Page 27 of Realm of Thieves

Fascinating. “Do all you Kolbecks have special powers?” Then I pause, realizing. “Oh, but of course you do. You’re in the suen business.” Of course, there are some people in this world who are said to have magic passed down through their blood, even though that magic originally came from their ancestors’ ingestion of suen. Usually mages and witches. But I highly doubt that this applies to the Kolbecks.

“As are you. So what is your power, Brynla Aihr?”

“I seduce men and rob them,” I answer sweetly, batting my eyelashes. It’s a half-truth.

For the life of me I can’t read the expression on his face, but his eyes are darting everywhere except my chest. I clear my throat. “So what’s so important that you couldn’t wait until after my bath to talk to me?”

“Oh,” he says, scratching at his jaw as he takes a couple of steps closer. “Nothing really. Just wanted to tell you something before I forgot.”

“What?”

“Dinner is in an hour. You’ll be expected to be there.”

“Do all your prisoners have dinner with you?”

“You would be the first.” He pauses as if he’s about to say something else, then shuts his mouth. “I suppose I should, uh, warn you about my father.”

“Is he anything like your uncle?”

“Worse,” he says with a sour smile, and my stomach sinks a little. “He’s not all that enthused about my plan.”

“Ah, at least I’m not the only one. I’ll be sure to tell him that too.”

He stiffens slightly. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

There’s an edge to his voice that I don’t like.

I swallow uneasily and try to ignore it. “Well, at least I don’t stink anymore,” I say, throwing my arms out.

A chain reaction is unleashed.

Andor suddenly leans in and brushes his nose to my shoulder and inhales.

The feeling of his breath against my bare skin makes my eyes roll back in head.

Sends a shiver rolling through my body.

Which then causes my towel to suddenly unravel, leaving me completely naked, the towel pooled at my feet.

I shriek.

Andor pulls back and meets my eyes, an apologetic twist to his lips.

But then in an instant his eyes drop to my chest. To my stomach. Tobelow.

“Gods!” he swears, quickly spinning around to face away from me while Lemi starts barking, perhaps confused at the panicked way I ungracefully bend over and pick up the towel, holding it to my chest and letting it drape in front of me.

“All right, anyway, dinner in an hour. I’ll send Solla or one of thehandmaidens up to get you,” Andor says, talking a mile a minute as he strides over to the door. This is the first time I’ve seen him flustered.

“You smell nice, by the way,” he says before he closes the door.

I look down at Lemi, who is watching me with a tilt of his head.

And I smile.

Chapter 10

Brynla

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