Chapter 22 #2
Sadie stretched out her arm, stopping Nicholas from shifting back in front of her.
She didn’t need him to be her shield. Not from this.
If Abigail had decided to show her claws, Sadie would flex her own.
“From where I was standing, it seemed more like no one was interested in looking at you, Abigail.”
“Not even a little bit interested,” Nicholas muttered.
Another burst of lightning lit up the hall and Abigail’s eyes flared red again. What an odd trick of the light. It only added to the venomous quality of the glare.
Nicholas must not have expressed his lack of interest that bluntly before. Sadie wondered if his lack of politeness now was because of her presence. Was he trying to prove to her that he wasn’t interested in Abigail?
Well, she didn’t need any proof, and they didn’t need to enrage the woman enough that she started screeching and pulled everyone from their beds.
The thunder would only cover so much noise.
She eyed Abigail and yawned again. “I really could use that cup of tea. Nicholas, could you show me where to find everything in the kitchen?”
“Of course.” He held out his arm and she accepted it as if she weren’t dressed for bed and his escort at this time of night was a perfectly normal thing.
Leaving Abigail standing in the doorway, they walked away.
It was at that moment that the last of the power Nicholas had infused into her amulet faded away, and she caught Abigail’s thoughts.
They’ll pay for treating me this way.
The vitriolic thought was immediately followed by another, this one darker and more malicious in a way Sadie couldn’t name but recognized instinctively as evil.
Oh yes, we’ll make them all pay.
???
A few minutes after his uncomfortable encounter with Abigail, Nicholas found himself in the kitchen with Sadie and Pippa, brewing a pot of tea for all three of them.
“When I asked you for help, I didn’t expect you to drag Sadie from bed,” he told Pippa, who had spied on them from around the corner but never ventured where Abigail might see her.
“You asked her for help?” Sadie looked between them, as if she’d see their past interactions if she stared hard enough.
“I knew better than to let Abigail’s maid drag me to see her in the middle of the night without enlisting some sort of aid. I’m just glad Pippa opted to help. Who knows what might have happened if she hadn’t sent you out to find me.”
Sadie snorted. “I think we all know exactly what would have happened. The question is why is Abigail so determined when you’ve made your lack of interest clear?”
The kettle began to whistle over the heat-glyph, and Nicholas pulled it off and poured the water into the prepared teapot. “I don’t think my lack of interest was ever a factor. She doesn’t care if I’m interested, so long as she can secure a proposal.”
Sadie snorted again. “She cares. The fact that you aren’t interested is an insult she isn’t going to get over any time soon.”
“She probably still doesn’t believe that you don’t want her,” Pippa added. “She’s the type to be convinced of her own irresistibility.”
Nicholas waved his hand through the air, a gesture he had picked up from his mother, though it never worked as well for him.
“My point is that all she cares about is marrying me, and that makes no sense. She is young, determined, and has social connections. She shouldn’t be interested in settling for a mere baron. ”
Sadie leaned forward, smirking. “You forgot to mention how beautiful and willing to use her body to secure her goals she is.”
He glared at her, not about to agree, and knowing he couldn’t disagree either. “Not the point, Sadie.”
Pippa’s eyes went wide. “What if that was exactly the point?”
“I don’t follow.”
He might not understand what Pippa meant, but evidently Sadie did. She gasped. “Do you really think—?”
“It would explain a few things. I could probably ask Alice, her maid, a few careful questions to know for sure.”
Nicholas poured tea as the two friends continued talking with a complete lack of finished thoughts. He added Sadie’s customary splash of cream to her cup, two lumps of sugar to his own, and then pushed both the cream and sugar toward Pippa to use as she preferred.
Sadie looked down at her milky tea in surprise. She took a sip, her eyes flew to his, and he knew he had gotten the exact right amount.
He sipped his own tea, then set the cup down. “Care to explain what it is you two are plotting?”
“We want to confirm our suspicions. It’s not like we’ll do anything mean with the knowledge if we are right.” Sadie huffed.
“Yes, but it is what you hope to confirm that I’m still not following.”
“If she’s pregnant, of course,” Pippa said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“If she really was the prince’s lover and got pregnant, and then he wouldn’t marry her, it would make sense why she is so desperate to snag you.
She doesn’t have time to wait for the next social season in Linzen, she needs to get engaged before she starts showing. ”
“She was Prince Benedict’s lover?” The prince had to be a few years older than him, and to the best of Nicholas’s knowledge, not a very pleasant person to spend time with.
Then again, it wouldn’t surprise him to learn that Abigail would do just about anything to snag the title of princess as her own.
Pippa shrugged. “According to the hints Alice keeps dropping.”
“Tonight might have been about more than just seducing you,” Sadie added. “If she is already pregnant and trying to hide it, she will want to get in your bed sooner rather than later to make it plausible that the child is yours.”
