Chapter 4
CHAPTER FOUR
LILLY
I have to almost run to keep up with this dude's long strides—in stilettos! I huff in frustration as he leads me through a confusing series of corridors into another wing of the house. He stops short in the middle of the hall and I nearly collide with his back. Grunting, I pull myself straight again and blow a loose pink curl of hair from my face. He opens the door to his right and gestures for me to continue. Alone with a vicious, cruel… I steel myself and enter.
The beauty of the ornate study around me breaks my concentration. Floor-to-ceiling bookshelves cover three of the walls except where space is made for a roaring fireplace to my right, casting the room in an almost uncomfortable heat. A mahogany desk sits in front of a backdrop of massive windows overlooking the mountains with a high-backed leather chair facing them.
“That will be all, Felix.” A voice rumbles from the chair. Felix? There’s a quiet chuckle behind me, and I snap my head around.
“My Lord,” the man who led me here says, bowing deeply towards the chair. He gives me a wink as he rises back up, then turns and leaves.
If that’s Felix, then… I grit my teeth, a canine poking into my bottom lip as a figure rises from the chair and turns towards me. My breath catches in my chest at the man— male— before me. He’s tall, at least a foot taller than me, and no one would consider me short for a woman. His shoulders are broad, and even through the tux he wears I can tell every inch of him is corded with muscle. A wicked looking tattoo starts at the top of his neck, just below his jawline, and trails down below his collar. The dark ink is a warning in itself: the mark of Clan Stoneheart.
“Lady Adair?” Another deep rumble. I follow the sound to his mouth—to lips that look like the Gods spent extra time on them.
I nod, “High Lord.” Some reckless part of me licks my lips. He smiles at the action, flashing an impressively sharp set of canines. I rip my eyes away from his mouth and over features chiseled from stone to eyes that seem to burn in the firelight. Power and authority rolls off of him. And then I notice the wings. How had I missed those? There was no question that this was Garrick Stoneheart.
He prowls around the desk towards me, moving with a grace someone his size shouldn’t have, and he seems all the more sinister for it. Dangerous. A warrior, and yet looking at him that seemed a gross understatement. Just like calling him gorgeous would be… His smile grows, as if he knows what I’m thinking, and I stiffen at the thought. Get your shit together Lilly.
“Pleasure,” he says with a nod, moving closer. The scent of him hits me—pine and fresh snow—and I hold my breath, not wanting to inhale how good he smells. His nostrils flare delicately as he leans in so close I can feel the heat of his breath, his white hair coming dangerously close to brushing my skin. He’s marking my scent . Not the perfumes Slíbhín had used, but the scent of me —my lineage, who and what I am.
I stiffen further at the realization, if that’s even possible. Waves of instant attraction and fear roll through me, and I’m struggling to concentrate. Say something. Say literally anything , my mind screams at me. “I’m not marrying you,” gushes from my mouth. Anything but that…
He angles back and lifts a brow. “Straight to the point, then?” His arms cross, muscles bulging against the fabric of his tux, and his lips curve upwards. He looks… surprised? Impressed? Gods, those lips . I pry my gaze away and try to pretend there isn’t a part of me that’s attracted to this tall specimen standing a foot away. Get. It. Together. I level a pointed stare in his direction and cross my own arms.
“I have no intention of marrying you, either,” he says in a deep purr. My lips part, not expecting that answer at all. “The last thing I need is a female keeping me from my work.” His arms relax at his side as he pulls away and returns to the chair at his desk. “And you look like nothing but trouble.” His eyes graze me up and down, sending an electric current straight up my spine. As his eyes finally land on my face again, I open my mouth to argue but… why would I? This is what I wanted, right? My curiosity is piqued, though. What does he have to hide? I close my mouth before I continue to look like a gaping fish. He smiles, just enough to reveal those canines again. My toes curl in my shoes. “Good. We’re agreed.”
“That we’re not getting married?”
“That we need to find you a mate.”
“Excuse me?” I ask, preparing to rail against this ridiculous idea. I wasn’t agreeing to getting married, let alone to finding a fucking mate.
“Your father isn’t going to back down on this, and the truth is I need his support.” He massages his forehead, as if this conversation is stressing him out. Well he can get in line . “The only way to keep that support without forcing our marriage is for you to find a mate. A true mate.” He says the last, giving me another pointed stare.
Again I’m a gaping fish. I don’t want a fucking mate . Why do I have to be paired off at all? I drop my hands to my hips with a huff and gaze out the window behind Garrick, wracking my brain for anything else that could work. “You’re the High Lord. Just tell him ‘no.’”
Garrick snorts, leaning back into the deep brown leather chair. “Turning your father down would be an insult he couldn’t forget, or forgive. I’m not mated, I have no legitimate reason to do so.”
“So it’s my job, then?”
“Yes.” The word is so full of arrogance my blood boils. I want to tell him ‘no’ out of spite, but then I’m stuck marrying him. I look him over once again. He’s gorgeous, but I won’t be tied to someone like him. Vicious, cruel … and cocky.
“Fine. How do we do this?”
A few minutes later I’m back in the ballroom, zeroing in on Inara. She’s standing by the buffet, delicately adding little cream-decorated desserts to a plate. I gather my skirt and beeline toward her.
“Woah, hey!” She squeals as I grab her by the arm and drag her away. In moments we’re through the double doors leading to the veranda outside, and I finally let her go. “What the hell Lilly?”
“A mate!” I hiss as I spin around to my best friend, suddenly very aware of all the ears around us. “He wants me to find a mate. No. He wants to help me find a mate,” I say, just as she stuffs a brownie into her mouth.
“Who?” She mumbles between bites.
“Garrick. Keep up.”
“Oh, your fiancé.” I scream at her with my eyes to be quieter. She just smiles through her chewing, then swallows. “Okay, okay… Why, exactly?”
I cradle my forehead in my hand, then fall into an explanation of everything that went down in that overheated office. Because of the fire, or because of him? “Hundreds of nobles are here this week, not to mention their attendants. If I’m going to find a mate anywhere, he seems to think it’ll be here.” I deflate against the veranda railing. “His plan , if you can call it that, is to send me out on some like… fucked dating game.”
Inara giggles, setting down the pastry she was moments from biting into. “So what, we just hope a mating bond clicks into place?”
I shrug. “I guess.”
“And if one doesn’t?”
I side-eye my friend. That’s not even the point … “What if I don’t want a mate?” I ask, my voice turning into a plea. “Maybe I don’t want fate to pick my future.”
She frowns and sets her plate onto the top of the rail. I guess we’re getting serious now . “Lilly… you're the Lady and Heir Apparent of Georgia. You know better than that. You’ve always known better than that.”
My shoulders drop along with any hope I’d had of getting out of this. She’s right. Marriage or a mate would be my path, it’s just a fact of my birth. But some part of me has always held on to the tiny hope that I’d find a way out before it came to that—that father would see I don’t need a husband to help guide my reign, despite the ‘rules’ of Fae society. “Uck,” I spit out, and turn back to Inara. “He’s hiding something though.”
“Garrick?” She snorts. “He’s the High Lord of the Eastern Court, I’m sure he’s hiding a lot of somethings.” She rolls her eyes at me and continues, lowering her voice and leaning in conspiratorially. “And let’s not forget, we have our own secrets to keep.”