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Aiden stopped just outside, hands on her shoulders. Mina gave one more confused glance inside the tent before smiling up at him.

Leaning over the table and not giving a shit about being inconspicuous, Taly watched through the swaying tent flaps as Aiden leaned down and gave Mina a quick kiss.

Mina was still smiling as she left.

Aiden was not. Sighing into the haze, he turned, walked the two steps back inside the tent, and waited.

Taly fell back on her stool, grinning—so wide that she was sure she looked maniacal. “So, when you said colleague …”

“Here we go.”

“And when you said meeting —was that a meeting of the minds or a meeting of the genitals?”

Aiden just sighed.

Oh Shards, this was amazing. Taly was practically bouncing on her stool.

Scratch that—she was definitely bouncing. The vibrations shook the table, waking Calcifer up with a snort.

“You’ve worked three night-shifts this week! Aiden, you hussy .”

He snorted. “That’s rich coming from the woman I caught on her knees in a storage closet yesterday afternoon.”

Taly just shrugged. Skye had figured her out.

No shirt, just sweat dripping over muscle, and suddenly she was imagining licking him clean like some feral salt-addict.

She swore he waited around for her now. She’d found him hammering away at the forge four days this week. He never worked at the forge.

Aiden said, “Please keep this to yourself.”

“Why?”

“Because I like her. Which means that my sister will try to ruin it.”

“I don’t understand,” Taly said and took the cauldron off the warming plate.

Aiden rubbed the back of his neck. “Aimee is… protective. And in her mind, no one is ever good enough. I once had a woman physically run away from me after two minutes alone in a room with her, so please, Taly… I’ll get on my knees if I have to. Just please, keep this to yourself.”

Taly slid the cauldron across the table, gesturing for Aiden to hang it on the cooling rack by the entrance. “I kind of want to see this now.”

“Please, Taly.”

“C’mon, you’re not the least bit curious? What is Aimee saying to them? Does she have some sort of weird hypnotic eye power? These are the important questions.”

“ Please .” True to his word, Aiden knelt, clasping his hands in front of him. “What do you want? Name your—”

“Am I interrupting something?”

As it always did now when Skye entered the room, Taly’s heart gave a little skip and a flutter.

Maybe she was smitten, or perhaps they were just still in that can’t-get-enough-of-you, sex-on-the-walls, the-couch, really-any-available-surface phase of their relationship.

Either way, he looked good enough to eat with rain-soaked hair, a fitted leather coat that accentuated perfect, well-muscled shoulders, and a light gray tunic fit to show off the broadness of his chest.

Aiden pushed himself to stand. “It’s okay, Skye. Taly was just threatening me.”

“So dramatic,” Taly said with a roll of her eyes. “He’s exaggerating. It was just a little bit of light extortion between friends.”

Skye’s gaze locked onto hers, and a pulse of heat traveled through her, pooling in her stomach and making her feel suddenly, stupidly aware of every inch of herself. “Is that so?” A slow, teasing smile spread across his face. “You know, I don’t know how I feel about you threatening other men.”

“Well, this is fun,” Aiden said, glancing between them. “Time for me to find somewhere less... couple-y.” Then he took his chance to escape, slipping past Skye as he ducked into the tent. “Please try to keep your clothes on,” he said in parting before practically bolting out of the tent.

When Skye was close enough, he looped an arm around Taly’s waist, sitting her on the table. Her legs parted for him as he leaned in for a kiss.

His tongue slid against hers. Shards, she was never going to get tired of this.

“I don’t like your new schedule,” he said with a final nip to her lip.

“I’m sorry. I can’t just laze about all day and be your personal sex slave.”

“If your priorities were in order, that’s exactly what you would do.” His voice, that low, velvety rasp, rolled over her like a bad idea she was entirely too eager to entertain.

Skye was right about one thing. Taly’s days started early now.

True to her word, she’d taken on the arduous, somewhat questionable task of training her not-quite-so mortal enemy and was now facing the consequences.

Those hours she would have preferred to spend with Skye between her legs were now spent kicking Aimee’s ass around the training hall.

She wouldn’t say she was in withdrawal. Skye took care of her well enough at night. Asking for more would be greedy. But she was missing her usual morning fix, and the ache was sharp.

Strong hands gripped her thighs as he pressed against her, leaning in to murmur in her ear, “If I thought for one second I could get away with it, I would have you bent over this table.”

Taly took a shaky breath. “Behave,” she warned, though she couldn’t help slipping a hand between them, just to make sure he wasn’t bluffing. He wasn’t. He was hard, perfect, and ready. “I think we may have already traumatized poor Aiden yesterday.”

Skye reached down to cover her hand with his own, thrusting against her palm, greedy for friction. “He should learn to knock.”

“On a supply closet door?”

“Especially on a supply closet door.” He tried to lean her back on the table, but she resisted.

“Em.” He nipped her lip, one last attempt to sway her. “I don’t want to have to re-sanitize this entire area.”

Skye had the nerve to look disappointed and the gall to make it look sexy. But he stepped away, giving her room to breathe.

“What are you doing here?” she asked, surprised there wasn’t a damp spot on the table when she jumped off.

“I’m here to see you,” Skye said, idly circling the tent.

The way he said it… She pulled her eyes away from where they’d been unapologetically ogling his ass. “Shit. Did we make plans that I forgot?”

Skye stood in front of the meticulously organized shelves—her pride and joy—reading the new labels. A small smile graced his mouth. “C’mon, Tink. Let’s not do this.”

“Do what?”

“Stop playing dumb. Aiden told me. They’re bringing Kalahad out of the healing sleep today.”

Aiden had a big mouth.

“I… may have heard something about it.” Taly busied herself with setting up a new cauldron.

“I know, Tink. Not the specifics, but I know you’ve got something planned.”

“Then you also know you can’t stop me.” This was, after all, the second reason she’d taken this job—right after the need to distract herself from feeling completely useless. To be here for the day, the moment when Kalahad finally woke up.

“Taly, whatever you’re planning to do is probably ill-thought out and irresponsible. Kalahad might be ill, but he’s still Highborn. What if he wakes up and decides you’re a threat?”

Taly scowled. Just like that, he went from sex god to judgmental asshole. It was amazing she didn’t have whiplash. “Don’t start with me, Skye. I will talk to Kalahad.”

She needed to look into his eyes and see for herself that Bill wasn’t in there.

“Okay,” Skye said.

“Wait, seriously?”

“But I’m going with you.”

“No.” Taly shook her head. She had this timed down to the minute.

Kalahad was the brother of a High Lord, under strict guard.

No one was allowed inside except the healers and a select few menders.

She had a singular window to slip in unnoticed when the afternoon and evening shifts swapped out.

“It’s already risky enough with just one. ”

Hands flat on the table, Skye leaned in until they were nearly nose-to-nose. “I can’t stop you from being stubborn and reckless. I’ve accepted that. But someone is going to be there to watch your back.”

“Just because you’re royalty doesn’t mean you get to boss me around.”

“Oh, I’m not invoking any royal authority. I’m telling you this as your mate. You have two options: either I go with you, or you’re going home.”

Her pulse spiked—irritation, surely. Nothing else. She crossed her arms. “I really regret letting you call me that.”

“Make your choice.”

“The only way I’m leaving here is if you carry me.”

The look on his face said that was a valid option, and that little spark of irritation flared somehow hotter.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Fine. You can come. But if we get caught, I’m blaming you.”

“Fine.”

“And I’m not going to be happy if you screw this up.”

“Okay.”

“I don’t want sex when I’m not happy.”

But he just smiled in the face of such an empty threat. “We’ll see about that.”