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He swallowed so hard it was an audible gulp. “This is a bad idea. We might wake Chloe.”

I cupped his balls, caressing his smooth sac and smiling inwardly when he thrust his hips forward. “No, we won’t. I put her to sleep on the plane. She’ll sleep until morning and wake thinking tonight was a dream.”

He looked at me, some of the desire fading from his eyes. “You push too hard, Alec. She’s human. You’ll damage her mind.”

“I know what I’m doing,” I said. As if to demonstrate, I gripped his shaft again.

He put a forestalling hand on my chest. “I’m serious. You tread dangerously close to breaking the treaty.”

“Nonsense. We didn’t kidnap her.”

“Do you know the difference?”

I released him and stepped back. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“This isn’t some Seelie game. The survival of our race depends on the treaty. We have no females—”

“I’m well aware we have no females,” I said, my hackles up at the mention of my mother’s people. I let a little of that side of my ancestry rise under my skin, my heart racing as power flooded my veins. “But we have our female, and I’m doing my best to keep her safe until you stop being stubborn and admit she’s ours. And it’s odd you didn’t seem to have a problem with her when you were ripping her shirt off and fist-fucking yourself in front of her.”

The atmosphere in the room shifted, an eerie charge building like the gathering of a storm.

Lachlan pushed away from the dresser, his eyes glittering like chips of amber. “Watch your fucking mouth.”

I let my power flare higher. In the mirror, my skin glowed like it was lit from within. “Watch yours, before I shut it for you.”

“If you think to threaten me, prince, I advise thinking again.”

I stepped toward him, my voice echoing with otherworldly power. And that was an apt description, because it came from another world entirely. “I don’t need your advice, beast.”

A streak of movement, and then my head snapped around, blood spraying across the Aubusson carpet. Even as I stumbled, I spared a pang of regret at the damage. I’d purchased the piece myself in a workshop in France, long before the famous rugs bore the name of their village of manufacture.

Something slammed into my shoulder, and I stumbled again and nearly went down. I caught myself and whirled just as Lachlan swung again. This time, I ducked and then surged up, punching him in the ribs.

He grunted and staggered back, his eyes like molten gold. He shook out his arms at his sides, ready to charge again. “You sure you want to do this?”

“Are you daft? You punched me. Maybe that’s too difficult a concept for your primitive brain to—”

He came at me in a blur, lowering a shoulder at the last second and tackling me around the middle. My back hit the ground, forcing a grunt from my lungs. Before he could make another move, I flipped him under me and nailed him with a right hook.

“Returnin’ the favor,” I grunted, pain knifing through my knuckles.

He shoved me off him, and I sprang to my feet and hustled back before he could strike. He swung his legs and did a kip up like a goddamn ninja, then advanced on me with clenched fists.

I raised my own, my chest heaving. We circled each other, both waiting for the other to make a mistake. To lunge too soon or expose a flank. Even with his accusations ringing in my ears, desire blasted me as I took in his nude body. His cock swung heavy between his thighs, and his muscles flexed and shifted as he moved. He had a warrior’s build, and it was all the more impressive because it was real. He’d honed it in an era when a male’s physique could mean the difference between life and death.

In another blur of movement, he flew at me, catching me around the waist and carrying us both backwards. I twisted mid-air and hit the bed on my stomach. He landed on me like a sack of bricks.

I threw an elbow. He seized my wrist and wrenched my arm to the small of my back. “This isn’t just about what Chloe wants,” he growled, his breaths coming fast. “All three of us have to choose.”

“Fuck you, Lachlan,” I panted, the side of my face pressed into the comforter. “You didn’t seem consumed by indecision when you were coming on her tits.”

“She asked me to.”

I gathered all my strength and heaved, shoving him off. Before he could recover, I seized his shoulder and pinned him face down. He struggled, but I threw a leg over his hips, straddling his back. “What are you talking about?”

Abruptly, the tension drained from his body. He turned his head, showing me his profile. “Just what I said. She spoke to me mind-to-mind. Or at least it seemed that way.”

Confusion flooded me. “But…that’s not one of your gifts.”