Page 107 of Warrior's Reign
“She’s tired,” he said to Lohail. “I’ll take her to her room.”
The Aeddannar-Yadeshi lord waved a hand. “Go.”
Reign stood, swayed a little and slapped a hand on Vykhan’s chest for balance. He solved her problem by picking her up. “Please don’t drop me.”
Vykhan ignored her and walked through the crowd. Hardly anyone looked at them, as if a tall, sexy Yadeshi carrying a mostly naked human was commonplace. Probably was, or at least in some variation.
He proved he knew his way around when he arrived at her suite. He said something, and the door opened. “You have access to my room?” she asked.
“I have access to whatever I wish.”
She twisted in his arms and he set her down, the door sliding shut behind them. She glanced up at the ceiling. “Is this room bugged for audio?”
“No. There’s no sport in spying on your guests.”
Reign turned. Vykhan was leaning against the door, arms crossed. “You can drop the act now. I’m not drunk, either.” She grimaced. “Not really. I wasn’t expecting only two glasses to creep up on me like that. Next time I’ll know.”
He stared at her contemplatively. “What act, Reign?”
She turned and began prowling the room to disguise her unease. “I don’t know what’s between you and Lohail, or why you’re using me as a foil, but it would be nice to know what the game is. I had to guess your cues.”
“Cues?” Now he sounded amused. And not a light, happy amused. Vykhan chuckled. “Yada’ami, you courted the beast. Now he wants to play.”
Reign faced him. “I want to know what’s going on.”
Vykhan pushed off the wall and glided towards her. “What’s going on is that we have several days here as Lohail’s guest while we wait for the next phase of Adevega’s poorly thought out quest to overturn her brother’s rule.” He stopped in front of her, eyes skimming down her body, once. “Did you think destroying Anthhori and halting alien immigration was her true aim? That is just an opening salvo.”
He stopped in front of her and trailed a finger down the center of her chest between the valley of her breasts. “I know you weren’t drunk tonight, Reign. You were playing with me.”
She crossed her arms. “And if I was? It’s just a game to get information out of Lohail.”
“I know you better than you think, Reign. I know when you’re lying to yourself. I don’t understand the purpose of it, when you’ve already declared yourself mine.” He tilted his head. “But perhaps this is a human female characteristic? But no. . .you always did like to play.”
Reign watched him, gaze sharp on his face. Here, now, they would finally come to it. “Just how do you think you know me?”
His fingers skimmed her cheek, her lips, then settled around the back of her neck. But he did nothing else.
“How do you know me, Vykhan?” She braced herself and asked the real question. “Or do you prefer I call you Eredan?”
38
He released her.
“Eredan.”
“Do you really want an answer, Reign?”
Vykhan was never evasive. Her temper broke. She whirled and strode to the nearest wall. He was there, grabbing her wrist as she swung. It was either the wall or his face.
“You’ll break your hand,” he snarled. “Don’t be a fool.”
Reign turned on him with a savage smile, advanced a step. He backed up, eyes narrowed on her face, though she didn’t fool herself into thinking he feared her. No, for whatever reason he was trying to avoid the inevitable fight. The reckoning.
She’d be damned if she let him slink out of this.
“Maybe I’ll just break your face.” Not very Silent of her, the goad towards violence.
Vykhan sighed. “If you must make the attempt, there are rooms on this level for that sort of thing. Lohail would be displeased if we destroyed this room.”
