Two Knights of Indulgence (25 page)

Nicolas rose.
 
“I’ll go make sure the jet is fueled and ready for us to depart.”

He shot out of the room before Britt could say
anything, obviously upset by her comments.
 
Everyone stood except Matthias and her and left them alone.

“I know you’re pissed at us for keeping the secret,
but did you really have to push it so far?”

She rounded on Matthias, ire sharpening her
tongue.
 
“He asked for it.
 
You should be grateful you didn’t get a
tongue lashing.”

“I look forward to any tongue lashing you want to give
me.”

Britt glared at him, trying not to laugh.

“You’ve told him he is only with us if I am
there.
 
In a way, you’ve chosen me over
him and he knows it.
 
He accepted that,
of course, but it had to sting a little.
 
Then you denounce any claim he may have over you in front of everyone in
the room.
 
You hurt his pride when he was
only concerned for your safety.
 
He was
willing to do anything to save you from the evil you took.
 
He was willing to die for you.”

Britt suddenly felt very small.
 
It had been more important to lash out at him
than to consider her actions beforehand.
 
“Should we go to him?”

“You should go to him.
 
I’ll just be your driver.”

****

Matthias watched the road before him intently as he
pushed the Bentley around twisting corner after corner.
 
He wasn’t in as big a hurry to return to the
hangar as the rush to get to the castle had been, but he still enjoyed pushing
the auto to its limits.
 

“Slow down.
 
I
can see us crashing over the edge the way you’re speeding.”

“You’ll heal us.
 
No worries.”

She punched his arm instead of giving him the laugh
he’d desired.
 
He needed to get her to
relax or she was going to botch the deal.
 
Anger still lined her face, and he could tell she hadn’t completely let
go of her disappointment with them.
  
His
gaze kept turning to the rear view mirror, pretending to check behind them, but
his gaze tried to discern her mood from the corner of the reflective surface
without her realizing he stared.

Each time he stole a glance, her arms were over her
chest, her haughty little chin raised in ire.
 
She was magnificent, even in her anger.
 
He wanted her more at that moment than he had the night before, even if
it were partially to re-stake his claim on her body and remind her they were
tied to one another.
 
Anger
be
damned.
 

Britt’s glare rounded to the mirror and caught his
stare.
 
He returned his gaze to the road
once more.
 
She wasn’t ready to
completely let go yet.

“I suppose I should let a little of this off my chest
as I don’t want to go through all this with Nicolas already upset.”

Strike that.
 
She
was
ready to talk.
 
Damn.
 
He
wasn’t prepared for a full out tongue lashing, unless she was talking the good
kind that he looked forward to.
 
Once she
was over being angry, of course.
 
But
then again, she was awfully cute when she was mad and
didn’t
have blue circling in her eyes.

“I can’t believe you two didn’t give me a hint at all
this so I could start processing it.
 
You
knew some of this at the cabin, yet you kept it from me.
 
I deserved to have the truth.”

 
“You did
deserve to know the truth, but we only knew bits and pieces.
 
There were no
definites
,
and honestly, it’s still all supposition.
 
We
think
you’re the daughter
of Gaia.
 
We
think
there’s a reason you’re here with us.
 
Why give you bits and pieces and risk you not
believing us, especially when we didn’t have all the answers Thierry could
provide you.”

“Why didn’t you ask Gaia when she came?
 
I was in the cabin, for fuck’s sake.”

 
“We didn’t know
all this information when Gaia appeared.
 
Had we known, we sure as hell would’ve asked.
 
She did tell us you weren’t completely human.”

His gaze met hers in the mirror once more.
 
Their stares locked, and she appeared to
weigh his words for a second, a quick flash of blue swirling in the green
depths of her eyes.
 
He broke the
connection to check the road ahead and twist into a curve.
 
A second later, he heard a loud sigh come
from beside him.
 

“So this is why I can’t go home.
 
I’m part of this world of yours, whether I
like it or not.”

Matthias caught her stare again.
 
“I think you’ve known it all along.”

“Oh really?”

“Unconsciously, you talked of a future.”

“No, I
di
—”

“You most certainly did.
 
Never overtly, but you wanted us both and for
more than a couple of nights.
 
The
connection we share, it—” Matthias brought his gaze back to the road again,
narrowly missing the edge of the road.

“It what?”

His stare slipped to hers and then back to the
road.
 
He didn’t want to answer her
question.
 
It wasn’t an answer he was
prepared to face.
 

“What about our connection, Matthias?”

He looked up to the mirror and watched her
briefly.
 
“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t think I do.
 
Enlighten me.”

Matthias felt as if his teeth would explode from
grinding them.
 
“When we touch, we touch
more than skin.
 
We touch within.”

“And?”

“Thierry told me he didn’t feel the same thing when he
touched you.
 
He sensed power and that
was all.”

He looked up and saw her eyes round.
 
Her reaction was the same as his had been to
Thierry’s comments.
 
It had to mean
something, right?
 
