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"I have dealt with the great of faerie for too long to believe that everyone keeps their word"

"It is one of our ent laws," I said "To be forsworn is to be outcast"

"Unless you have friends in very high places who make sure such tales are never spread"

"What are you saying, Queen Niceven?"

"I say only this, that the queen doth love her son much, and has broken more than one taboo to keep him safe"

We stared at each other, and I kneithout asking that Cel had made promises and broken them That alone should have ht to any throne Andais had always spoiled Cel, but I never realized just how ate?" I asked

She see an idle hand out tohere thewhiskers twitching, ears alert, as if it still wasn’t sure of its welcoently "A few days," she said

"We are not always at home to welcome visitors I would be loath to have your envoy receive less than our best hospitality"

"Leave a pot of flowers by your door and that will sustain him"

"Him?"

"I believe a hiave a s blood, not sex, so I didn’t have a preference; or at least I didn’t think I did "I a"

"Pretty words, Princess It remains to be seen whether you have pretty actions to back up all those words" Her eyes flicked back to the men and settled on Doyle and Rhys "Pleasant dreams, Princess"

"And to you, Queen Niceven"

So harsh crossed her face, made it look even thinner and sharper, as if her face were a oing to be able to hold my business face in place But she didn’t She merely spoke in a voice that was like the whisper of scales on stone "My dreams are my own business, Princess, and I will keep theave her another half bow "I meant no insult"

"None taken, Princess, ly head" With those words, theinto aze, and I watched Rhys and Doyle still on their knees Muscles worked in Rhys’s arms as he brushed Doyle’s hair Frost didn’t so much move as just look at me in the mirror so hard that it turned lared back The other two seeone You can stop pretending," I said

"I haven’t finished brushing out all of this hair," Rhys said "This is why I stopped growing mine down to my ankles It’s almost impossible to take care of it by yourself" He separated out another section of hair, hefted it in one hand, and began to brush with the other

Doyle was silent as Rhys worked on his hair with the serious-faced concentration of a child There was absolutely nothing else childish about him as he knelt nude, surrounded by a sea of black hair and htlyHe was lovely to look at, but he wasn’t excited Nude didn’t mean sex to the sidhe, not always

Frost made a srey of the sky just before a storry; it showed in every line of his face, the tension of his shoulders, the way he sat, so careful, iy at the same time

"I’ with Niceven"

"You have made it abundantly clear that you rule here and I er

I sighed It was early, but it had been a long day I was too tired for Frost’s hurt feelings Especially since he was in the wrong

"Frost, I cannot afford to appear weak to anyone right now Even Doyle holds his opinion in public, no matter how unfavorable it is in private"

"I have approved of everything you’ve done today," Doyle said

"I aaveof his hair fro when you’re being fussed with He stared at me, until aze with ames Just because I could play them, and play them fairly well, didn’t h power plays for one day, Doyle I don’t need any uards"

He blinked those dark, dark eyes at me "Hold off, Rhys Meredith and I need to talk"

Rhys stopped obediently, sitting back a the pillows, the brush still in his hand

"In private," Doyle said

Frost jumped as if he’d been struck It was his reaction more than Doyle’s words thatabout ht with Meredith," Frost said His anger sees of possibilities he hadn’t foreseen

"If it was Rhys, then he would have to wait his turn again, but I have not had a turn, so I a"

Frost stood, al in his haste and the lack of space at the foot of the bed "First you hold ht in her bed I would accuse you of jealousy, if I did not know you better"

"You can accuseyou wish, Frost, but you know I am not jealous"

"Perhaps, perhaps not, but you are so has to do with our Merry"

Doyle sighed, a deep, al the princess wait for ue her Today I saw that there is more than one way to lose a woman’s favor"

"Speak plainly, Darkness"

Doyle stayed kneeling, half-naked, his hands lihs, surrounded by a sea of his own hair He should have looked helpless, or fe, but he didn’t He looked like so carved out of the elemental darkness, as if he’d risen as one of the first things to ever draw breath, before the light caht as he breathed His hair had covered all the earrings, so that this one silver spark was the only color on hiht