Nicholas snorted. “Well, she is in my bed right now, but she doesn’t have a chance of convincing me of that.”
“Still, it would be good to know if that is her motivation. I’ll ask Alice a few careful questions tomorrow.” Pippa drained her cup, hopped to her feet and grinned at Sadie. “I’ll see you in the morning!”
Moments later, Nicholas and Sadie were alone in the kitchen, the dim glow-glyphs, late hour, and sound of the storm gentling outside giving the entire situation an intimate aura.
Nicholas wrapped his hands around his teacup, staring into the dark liquid.
“Thank you for coming to my rescue. Things would have gotten a lot worse if you hadn’t shown up. ”
“I’m not sure if I really helped,” Sadie said. “Not in the long term.”
“Until she goes home at the end of the month, I don’t think there is any chance of things improving with her.
Still, I appreciate not having to deal with her causing a scene and bringing everyone down on us.
” He looked up and waited for Sadie to meet his eyes.
“And just so you know, if her maid ever insists I go talk to her in the middle of the night again, I’m stopping at your door first to bring you along. ”
“If you are hoping I’ll open the door dressed in the same sort of nightgown as Abigail was wearing, you’ll be disappointed.”
He stood up, moved around the counter and pressed his hands flat on each side of her, caging her in, his chest to her back. He leaned close, his lips only a hair away from the shell of her ear. “Sadie, I will never be disappointed by anything you are—or are not—wearing.”
She shivered, and his lips brushed over her ear.
“I suspect—” She swallowed. “I suspect you are more interested in me not wearing things.”
He slid his hand from the counter over the back of her own hands, then up her arms. She shivered again, but didn’t move, didn’t glance at him. “Sadie,” he said in a low voice, cajoling.
She looked up at him, licking her lips.
“My interest begins and ends with you.” He couldn’t resist and leaned in to taste her. Sank his teeth into that plump lower lip, then suckled it. He straightened, his breathing heavy as though he’d been running. “Whenever you are ready to share, I’ll be here.”
She looked up at him with glassy eyes. Her hand rose, and she pressed her fingers to her lips, then snatched it away and straightened the instant she realized what she had done. “Why must I share all my secrets? We don’t need to talk to have sex.”
They certainly didn’t. But this wasn’t about just sex.
Not that Sadie was willing to accept that.
She spun on her stool so she faced Nicholas fully, hooking her fingers in the waistband of his trousers.
She was turning the tables on him, and he didn’t know if he had the willpower to resist. He had to try, though. “That’s not—”
She tugged lightly and cut him off. “You want this as much as I do.” Her attention flicked past him for an instant. “You’ve already warded the door.”
He craned his head around, surprised to see the familiar blue shimmer of his most basic, instinctual ward. While he studied that proof of how little control he had at present, Sadie unbuttoned his trousers.
He whipped back around, and all he could do was stare as she carefully freed his cock.
It took the little brain power he had remaining not to thrust into her hands; actually objecting to the exquisite feel of her fingers wrapped around him was fully beyond him.
Then she slipped off the stool and onto her knees, her hot breath ghosting over him.
Sadie looked up at him, temptation, challenge, and desire all rolled together. “It looks like my mouth is going to be too full for talking, Nick.”
She didn’t hesitate, didn’t ease into anything.
She took him in her mouth and demanded his surrender.
For a bare instant he resisted. He tried to convince himself to stop her.
But, spirits, he couldn’t really think of a good reason to stop her.
She wanted this. He wanted this. And they could still talk after.
Honestly, he couldn’t think. Only react.
He threaded his fingers through her hair, and only barely stopped himself before trying to take control. She looked up at him, her eyes dark beneath her lashes, and he knew exactly what she was thinking. Do it. Give in.
He gave in, using his grip in her hair to direct her, though she didn’t need guidance. Sadie was a spirits-cursed siren who already seemed to know his body better than he did. She let him move her, though, and took him deeper. Her hands curled into his thighs, pulling him as he pushed her.
All too soon, he knew he had reached his limit. Unsurprising how quickly pleasure overwhelmed him when it was wielded by her. “Sadie, I’m going to—”
Her nails dug into his thighs, not letting him pull back.
He came in a torrent, the entire world disappearing except for his pleasure and Sadie. Always Sadie.
He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t even string together a few gibbering words in his mind, let alone anything coherent, as he watched her swallow. Lick her lips.
He opened his mouth as she rose, her hands trailing up his sides, but he still couldn’t form words.
She laughed, patted his chest, and sauntered to the door. She stopped in front of the shimmering blue barrier, looking over her shoulder at him with a raised brow.
She was the most alluring thing he’d ever seen, with her loose braid disheveled from his grip, her lips swollen.
He dropped the ward, ready to follow her anywhere. He paused to tuck himself away and button his trousers, and in that moment she slipped out of the kitchen.
When he reached the hall, she was nowhere in sight.