94. Ayres
Ayres gripped his playing cards so tightly in his hands they curled under the pressure.
Since Kiniera had informed them that the fourth trial had been postponed due to troop movements across Nyson’s Gap and that some of the freshly trained House of Death soldiers were coming to stay at the Northern Castle with the Frost Dragons, he knew there would be a possibility of him seeing his brothers.
Ayres had three: Erich, Conrad, and Talon.
Rosalie was the oldest out of all of them, but Ayres was the oldest male.
Erich, the second oldest son, had been forced to expose his identity to gain the trust and support of House of Ice. But no one besides their sworn men knew that Talon, Conrad, and himself were the other House of Death Princes. The secret had been carefully guarded by his people.
Talon, the youngest and most mischievous of all the Sumavari brothers, had been training in the House of Ice under Commander Ye-Jun Frostguard for the past five years. Talon looked like Ayres but with a thick beard and long, shoulder length hair that was half pulled up into a bun—a hairstyle that Ayres suspected was copied from the commander.
Conrad, who was blond like Rosalie and their mother, had flown in on a different man”s dragon. Ayres’s heart had given a thankful squeeze at seeing his younger brothers alive and whole again.
What Ayres hadn’t known or expected or been very pleased about was that Commander Ye-Jun and Rorax were friends. Close friends.
His jaw locked so tightly the little voice in the back of his head warned him not to crack a molar.The image of Rorax sprinting into the Commander’s waiting arms and then beaming up into the Commander’s face with pure, unadulterated joy felt like it had been seared into his retinas, into his soul. His chest hurt and he felt angry.
Ayres was more than just angry, but he refused to identify that ugly thing filling his chest and squeezing his lungs as jealousy. He wouldn’t.
“What’s wrong with you?”
Ayres slanted a look across the table to a pair of eyes the exact shade of dark charcoal gray as his only set under golden blond hair. He grimaced sheepishly at Conrad and threw his cards face down on the table and rubbed his hands over his face.
Gods, he was pathetic.
Two of the three men he loved and missed most in the world were sitting right in front of him in the flesh, alive and well, playing cards with him even, and here he was brooding like an undisciplined pubescent boy—trying and failing to get a woman out of his mind.
Marras help him. Ayres needed to sort himself out.
“Nothing,” Ayres clipped. “I’m fine.”
“Good, because it’s your turn and it has been for the last five minutes,” Conrad griped.
Talon, a few years younger than Conrad, eyed Ayres over his cards with a knowing smirk. “It’s that little House of Ice girl who’s on your mind, isn’t it? Your Contestar?” Talon crooned.
Ayres shot Talon an unamused glare before picking his cards back up off the table and picking a random one to play.
“Who cares? Ayres has a new woman every week,” Conrad sneered, the tendons in his neck tightening as he played his card.
“It has nothing to do with her. It’s your turn, Tal,” Ayres grumbled through gritted teeth, and Talon’s smirk got even bigger.
“You know . . . while I was in Koppar I heard an interesting rumor about their beloved Commander, Ye-Jun.” Talon dropped his gaze down to his cards, tilting his head as he considered them. “I heard from his men that one of his crowning achievements was that the Commander was a regular in one of the Heilstorm’s beds. After their little display in the Great Hall, I guess I know the rumors were true. They’re probably together right now getting reacquainted—Ayres, where the fuck are you going? It’s your turn next!”
Ayres was already at the door, yanking it open and storming into the hall.
He didn’t stop until he was at Rorax’s door. He listened for a moment, but when he didn’t hear voices or even worse, any of her sexy little whimpers, he knocked on the door, hard. He rested his hands on his hips, trying to suck in deep, calming breaths.
Gods, no one before in his life had ever twisted him into a knot like this. He felt wild, off center, and for some gods-damned reason his instincts told him the only person in the world who could help ground him was behind this flimsy wooden door.
The lock flipped and Rorax swung the door open. Her room was empty except for her. His breath whooshed out of him, and the tight thing that had been squeezing his chest making him feel absolutely crazy, eased fractionally.
Rorax blinked up at him in surprise, before taking a step back and gesturing inside. “Ayres? What are you doing here?”
He brushed past her. The fireplace illuminated the whole room in a warm glow. An open book sat draped over the arm of one of her chairs, and the ribbon he’d given her lay next to it, like she had pulled it free of her long strands while she’d been curled up reading. Good.
“Ayres, are you okay? What”s going on?”
He stared at the ribbon for a long second, before finally pulling his eyes away to stare into hers. “Are you fucking Ye-Jun?”
Rorax’s lips parted, and her cheeks went bright red. “I . . . no. Not anymore . . . I . . . we used to be, though, used to be involved.”
Ayres stared at her, wrestling with anger and jealousy in his chest for so long that she rubbed her finger over her ring as she tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Ayres, it was years ago. He’s one of my best friends now, and he always has been. That”s all there ever was between us. Friendship. Trust.”
Rorax’s eyes were so wide, so open and earnest, he believed her. That thing in his chest eased some more but didn’t completely disappear.
He reached around and grabbed the ribbon still draped across the arm of her chair.
“Hey, that’s mine! Ayres, you can’t take it back just because you found out you weren’t my first. I saw a girl coming out of your room once, and I haven’t stolen any of your—” Ayres crossed the room, snatched Rorax’s wrists and tied them together with his ribbon.
The anger on her face completely dissipated as he bent and picked her up at the waist before turning and dropped her on her bed.
“Ayres,” she breathed his name as he moved over her, her pupils dilating as she watched.
Ayres bent his head down to her ear to growl, “I don’t care if you were with him a hundred years ago, or ten minutes ago, Ror. From this point on, if he puts his hands on you ever again, I will rip out every bone from his body.”
Rorax slanted him a look. “Ayres, Ye-Jun is my friend. Don’t hurt him. But . . . you shouldn’t worry either. I wouldn’t want him to touch me, not like you do.”
That was enough for him. Ayres hooked his fingers on the band of her panties and slowly dragged the lace down her legs, pushing her dress up, and spreading her legs apart. Her pussy glistened in the firelight, and he bent his head down to run his tongue up her slit. Gods, she tasted fucking good. So good he wanted to taste her every single day.
Rorax’s hips started undulating under his mouth as he sucked her clit into his mouth, and he moaned as she slipped her fingers into his hair, gripping the short strands tightly.
“Fuck, Ayres,” she whimpered. “Right there.”
She ground her pussy against his face until she came, and then he fucked her, slow and sweet. In that moment, she sure as fuck felt a lot like his.
When Ayres eventually dragged himself back through the hallway, back to his room where his brothers still sat, bickering amongst themselves, Talon looked up and gave Ayres a knowing smile. “You look like you just got fucked.”
“Your talent never ceases to amaze me.” Conrad deadpanned; his arms crossed over his chest as he looked Ayres over. “And disgust me.”