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“I am sure Cyrus and Rayner have thoroughly enjoyed their reprieve from you,” Sorin replied, taking a seat on the sofa and stretching out his legs.

“Not as much as they’ve enjoyed their break from you,” she shot back with venom.

“Now, now,” Sorin chided, “we both know they prefer my company over yours.” Scarlett’s scent lingered on the sofa where she had been sleeping and his chest tightened.

“Of course they do,” the female scoffed, “likely because you have a cock.”

Sorin snorted. “I assure you, they generally prefer persons without a cock over my company.You just happen to be an exception.”

“Jackass,” she muttered under her breath.

Silence filled the room for several minutes, and while he sat there, a plan began to take shape in his mind. A plan that would get him everything he needed and wanted.

“I know that expression,” the female said, having come to sit on the opposite end of the sofa.

“I need you to do some things for me,” Sorin answered, flames rolling between his fingers.

“That is why I am here,” she retorted, “to wait on you hand and foot.”

“I am going to enjoy every minute of that because once we are home in a few days, I know that will cease immediately.”

“A few days?” she asked, her brows arching.

“Go take a bath while I finish figuring out the details,” Sorin replied. “When you are done, I will have your tasks.”

CHAPTER 39

SCARLETT

Scarlett stood in a room decorated in bronze and black. What little decor there was anyway. The small room was nearly bare. The bed was hard and uncomfortable. There was a small bath attached. A dresser and armoire stood on one wall. A nightstand was on either side of the bed. She walked to the window and found herself well above the ground. She’d figured as much. She’d walked up four flights of stairs and a spiral staircase for several minutes before she’d been shown into this room in a tower of some sort.

She’d snuck back into the manor easily enough and had quickly changed into a simple grey dress. She had hardly finished changing when a maid knocked on her door and handed her a note from Lord Tyndell, summoning her to his study. When she arrived, though, Lord Tyndell was nowhere in sight. She entered to take a seat and wait for him, going over how she would apologize for not returning last night and to beseech him to help her.

“I asked him to let me speak to you privately first.” Mikale’s voice came from behind her, and she jumped to her feet. He had shut the door to the study, a cold grin on his face as he now leaned against it, crossing his arms. “I knew, you know. I knew it was just a matter of time until one of you would slip up.Veda began suspecting a few weeks ago when she went to see the prince, and he quickly dismissed her as he used to do a year ago.”

Scarlett swallowed, trying to cease the trembling she could feel starting. “Where is Nuri?” she growled.

“Oh, yes.Her,” Mikale said, as if delighted. “Our eyes have always been on you, watching you, even after our little truce was struck. The dinner here last summer was most entertaining, by the way. Dear Cassius, trying to protect you. Poor Callan trying to catch your eye all night, not knowing why you had stopped spreading those beautiful legs for him.”

“Shut your fucking mouth,” Scarlett snapped. She had carefully positioned herself behind Lord Tyndell’s desk. She ran her hands over it, searching for anything to use as a weapon.

“I think it is time for a new little deal to be struck, don’t you, my pet?” Mikale asked, pushing off from the door to come across the room. He braced his hands on the desk, leaning across it towards her.

“You will risk a war with the Assassin Lord?” Scarlett ventured, wondering how much he knew. “You barely avoided one after taking the High Healer’s daughter.”

“We both know the Assassin Lord has given you to me,” Mikale said, a smile curling the edge of his mouth. He knew everything then. Her face paled as he continued. “We have our own deal. It is why you have been denied retribution for your sister’s death, and if you continue to be this difficult, you will lose more than the little brats you are trying so valiantly to protect.”

Scarlett sucked in a breath. Tula and Malachi and Lynnea flashed through her mind. “You leave them out of this,” Scarlett said with quiet rage.

Mikale straightened. “I am glad I finally have your attention.”

“What do you want?”

“What I have always wanted. You,” Mikale said with a shrug.

“And should I agree, should I consent to such a thing, you will leave them be? You will stop whatever it is you are doing with the children?”

“Ah, that is not my doing,” Mikale said. “They are not my responsibility. They are someone else’s.”