She was theirs and no
one else’s.
 
The connection they shared
was only theirs.
 
He’d only asked Thierry
out of pure jealousy anyway.
 
Matthias
had felt the rage enter him as soon as the question had left his lips.
 
Had the answer been anything other than what
it had been, Thierry might have not escaped with his life.

Britt was staring out the window with a confused look
on her face when he gazed at her again.
 
She looked lost at that moment, and he wanted to stop the car and pull
her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay.
 
She belonged with them.

“That doesn’t mean anything.”

“It means everything.
 
I’d been hesitant to bring you to the castle, afraid that every man
there would feel your pull and be attracted to you.”

“And since I’m a whore, you thought—”

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Nope.
 
I’ll drag it out when you
least expect it and give you a good wallop with it.”
 
A hint of a smile twisted her lips.

“I didn’t think you’d do anything with them.
 
I was afraid I’d have to fight them off
you.
 
Because you’re
mine.”

He flinched as soon as the words came, afraid he’d
gotten into another chauvinistic pothole and she’d whack him over the head for
it.

“And you’re mine.”

Matthias released the breath he’d held and
laughed.
 
“Yes, ma’am.
 
I’m yours.”
 

His gaze slid to hers, and he saw the smile plastering
her lips and smiled too.

****

Nicolas heard the car come up to the hangar.
 
He jumped down, pulling his sword from its
sheath as he rounded the door.
 
The Bentley.
 
He could
see Matthias in the driver’s seat and was fairly positive Britt was in the
passenger side.
 
Nicolas needed some
alone time to sort out everything.
 
He’d
been so gung-ho to be near her that they’d never really set up any ground
rules.
 
Like there had been time.

Now he was sitting here pouting like an asshole over
something that was nothing.
 
He didn’t
have any claim over her.
 
She was
Matthias’, and he was only along for the ride.
 
He’d realized that all along, but he’d told himself somewhere down in
the deep recesses of his brain that it was good enough, to be able to spend
time in her presence; he was willing to accept it.
 
Only now, once it was out in the daylight, it
no longer sounded like the great plan it had in his mind.

Now, it sounded like he got the short end of the
stick.
 
Would he be able to handle that
for the rest of his existence, to be second best, always playing second fiddle
to Matthias?
 
Hell, he’d basically been
doing that his whole life.
 
Matthias had
spent an eternity saving his ass and making him feel inadequate.

He continued to fill the jet with fuel as he heard
them exit the car and enter the hangar.
 
He kept his back to them, not ready to have it out just
yet,
although he knew they needed to come to some kind of
terms before this bird was in the air.
 
That’s all they needed—to be 10,000 feet up and the shit hit the fan.
 
Too bad Lucien was staying in
Germany
, at
least then they’d have a backup pilot if he felt the need to ring Britt’s neck.

“Ignoring me isn’t going to make me go away.”
 
Britt stepped to the edge of his ladder and
rested a foot on the bottom rung.

“I figured it was best to collect my thoughts before I
said anything that would get me in any further trouble.”
 
Nicolas turned around and realized his friend
wasn’t in sight. “Where’s Matthias?”

“He dropped me off.
 
Figured you could drive me back once we cleared the
air.”

“Have at it then.
 
Clear the air.
 
Go for it.”

“I’m still angry you kept secrets.”

“I’ve gathered that.”
 
He lifted his gaze to hers and captured her stare.
 
“But we did it with good intentions.”

“Good intentions or not, you kept some vital information
from me.
 
It was unfair.”

He nodded. Perhaps it was unfair, but he’d do the same
thing had he had the chance to do it over.
 
There was no reason for her to wonder over the unknown.

“What else is unfair is how I treated you in front of
your brothers.”

His head lifted at that.
 
“And how’s that?”

“Saying you
have
no claim
over me.”

“I don’t.”

“Don’t, Nicolas.
 
We both know there’s a connection between us.”

“That we can only explore when Matthias is in the
room.”

“That’s unfair, too.”

“Is it?”
 
Hot
need rushed through him at her breathy admission.

She stepped up the rung so she was just under
him.
 
“To say you’re a part of something
bigger but then to put limitations on how you share with me is unfair.
 
I care for you, Nicolas.
 
You aren’t an afterthought.
 
I choose you, too.”

He shook his head, not sure if he should voice the
words coming through his head.

“And I want to prove it to you.”

“How do you suppose we do that?”

“I think you take me into the cabin of this plane and
do all the things you wanted to do when you were stuck in the cockpit, unable
to touch me.”

Nicolas turned off the fuel line with shaking hands,
feeling like a lad instead of the old man he was.
 
He’d fantasized of doing exactly what she’d
just offered up to him, to erase the frustration he’d felt at being left out of
their experience.
 
Time for him to love
her in his way was important to him.
 
It
was an intimacy she’d taken from him, and she was now handing it over to him as
a gift, a peace offering.
 
He was down
the ladder in a shot, grasping her to him, his lips finding hers.