Page 123 of Bound
The strong grip on the side of my head returns. “So much anger,” comes a deep voice behind me.
Renvi.
Branwen stalks closer. “Answer me, Whitehorn. What did you feel when you bedded my sister? Was she a casual lay for you? A conquest?”
The anger inside me intensifies at his callousness. As though Amoret could ever be anything but the fierce woman she is. The one to tame my fire.
“Go fuck yourself,” I snarl.
His eyes flash. “She was pure before you defiled her. A bright creature with the moon ahead of her. And you broke that. Just as I knew Jarrah would have if I had let him court her.”
“And yet, you didn’t realize just how much he hated you for it,” I say.
“Jarrah was foolish,” Bran spits. “He had this asinine idea that Amoret could be a wife to him. To a captain. No. She is meant for so much more than that.”
I press against the blade and it digs into my flesh, but I don’t care. “And what about what Amoret wants? Do you even care about that?”
He stares at me. “It is the only thing I care about.” The stark honesty in his words rocks me back. He stalks closer. “She is my sister. The brightest moment of my day. My conscience, my hope.” He appraises me with a world of sadness in his gaze. “She is everything I can never be.”
For a long moment, we stand there, his words ringing in the air.
It is such an echo to what lives inside me that I cannot speak.
He turns away at last, his body closed off. “She told me she loves you. That she has loved you since before you left the Sith.”
“I know,” I say, each word filling me once more with wonder.
“Did you know before you bedded her?”
“No.”
His eyes flick past me and something like surprise flashes through his gaze before he schools his expression once more. “You took no precautions with her.”
My teeth grind. “No.”
“And if she were to be with child?”
Any answer I had dies on my lips before I can give voice to it.
I mull that over.
A child.
My lips curl. Children are not something I have ever considered. Wanted. Watching Raina and Markus dote over her impending newborn has been bad enough.
Would Amoret want the child?
For an instant, I get a glimpse of a small girl with her mother’s golden locks and glowing eyes. Amoret holding her hand as they stand at the manor entrance, smiles on both their faces as I return from another long case.
The raw need that one thought creates is enough to bring me to my knees.
There is an audible gasp behind me, and Renvi’s hands flex against my skin. “He craves family, Branwen. A family with Amoret. A daughter.”
I stiffen, a low growl spilling from my lips.
How the—
Bran turns in place and walks toward us until he is less than a foot away. One hard shift and I could knock him on his ass. Hell, one thought and my fire would devour them all.
