4. Olivander-3
1097 Words
“My signet ring?” I looked down at my hand, seeing that it was bare. Frowning, I remembered that I’d left the very ring he spoke of in my bedchamber when I’d gone to face the king.
My bedchamber where Dori—
Eyes flaring wide, I opened my mouth and lifted my face to Erick.
He held up a finger, halting me, all the while, his eyes gleamed with amusement. “Again, no worries,” he ordered. “I won’t ask about the charming brunette currently occupying space in your private chambers as we speak.”
Ah, hell.
I trusted Erick more than I trusted anyone, but it was for his own benefit that he not know everything I’d agreed to help Indigo with. The more he knew, the more danger he—ergo, his mate and their children—would be in.
And even knowing of Dori’s existence could put him in danger.
“Whatever agreement you have between you and Unity and your intimate affairs is none of my business,” he was saying, making me frown in confusion until I understood his meaning.
Great. Now he assumed I had a mistress.
Oh well. That was still better than him knowing the truth.
“We had a brief but pleasant conversation, Dori and I,” Erick went on, making me gnash my teeth and shake my head. He’d talked to her enough to learn her name, I see. That was just lovely. “And I must admit, I was dismayed to learn you hadn’t even offered the poor poppet a bath after your travels from Belle.”
I groaned and closed my eyes. What all had those two said to each other?
“Erick—”
“So I had one delivered to your bedchamber posthaste,” he explained.
“Oh hell, you didn’t! Dammit, brother, I was hoping to keep her presence in my room a secret. Even from the servants.”
Maybe especially from the servants. They seemed to carry the most information between their network of nosy gossips.
“Yes, that’s what she told me,” he concurred on a nod. “So I ordered it for you, in your name, and she went back to hiding behind the dressing screen until after it was drawn.”
I exhaled in a rush. Thank goodness.
“She’s a bit…” Erick paused a moment before adding, “Unusual, isn’t she?”
That was definitely one way of putting it. “She’s not from around here.”
“Yes, I could discern that from the lack of a mark on her face and from the fascinating garments she wore,” Erick returned, watching me closely. “This is more than that, though. I wanted to ask her about the strange drawings on your desk but refrained.”
Hissing out a breath, I shook my head. “I wish you hadn’t seen those.”
His head would probably spin if he heard about planets and solar systems and galaxies.
“What do they mean?” he asked bluntly.
I sighed and patted his arm. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
He nodded, murmuring, “If you say so.” Then he glanced down the hall both ways to ensure we were alone. “Well, if there’s nothing else you don’t wish to tell me, I think I’ll retire to my own room now. Ianna was wearing the most fetching dressing gown I was hoping to remove from her before I was ill-timely informed of your kingly summons.”
I rolled out my hands, waving him off. “Then, be gone with you, brother mine. Far be it for me to keep the crown prince from his mately duties.”
“Must secure the Bjorn line and all that,” he agreed on a wink and started to turn away, but I gripped his arm, making him glance back with one eyebrow raised. “Yes?” he asked.
“Thank you,” I told him earnestly. “For helping with Unity.”
He cupped the side of my head in one hand and pressed our brows together. “Always, brother.”
And then he was gone, sweeping down the hall to seek my sister-in-law.
I sighed, watching him disappear around a corner. But when I thought about returning to my own room, it struck me that Dori was currently in there, bathing.
I couldn’t barge in while she was undressed and wet and—
Why don’t you try some passion with someone else, then?
Someone other than Unity.
Damn, I really wished Dori hadn’t put such thoughts in my head. They were completely unacceptable. And now, all I could picture in my head was the way she’d lifted her hair earlier and tied it up, exposing the delicate, feminine length of her neck before fanning at the heated flesh as if it were begging for the suckling of a wet mouth to cool it.
And all I could seem to hear was the harem girl in my father’s bedchamber, crying out in ecstasy when she reached her o****m.
Maybe she wouldn’t be upset about you going off and hooking up with some rando. Maybe she can’t picture herself being with you in that way, either. Maybe she’d be relieved to know you also don’t want to get jiggy with her.
What if Unity was having as hard a time thinking about intimacy with me as I was having, thinking about it with her?
Erick certainly hadn’t seemed scandalized about seeing another woman in my room. Which didn’t help my resolve at all.
Whatever agreement you have between you and Unity and your intimate affairs is none of my business.
Hell, he’d made it sound as if it were common for some mated couples to seek passion outside their marriage bonds. But that…
That couldn’t be acceptable.
Could it?
No. No, I would not think this way. I was going to dismiss all visions in my head of Dori being naked and clean in my room, and I was going to...
Well…
I was going to take a walk. There were a few errands I wanted to run anyway.
Yes, that’s what I’d do.
It might be late, but now was as good a time as any to get them done, I supposed.
Turning on my heel, I veered away from my bedchamber and hurried off.
As I made my way out of the castle, however, my mind returned to Unity.
Ignoring the guilt that snickered at my conscience for imagining myself with another, I worried about how frightened she was going to be when a group of armed strangers showed up at the academy and demanded that she drop everything to go with them. I hoped my signet ring was enough to calm her and encourage her to agree to go with them.
Hell, I hoped my men beat my father’s men there...
If, indeed, my father had sent anyone for her. Which I felt uneasily confident he had.
Please, I murmured inside my head, as I briefly closed my eyes and fisted a hand against my chest. Please be safe, my sweet Unity. Please stay unharmed.
Someone—anyone—please just…
Keep her safe.
- Writer
