Page 134 of Queen of the Crimson Throne

Great. The last thing I wanted right now was to be around people. I needed time to think.Alone.

I collapsed on the couch next to Nico with a sigh.

“You look like you need a drink,” Delcan commented from the chair.

“Does that mean your offering?”

Declan raised a brow as he reached for the decanter on the table and filled it with several fingers worth of liquor.

I drowned half the glass in one swallow.

“You going to tell us what’s got you all torn up?” Nico asked.

“Lennox and I kissed last night.” Declan’s brows rose slightly. “And today she summoned Astria.”

“She what?” Nico interjected.

“There’s more.” I swallowed the rest of my drink and reached for the decanter. “Astria must have said something that upset her and she refused to talk about it. She wanted to fuck instead and I turned her down.”

“You turned her down?” Declan repeated. “I didn’t think that was possible for you.”

I laid back on the couch. “I didn’t think so either, but—she said she wasn’t ready to commit to anything yet, which is fine—I understand. Last night it was fine, but today she wanted to use me as a distraction and I couldn’t be that today.”

Not after last night. Last night—last night I saw the emotion in her eyes, felt it in her kiss.

All of that was absent when she kissed me in the hallway.

“But I feel like I let her down when she needed me today.” She needed me, she needed me as a distraction and I denied her.

“I think keeping sex out of the picture is better for both of you until you get your feelings sorted out.” Declan and I both turned our attention to the wolf.

“Since when did you become a relationship expert?” I asked Nico.

“I never said I was, I have common sense. Something you and Lennox both seem to lack.” He leaned back on the couch, letting his arms rest on the top of either side.

Declan let out a huff as he sat back and crossed one leg over the other. “He’s got you there.”

“Who invited you two in here anyways?” I muttered.

“You have the good liquor—that in itself was an invitation.” Nico raised his glass in my direction.

“Well if you’re going to be in here, shut up. I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” I rested my head on the back of the couch.

“So what do you want to talk about?”

“Did Lennox fill you in on our conversation with the Galtain family?”

“No, we’ve all been a little preoccupied with you getting kidnapped, you and Lennox almost fucking, and Lennox apparently summoning Astria on her own. No one tells me anything,” Nico pouted.

“You do have a flair for the dramatics don’t you, ” Declan added.

I shook my head before filling them in on the details of mine and Lennox’s visit with the Galtain’s.”

“So you didn’t destroy the journal?” Nico asked. “No wonder Luciana has been so grumpy.”

“And since when are you in on the state of Luciana’s feelings?” I pressed.

“I’m not in the know of her feelings, but I noticed she’s been a little more irritable lately.”

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