here at the Hotel with Quinn. “I wouldn’t live free, if I go with you now and lose tomorrow.”
“Even if you lose at Fae Court I would do everything in my power to make you feel like you have a free life, Ariana.” Lucca spoke sincerely now as he gazed into her eyes. “For I know how much that means to a Summer Fae; how much that means to me. We need to be free in the summer woods and fields and bathing in the streams. And if you stay here, caged up with the Vampires… I fear for that side of you. The side that needs liberation, rather than containment.”
Ariana couldn’t have put it better if she had said it herself. Staring at Lucca, feeling his gold-bright power curl around her with kindness now, she realized he’d basically just read in her everything she’d been stewing over all night. As she stared up into his eyes and her dark energy whirled again, matched by his brighter rainbows in the moonlight, Prince Lucca reached up, brushing back a lock of her wild red hair. Ariana’s breath caught, and his did also as he stared at her with a deep, almost luminous intensity. She could feel something inside her dying after Quinn’s intense rejection earlier, darkening into that void she had felt right after the concert. But standing here with Lucca, seeing him look at her like this as their energies swirled together in the moonlight, she felt brighter suddenly.
Like his power breathed her back to life.
“I’m sorry I cannot promise you better.” Lucca spoke suddenly as he stroked her hair again. “But I can give you a chance tomorrow at the Summer Fae Court… a chance that just might win you your freedom immediately. If you’ll take it.”
“How likely am I to win?” Ariana asked, needing to know what she was in for, despite the intense connection she was feeling to Prince Lucca.
“I don’t know.” He spoke honestly now. “A case like yours has never been presented to the Summer Fae Court. Though you are Fae, you are a stranger to these lands, to our history and culture. There are many who would not wish to condemn you; who believe contrary to my father’s laws on the Forbidden Lineages. I am among them.”
“But you would still want my power for your own use, eventually.” Ariana spoke stubbornly, taking the Prince’s measure even though she felt deeply compelled by him right now. “To take down your father the King. Whether I win or lose tomorrow.”
“One step at a time, Ariana.” Lucca smiled now, though it was wry as he brushed her hair back once more with a tender touch. “Let’s just get through tomorrow, and then we’ll see.”
