Page 11 of Queen of Diamonds

“You aren’t going anywhere until you answer. We have all evening,” he said, ignoring my question completely. “Do you?”

The gun might as well have been a prop for all the fucks they seemed to give about it. No matter what had changed, no one in this room believed I would actually use it.

“Let me go. Stay up here, and I’ll be out of your hair.” This time I’d have to be better at hiding. I don’t know if I could even stay in the country.

“You expect us to hang out up here, when we’ve just found out what a damsel in distress our own scent match is?”

Fuck him.

“That isn’t what’s happening here.”

“You certainly seem a little… distressed.” I jumped as Kyan’s teeth grazed my ear.

Lord help me.

With a growl, I spun, unsheathing the blade from beneath my dress hem. In seconds, the gun was jammed against his rib cage and the blade against his throat.

Instead of flinching, Kyan Quinn Beaumont gave me the wickedest grin.

His pupils blew, and I saw, at last, a true echo of everything I remembered. When he tugged me closer, a pinprick of blood beaded on the edge of my knife as it cut his skin.

And… shit.

The faintest rattle of a purr rumbled to life in his chest. Vibrations that unwound that coiled serpent in my chest just a little more.

I gritted my teeth.

“That’s enough. I’m leaving. You’re going to stay here and pretend you didn’t see me. Wait a few hours if you know what’s best for you.” I scowled as I heard one of them stand behind me. I made to shift, but Kyan wouldn’t let me go.

I’d hoped, rather stupidly, that the knife might help convince them I was serious.

My heart rate climbed to hummingbird speed as I caught the deadly cool of Zed’s snow santal behind me. I couldn’t let him get this close. I could barely handle being this close to Kyan, but he was holding me too tightly. With any more force, I’d slit his throat.

Another whimper almost destroyed the last of my composure as Zed’s fingers curled around my neck.

These fucking touch-starved, over-drugged goddamned hormones.

I was trapped between them. This wasn’t the faintest whisper of a memory like shuffling my old cards brought.

This was real.

They were right here.

The only men I’d ever loved.

“If the plan was to leave,” Zed growled. “You shouldn’t be flirting with Kyan like that.”

His grip might be impossible to fight, but I did manage to shift my gun hand enough that I could jam the barrel up against his jaw. “You aren’t taking me seriously.”

“You don’t believe my offer was serious?” he asked. “I didn’t come here for a corpse.”

Why had he come here? Was this truly a coincidence? Worst coincidence of my life, if so.

“Let me go.”

There was a long pause, and then, to my surprise, he did. His touch was gone, along with the toxic proximity of his snow santal.

“You can’t be fucking?—”

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