Page 131 of Serpent In White
I don’t want him to fear me. I feel bad that he’s worried about what I’ll do, so I reach out and brush his silky curls away from his face. Taking a lock between my fingers, I twirl it while my other hand runs up his chest. I just missed touching him, beyond belief. Ilovethe feel of him beneath my fingers.
“So she was on our land?” My brow arches.
He swallows visibly. “She was. But she didn’t mean to—”
“Abdiel, how could you bring a stranger here without consulting me?” My eyes fall to his puffy lips, needing to be kissed by me, for hours. This isn’t how our reunion was supposed to go.
“She was in danger. She needed help,” he tells me, sincerity in his tone and thoughts. He’s such a kind heart. Sometimes I’m surprised he even eats meat.
Lars used to scold him for naming the animals.
“People from the outside can’t be trusted, Abdiel,” I sigh.
“Her name is Rhiannon,” he jumps in, eyes pleading with me to hear him out. “She’s smart and kind, and she ran away from the outside world.”
“We don’t know her, my love.” My tone holds no room for nonsense or negotiation. “We can’t trust her.”
But Abdiel is one of two people who will argue with me, zero fucks given.
“Aren’t those the exact kinds of strays you and Drake used to bring in, though? Who became the Regnum… ourfamily?” He gives me a pointed look, pulling away from my touch to make his stand. “The Principality was born on strays, was it not? My parents… Gina, Paul, Lucy, Perry… Pete.”
He blinks his wide, mossy eyes at me, making it virtually impossible for me to put my foot down. He has a point…
I was just thinking about bringing in new strays. I can’t write this girl off just because I don’t know her, and because she doesn’t trust me for some reason. The feeling is mutual.
But we don’t know each other.Not yet.
Letting out a breath, I leave Abdiel, wandering to the door and opening it, peering out into the hall. One of the patrol, Jeremy, is up the corridor, so I bark at him, “Bring me the girl.”
Jeremy nods and dashes away as I come back into the room with Abdiel.
“Thank you, my King,” he whispers, a small smirk curving his mouth while he runs the tip of his thumb back and forth over his lower lip.
That mouth is hypnotizing.
“You’re not off the hook just yet, baby,” I say firmly, shifting from the stiffness happening in my pants.
“I love how you’re looking at me right now,” he breathes, and I rumble a seductive chuckle.
I want to pull him on top on me on the bed right this instant and let him fuck me for hours. But unfortunately, a monkey wrench has been tossed into the plans.
My brow lifts.Can you hear what I’m thinking, my prince? About what we should be doing right now?
He laughs.Yea… But Rhiannon is worth the minor setback. She’s great. Trust me?
I roll my eyes and nod.
A quick knock on the door signals that she’s here. I can already hear her before I open the door, and I’m on edge. It’s been a while since we’ve accepted a stray, and there’s a reason we stopped actively recruiting Outsiders.Drake will have a lot to say, I’m sure.
The small girl gazes up at me as I step aside, motioning for her to come in. I nod at Jeremy, and he takes position across the hall while I close the door.
Blinking at the tiny creature, I assess her for a moment. She’s not dressed very girly, which I suppose I can appreciate. She’s like Lauris or Emithel that way. Her hair is red, but not like Gem’s. This girl’s is almost pinkish blonde, and she doesn’t have the freckles of Irish heritage that Gem has either.
Her eyes are huge and quite sparkly, an interesting shade of green, with some blue to it. The rest of her features are almost elfin. If we’re being honest, she looks like she could be related to Abdiel. Though of course, he’s much larger than her. She’s almost the same size as Emithel, who’s by far my smallest wife.
Listening to her, I hear her thoughts running wild as she looks around the room. The first thing she’s wondering is if this is where Abdiel and I sneak around. She seems very protective of him when it comes to our relationship, unnecessarily so, since she doesn’t know me, and barely knows him.
Folding my arms over my chest, I cock my head to the side while I wait for her to pay attention to what’s happening. Abdiel says she’s smart, but so far, she only seems distracted and inherently cynical, like all Outsiders.