"I am not blind, Frost," Doyle said "I saw the way she looked at you in the van, and you saw it, too"

"You are jealous"

He shook his head "No, but you have had three months and there is no child She is a princess and will be a queen She cannot afford to give her heart ahere there is no e"

"So you’ll step in and win her heart instead?" Frost’s voice held more heat than I’d ever heard in it, outside of the bed

"No, but I will see that she has choices If I had paid closer attention, I would have stepped in sooner"

"Oh, you in her aret all about ant as that, Frost I told you, today I realized there wastoo long is one of them If there is to be any chance that Meredith will not turn to you, or Galen, then soe now Not later, but now"

"What does Galen have to do with any of this?" Frost asked

"If you have to ask that, then it is not I who am blind," Doyle said

Confusion chased over Frost’s face Finally he frowned and shook his head "I don’t like this"

"You don’t have to like it," Doyle said

As interesting as the conversation was, I’d had enough of it "You are all talking as if I’m not here, or as if I have no choice in the matter"

Doyle turned his so serious face to ht?" He asked it in the same neutral voice that he would have used to order at a restaurant or talk to a client, as ifto him

But I knew he so but neutral It was a way of shielding himself from the emotion; act as if it doesn’t matter, and maybe it won’t

I looked at him, the sweep of shoulders, the swell of his chest and that sparkling glint of silver, the flat plains of his stomach, the line where his jeans cut across his body I had never seen Doyle nude, ever He did not participate in the casual nudity of the court; neither had Frost

I looked at Frost His silver hair was still back in the loose ponytail, so his face was clean and unadorned, if anything that beautiful could ever be called unadorned He had his jacket and shoulder holster, coant ain, the one he hid behind so often at court That he felt he had to wear his mask here and now in front of o to hiainst his chest, and tell hiainst mine I wanted to wake in a cloud of his silver hair

I did go to hiot close, but didn’t trust myself to touch hio, "I have the chance to satisfy ht, Frost"

He turned away so he couldn’t see my face "I wish you joy in it," but he didn’t sound like he ht, Frost"

That turned him to me, with a startled look

"With Doyle in , I still want you My body begins to ache when you’re not with me I hadn’t realized until today what that meant" I couldn’t keep the pain out of

He stared down at me, raised a hand to touch my face, but stopped himself just short of ht You will be queen And sos you cannot be as others You ainst his open hand, and even that small touchit against his pants as if soht, Princess"

I nodded "Toht, ht use to finish

He turned without another word and left the roo the door firmly behind him

Some small noise turned me back to the room Rhys slid to the other side of the bed near theand picked up his clothes that were lying in a hasty heap on the floor "The first night shouldn’t be a group effort"

"Making this a threesohed "I didn’t think it had" He worked his way round the bed, holding the clothes with the brush balanced on top, all held above waist level so my vieas uninterrupted It was a nice view

"A little help with the door, please" Theleft out He was flaunting his char the fey

I got up to open the door for him, as if he couldn’t have shifted his clothes around to do it hi the door and raised up on tiptoe to kiss him I balanced with one hand behind his head, lost in the curls at his neck, and the other hand trailing down the side of his body, caressing over his ribs, the sweep of his hip I let him see in my eyes how beautiful he was to lance out of his one perfect eye The shy was pretend, but the pleasure wasn’t

I stayed on tiptoe long enough to put ainst his My hands played in the curls at the back of his neck, and he shivered under round flat-footed and moved out of the door so he could pass

Rhys shook his head "That was her idea of a good-bye kiss, Doyle" He glanced back at the otherin the bed "Have fun, kiddies" But his serious face didn’t match the flippant words

Rhys offered , then I let him out I shut the door behind him, and was suddenly very aware that I was alone with Doyle Doyle, whohtened ht hand for a thousand years He’d kept uarded my body and my life, but somehow he hadn’t really been mine Somehoouldn’t really be mine until I’d touched that dark body, seen all of him bare before me I wasn’t sure why that was so i hi his options open As if he believed that once he ith me, he’d have no more options Which wasn’t true I’d been with my one-time fiance, Griffin, for seven years, and in the end he’d found plenty of options, none of the experience for him Why should it be different for Doyle?

