Page 47 of The Falcon and the Flame (The Birds: On Her Majesty’s Sapphic Secret Service #2)

Zynara was seated behind her desk looking just as dangerous.

She’d carved herself from desert stone again—contained and untouchable—but she still looked infinitely warmer than the Nightingale.

There was that hazel in her eyes, the golden flecks amid the rich brown that Lottie adored, and the glint that shone from deep within that seemed to be just for her.

She gave Lottie a microscopic smile.

“The Nightingale and I still have much to discuss, zin dyali ,” Zynara said gently. “Will you all excuse us, please?”

Sami and Ace mouthed ‘ zin dyali ’ at each other and popped their eyes, and Lottie poked her tongue out at them.

Romaissa ushered them out and into a sitting room at the end of the pavilion. There was mint tea and sweetcakes which nobody touched.

“Would love to be a fly on the wall in that room.” Ace blew out a low whistle.

“They’re talking about me,” Lottie said, fluffing out her hair with one hand. Her other arm was in a sling and her shoulder hurt like hell. “I mean, of course they are. The two most powerful women in the world and what’s the only name on their lips?”

Bili winced. “Don’t say it,” she begged.

“Mine! Lottie freaking Finch!”

“Oh, god. She’s going to be unbearable.” Ace put her head in her hands.

“Told you I’d end up with a fucking tiara,” Lottie crowed.

Bili looked sly. “Are you sure? You do realise she owns all her brother’s assets now? That includes the harem.”

Lottie would have exploded out of her chair if it hadn’t been for her shoulder. She ignored Ace and Sami’s snickers.

“And you bitches can all walk home! She’s mine. No one touches her! I’m going to marry Zynara, Q’sar of Ain Zargiers. She’s going to be queen of the world and I’m going to marry her. Just you wait ‘til you see me in a crown, babes. Lottie Finch from Bethnal Green—”

“She proposed?”

“Um, nope.”

“You did?”

“Well, okay, also nope— but: technicality! It’s just a matter of time. You wait and see. Written in the stars, we are.”

“I could shoot her.” Ace clearly meant Lottie. Lottie recognised a woman at the extreme end of her tether. She had that effect on people. “Can I shoot her?”

Sami shook his head. “You don’t want to piss Niz off.”

“Break her legs then? I could do that.”

“You’re just jealous.” Lottie’s heart was going to explode out of her chest. She’d come a long, long way from that grubby council estate on Hackney Road. She was in love—better than that, she was loved , and that love meant she was home.

She’d never had a home before.

Not a real one.

Zynara stepped into the sitting room half an hour later, followed by Evelyn. Both looked composed. The Nightingale’s expression was surprisingly reasonable. She waited, very respectfully, for Zynara to sit first.

“We’ve reached an agreement,” Evelyn stated.

Her eyes landed, cold as steel, on Lottie—and for one horrifying second, Lottie utterly freaked out.

Libya, she panicked. Miserable, cold Blackcroft and every grimey flagstone in London.

She couldn’t decide which was worse. But Zynara cleared her throat, gave the Nightingale an extremely pointed look and fuck the world and every gorgeous woman in it but Evelyn Knight actually lowered her eyes.

She inclined her head and let Zynara speak.

Lottie’s heart pumped itself dry.

“Lottie is free to leave the Circle,” Zynara announced, “if she chooses. She is contractually bound to each of us, and it seems we both want her, but rather than having our lawyers thrash it out, we have decided the choice will be Lottie’s.”

Lottie blinked. She was on the edge of her chair, bouncing on the cushion. If there hadn’t been five other people in the room she’d have jumped into Zynara’s lap and kissed her ‘til the world ended.

“No decision! Absolutely no choice. I’m Zynara’s. Don’t even need the thinking time. Sorry guv, but also not sorry. Not one teeny tiny bit. I belong to Niz.”

Sami snorted up his sleeve. Zynara smothered a smile. Ace’s eyes rolled into the back of her head.

Evelyn smirked. “I had a feeling you’d say that.

Very well. I’m still furious at you for revealing the existence of the Circle and my identity to the Qasira, but our countries and our intelligence agencies have been working together for the last hundred and sixty years.

The Q’sar of Ain Zargiers has always been aware of the Circle, and Zynara was destined to become Q’sar as the preferred outcome of this mission.

You are” —Evelyn’s lips twisted like she’d sucked a lemon— “forgiven.”

Lottie let out a hoot.

“But—” Evelyn held up her hand. “I have a condition. The Circle needs a presence here. Eyes and ears. You’re not off the hook yet, Finch. You will run the Azzouan desk.” Her smile was lethal. “And report directly to me.”

Lottie’s happy little balloon deflated. One look at Zynara’s face—impassive as it was—and Lottie knew she didn’t like the idea either.

“No.”

The temperature in the room plummeted. “No?” Evelyn asked mildly.

“No. I’ll pass on that one, if you don’t mind.

” Lottie kept it light. Just enough casual entitlement to match Evelyn’s ice and get thoroughly under her skin, and just enough respect to make Zynara proud.

The faintest stirrings of the game twitched in the tips of her fingers, but she had the heart of the new Q’sar of Ain Zargiers in her hands and she was going to cradle it and protect it with every atom of her existence.

