Page 98 of The King's Man
Please say we need to—
“We need to be out of camp before first light. We’re about to be alone in the tent. I could take you—quickly.Thoroughly,”he growled, with a sideways glance when my tummy tightened. “Or… we could leave earlier and wait until we’ve put some distance between us and camp, and we aretrulyalone.”
I glanced up at him, my breath growing shallow. I licked my lips and his eyes dropped to watch.
“Or… I suppose the other option is…both?”I whispered. “Unless you’re too tired—”
Jann hissed a curse and a giggle burst out of me when he whipped our bound arms around my back and pulled me off my feet, picking me up andrunningme back to the tent.
“Careful, Dee,” he growled in my ear, then nipped my neck as I dangled helplessly from his arms. “Don’t force me to make an example of you for disrespect to your elders.”
I snorted. “You’re notthatmuch older than me.” It was true. There was twelve years between Yilan and Melek, only six or seven between Jann and I. But I found that as my fear of him dissolved slowly, like sugar on my tongue, I enjoyed teasing him more and more.
There was a moment, as he carried me to the tent, muttering about the things he’d do to me to make his point, that I hooked my free arm around his neck and smiled, because I had a picture in my head—all four of us. Yilan and I, Melek and Jann, at a private dinner in the Palace of Theynor. The servants only intruding long enough to bring our food and drinks, otherwise leaving us alone. And for a moment I was breathless imagining the joy of sharing friendship with my mate along with my best friend andhermate.
Like a family.
My heart pinched as Jann lowered his shoulder to push through the flap into his tent, and he shuddered to a halt, letting me slide down his body as he placed me back on my feet, his eyes searching mine.
“What is it? What made you ache?” he whispered. “I was joking about the punishment. If you don’t like things—”
“I love all your ideas,” I said with a watery smile, patting his chest with my free hand. “I envisioned the future with you and Melek and Yilan and… and Ilikedit, Jann. I liked all of us together and working for the same thing and… and beingfriends.”
He went still, his head tilting.
So I showed him. In his mind. He blinked and his eyes widened—but then glazed as he sank into the vision of the fourof us on Yilan’s balcony, eating and drinking, laughing and teasing…
When I removed the image, he cleared his throat and his eyes focused on me again. “I suppose I hadn’t thought that far ahead,” he said a moment later, his voice gruff. “But… God, I like that too.”
I nodded, smiling. “We have to do this, Jann. We have to do thisright.We have to make sure they win. The life we could have if… if we could just be at peace. I can see it and… it makes me excited for the future. I haven’t felt that way for a long time.”
He gave a low rumble in that drum of a chest and leaned down, opening his mouth on mine and sliding his free hand into my hair, pulling me into the kiss so that all thoughts of our friends and the future slipped from my head as my body responded to his touch and his tongue and the thrill of having him close and alone.
He’d flicked open my top two buttons and slid his hand inside, over my breast. I was arching into the touch and reaching for his leathers, wondering how I’d get them undone with one hand, when the sound of canvas snapping, was quickly followed by a curse and a quiet but high-pitched, “I’m sorry to interrupt…”
Jann and I broke apart—him whirling to stand between me and the intruder while I hurriedly fumbled at my buttons with my free hand because he’d gone for a blade with his free hand and his spear with the one bound to mine.
But he relaxed almost immediately. “Yilan,” he muttered as if he weren’t happy, but also not afraid. He slipped his weapons back into their sheaths with a glance at me over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry. I know this is a… fraught time,” she said carefully. “But I need to speak to both of you.”
Jann frowned. “Where’s Melek?”
“He’s speaking with some of the guards—I shadow walked. I’ll return to him in a moment. But—”
“You shouldn’t be unaccompanied,” Jann growled.
Yilan put both fists on her hips and glared. “I didn’t come for your advice,” she snapped, then dropped her hands, shaking her head and blowing out a breath. “Jann, I’m… I’m trying to… I don’t want you two to leave with tension between us.” Then she looked at me. “And I don’t want you to feel like you have to… to choose your loyalty between me and your mate. If that’s ever… if there’s ever a choice, thereis no choice,Diadre. You know that right? I wouldn’t even question but to choose Melek first every time. And if you’re… if you two are soulbound, I’d expect the same from you.”
“If?” Jann growled.
Yilan shot him another unimpressed look. “You’ve been bristling and growling andpissedat me since the first moment you found us in Theynor—”
“Because I learned you were capable of drugging and kidnapping my best friend, stealing him from his people, andimprisoning him.”
“She didn’t have any choice,” I whispered from beside him, wincing when he shot me a look.
Yilan folded her arms and I thought she’d lash him with that tongue of hers, but to my surprise, she took a deep breath, looked Jann right in the eye, and humbled herself. “Forgive me,” she said quietly.