"Meredith" He said my name once, but for once his voice wasn’t neutral That one word held uncertainty, a question, and a hope He spoke my name once more, and it turnedthe burgundy sheets

Chapter 18

He sat on the edge of the bed closest to thethe black dream of his hair Almost all the other sidhe I knew had some contrast from hair to skin to eyes, but Doyle was all of one piece His unbound hair cascaded around him like a black cloud, so that his ebony skin was al lock of hair had fallen over his face, and his black-on-black eyes were lost in that darkness He looked like a piece of night itself come to life He swept a hand up to draw back the hair and try to tuck it behind one pointed ear The earrings glittered like stars against his darkness

I walked forward until the bed bus pressed into the bed, but all I could feel was the thickness of his hair, trapped between my body and the fir underneathhis hair

He turned those dark eyes up to me, and there were colors in his eyes that shone nowhere in the room, like a swarreen, red, purple, and colors I had no name for The pinpoints danced and swirled, and for a second I could al around ht in a cloud of butterflies; then I was falling and Doyle caught me

I came to myself in his arms, in his lap, where he’d sat me When I could speak, I said, "Why?"

"I am a power to be reckoned with, Meredith, and I want you to never forget that A king should have more to offer than seed"

I slid?"

He set that in the rush of hot skin and sex, but youa father for your children, a king for the court, and someone you will be tied to forever"

I hid my face in the curve of his neck His skin arainst my face His s about that" I spoke the words against his skin

He rubbed his neck against my face "And what conclusions have you coh to see his face "That Nicca would be a victim and a disaster on the throne That Rhys is lovely in bed, but I can’t see hiht and Galen would be utterly disastrous That there are hts at court that I would rather kill than be tied to for the rest of ainst the side of ainst ainst me "There is Frost and me"

The feel of his lipsin his lap Doyle drew a sharp breath, his hands wrapping around ainstinto th in his hands, such pressure, as if with little effort he could plunge his fingers intomy blood and flesh to the surface, peelthat had been waiting for his hand to openme, to spill me in a rush of pleasure over his hands, across his body

He half lifted me, half threw ainstabovemotherly about the way he stared down at me He’d thrown all that hair over one shoulder so that his naked upper body was exposed to the light His skin glea was deep and rapid,wink and shimmer above ers over that bit of silver, and a sound carowl like soh that slender,back to flash white teeth, while that growl trickled out of his lips, past his teeth like a warning

It made my pulse race, but I wasn’t afraid yet Not yet He leaned down into my face and snarled, "Run!"

I just blinked at him, my pulse in my throat

He threw back his head and howled, a sound that echoed and echoed in the s for a second, because I knew that sound

That lone, clear evil belling of the Gabriel Ratchets, the dark hounds of the wild hunt He put his face inches frorowled, "Run!"

I scrambled out from underneath him, and he watched me with those dark eyes, his body immobile but so tense it seemed to shimmer with the promise of some violent action, violence contained, constrained, restricted, but there all the sa side of the bed I was trapped between theand the bed The outer door lay across the bed, past Doyle I’d played gas in the Unseelie Court liked to catch you first, but that was pretend, play, foreplay The look in Doyle’s eyes was hungry, but one hunger looks much like another until it’s too late

His voice fought out fro!" With that last, he made a rush at e of the bed, rolled, and fell to the floor in front of the outer door I was on my feet, hand on the doorknob when his body crashed into mine The door shook and my body bruised with the violence of it He jerked th

I screamed

He tore me away from the door, threw me on the bed I tried to slide off to one side, but he was there, his lower body pressing againstme pinned to the side of the bed I could feel the firh my panties

The door opened behind us, and Rhys looked in Doyle growled at him Rhys said, "You screaun in his hand, held next to his leg, not pointed but there

Doyle growled, "Get out!"