She couldn’t waste time on the Circle. She looked around the room.

“I think Ace would do a much better job than me.”

“Woah—” Ace held up her hands, and then froze like a bug on a pin when the Nightingale’s fierce gaze impaled her.

“Interesting suggestion,” Evelyn mused.

“I like it,” Sami said. “We already work well together.”

“Settled!” Lottie grinned triumphantly, then squawked when Ace thumped her shoulder.

Zynara ended the meeting instantly.

“Lie down, darling.”

“I’m fine. I’m so fine. I am completely and totally fine.”

“You are not. You leapt in front of a bullet to save my father. You saved my life too. You are distinctly pale, you are tripping on painkillers and I order you to get in the bed and lie down and rest.”

Lottie grinned. “Well, when you put it like that.”

They were in Zynara’s rooms. It was late.

There was a gentle breeze blowing up from the sea and the smell of spice and a hint of jasmine curled around the edges of Lottie’s mind and lured her closer to feelings of forever.

Life with an actual head of state was certain to be busy and chaotic, but right now it was quiet, and Lottie didn’t want to miss a moment, not when Zynara was right there.

Zynara flicked her fingers at the bed—their bed—with the same regal grace she used to dismiss ambassadors. “In,” she repeated.

Lottie fluttered her eyelashes and sank slowly onto the edge. “As you wish, your Majesty.”

Zynara’s eyes rolled back, but she stripped off her clothes and knelt on the bed beside her. “All the way, darling.” She tipped Lottie back carefully, plumping the pillows behind her head and setting one gently under her wounded arm.

Lottie watched her and felt her heart expand to ten times its size. No one had ever treated her so kindly.

“I hope you realise,” she murmured, looking up at her queen with mock solemnity, “you’re going to be stuck with me forever. I am going to protect you, seduce you, and love you every day. Possibly all at once.”

Zynara lay beside her, her head propped up on her hand. “Protect me? I don’t want another bodyguard.”

“You’re rejecting the services of the hottest bodyguard in the entire Commonwealth? In the world? Qasira, I think you know, but it doesn’t get hotter than this. Are you saying—”

“I’m saying when I am Q’sar, you will be my Q’sarina, and I don’t want to be protected like a fragile thing.” She brushed curls back from Lottie’s forehead with a maddening tenderness. “I want to be loved.”

There was an endless moment. Love, as wide as the desert, as high as the falcons flew, was right there in Zynara’s eyes. And it was all for Lottie.

How the fuck had she gotten so lucky?

“Okay,” she whispered.

Zynara’s lips quirked. “Okay?”

“Yeah. I ‘spose I can deal with that.”

There was an indignant royal snort. Zynara hooked her leg over Lottie’s thighs and pulled the sheet up to their waists. Her fingers trailed soft spirals over Lottie’s breasts, and Lottie could tell she was trying to be proud and lofty. It was a losing game.

“You can have it all,” Lottie said, softer now.

“Let me be strong for you sometimes. There will still be right wing nutjobs who’ll threaten what we build here.

There will always be danger and way too much responsibility.

And you don’t have to carry your country all on your own.

I’m scrappy. I’m ballsy. I can be everything you need me to be. Let me care for you.”

Zynara blinked. Those rich brown eyes flooded and were suddenly a million times deeper. There was a sniff, and then Zynara’s face was buried in the crook of Lottie’s neck and her breath was everything.

“Promise?”

“With all my heart,” Lottie whispered, more honest and fervent than she’d ever been. She kissed Zynara’s hair.

They stayed like that for a very long time.

“Q’sarina, hey?” Lottie said eventually. “Has a nice ring to it. Do I get a crown with that?”

Zynara muttered something under her breath in Arabic that was definitely not parliamentary.

“ Infuriating and delightful? I’ll take that.”

“You are so cheeky.” Zynara sighed theatrically.

“And you like it.”

Zynara said nothing, but the corner of her mouth tugged up like she couldn’t help it and Lottie knew she’d hit the jackpot. She basked in it for a second, then wriggled in the bed with exaggerated enthusiasm.

“Is this all we’re doing then? Cuddles? Pretty sure I deserve a bit more than that.” She waggled her eyebrows. “I did save your life, after all. I demand a kiss at least—a fucking royal one—and then a bunch of orgasms. Oh, princess, you’re totally going to owe me—”

She was stopped by a hot mouth on her own.

Zynara climbed carefully over her, deliciously warm thighs pressing against her own, and kissed her until every drop of Lottie’s sass was drained away.

Everything Lottie wanted was in the warm tongue that licked into her, that owned her and commanded all her desire, that loved her so perfectly and so completely.

Zynara tugged Lottie’s lower lip with her teeth when she pulled away and looked at her with eyes that were wholly black.

“As your Q’sar,” she murmured, leaning close to drip the words into Lottie’s ear, “I decree you be held and cuddled while you heal.” There was a beat. “Quietly,” she added.

Lottie giggled, but stilled when Zynara slipped back to her side, curled around her and snuffled into her shoulder.

“Good girl.”

They lay there, breathing in sync, their hearts full and the future unwritten. The city murmured far below, the breeze stirred the silk curtains, and Lottie closed her eyes.

Everything was going to be perfect. Just like this. Forever.