"I leave at the princess’s order, not yours, sire" He shrugged "Sorry You having a good tiun

"I’m I’m not sure" My voice caainst , but only if it was the prohs were shaking, his entire body quivering with the effort not to finish what he’d started I touched his face gently He startled as if I’d hurt him, then turned, looked atinto the eyes of a tiger, beautiful, neutral, hungry

"Are we having fun here, Doyle, or are you going to eat me?" My voice was a little steadier, firmer

"This first time I would not trust myself to put my mouth to such tender places"

It took me a second to realize that he had misunderstood me "I don’t mean eat me in the euphemistic sense, Doyle I mean, am I food?" My voice sounded utterly calm now, ordinary Pinned to the bed by his body, his eyes still animalistic and wild, and I sounded like I was in the office, talking business

He blinked and I saw the confusion in his eyes I realized that I was asking hiiven himself over to a piece of himself that he rarely let out That part didn’t think like a person

He did soainst me It made me cry out, but not in pain "Do you want this?" His voice was almost normal, breathy, but almost nor there that would colimpse of him in the eyes, a sliver of Doyle left behind I took a deep breath, and said, "Yes"

"You heard her Get out" His voice began to fall into the growl again, every word lower and lower

"You sure, Merry?" Rhys asked

I’d al there I nodded "I’nore the noise and trust that you’ll be all right?"

I stared into Doyle’s eyes and found nothing but need, a need like nothing I’d ever seen in any man It went beyond desire and becaht, this was need; if I turned froether as lovers, but he’d never let hiht close this part of himself away forever, and it would be a little death

I’d endured that little death for years, dying by inches on the shores of the huht ht back all those parts of myself I’d had to leave behind to pass for human, to pass for lesser fey If I turned froain?

"I’ll be all right, Rhys," I said, but I wasn’t looking at hi at Doyle

"You sure?"

Doyle turned and spoke in a voice that was alet out"

Rhys gave a small bow and shut the door behind hirowledainst hs, as he said it His h his body didn’t want to

I had to close ainstalong mine, as if the sound could travel places that his body hadn’t touched yet

Even as his body ground into rowled, "Do you want this?"

"I want this"

One of his hands slid froh to the side ofcut My body jerked as he stripped the silk away and pressed the rough round hiainst me until I cried out, half in pleasure, half in pain

He scooted h so that he could tear at his pants The belt opened, the button, the zipper, everything slid down until I saw hi and thick, and perfect He slid a finger inside of me It made me cry out, but that wasn’t why he’d done it When he found me wet and open, he pushed himself insideunderneath hiet himself all inside me He seemed to fill me up, every inch, and I writhed underneath, just froe insidehimself out of me, and push hian I watched the dark length of hiht alone low like I’d sed the leamed in answer, filled with all the colors that had been in his eyes It was as if he were still black water reflecting the glow of thecolors flowed under his skin, and the roo as if we both burned with colored fla, as if we lay at the center of soht, that fire, that heat

It was as if our skins hts flow across low as he ed by htin pleasure that was so intense it was like pain I heard him cry out, heard that bell-like howl, but in that one moment I didn’t care He could have ripped one with a smile

I ca labored, his back covered in a sheen of sweat and blood I raisedlike neon against the fading glow In that last moment when I hadn’t been aware, I’d bloodied his back I felt the first stinging trickle of blood and found his teetha little, but not toocould hurt too much with Doyle’s body still on top of mine, him still inside me, as we both relearned how to breathe, how to be in our own bodies again

His first panting words were, "Did I hurt you?"

I touched ers into the bite onpaint, and held upyou the same question"

He put a hand back to touch the blood on his back, as if he hadn’t felt it until that moment He propped himself up on one elbow and stared at the blood on his hands Then he threw back his head and laughed, laughed until he collapsed on top of , he cried