Page 34 of The Sirin Sisterhood (The Sons of Echidna #2)

Lai

Freya wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Lai wasn’t concerned. He understood completely.

She had spent her entire life here; strangers like him were a novelty. He’d had the same wide-eyed look on his face when he’d run away from home. The things that he took for granted were dazzlingly new to her.

She paced the room, studying his belongings laid out on the table.

There was nothing particularly interesting, in Lai’s opinion, just a bag of essentials issued to him aboard the plane: plain clothes, a grooming kit, and a crappy pair of earphones, already broken when he got them, but Freya was fascinated by even just the stretchy fabric of his t-shirt.

“What is your family like?” She finally put down his stuff and turned to face him. It wasn’t an interrogation, Lai could tell. She was just trying to find a reason to stay longer.

He saw no harm in entertaining her.

“We aren’t very close. Everyone deals with their traumas in utter silence, so you can imagine what that’s like. We used to be much closer, but that was long ago.” He could have lied; he knew he should have fed her trivial nothings, but Freya was offering connection, and Lai was interested.

“I’m sorry,” she apologized. “Did this new leader cause a rift?”

“Nah, Lucy is lovely despite her narcissistic tendencies. I’m rather fond of her, even if we don’t always see eye to eye.

”Lai idly looked around the room as he spoke.

It was a simple abode with only the necessities, a cottage reserved for the unwell for healing, and he had just started mentally redecorating it when he caught sight of a dark flicker, a man he didn’t know, watching him from the window.

He froze for a long second before he realized he was looking at his own reflection in the dark glass. He still didn’t recognize the man staring back at him, the choppy, ugly haircut and swathes of bandages making a stranger of his own face.

He quickly got up, and sharply drew the curtain closed.

“You know, if you took down your father, you don’t have to let her take the credit,”Freya offered offhandedly, sitting down behind Lai, her fingers running through his roughly shorn hair.

Oh.

Oh, maybe it was an interrogation after all. Was he really that rusty? A pair of pretty eyes with long lashes had fooled him into a false sense of security. She was playing him.

The care, the promises, the curiosity—she made him feel so interesting, when he felt so ugly.

Well, two could play at that game.

“Oh no, I take no credit in ‘taking him down.’ It was all Lucy. She lured him in and snapped a collar on him all by herself; my father didn’t stand a chance.”Lai smiled, turning to face her, before suddenly turning away.

“Sorry. I know I’m pretty unsightly right now. Normally, I’d be flirting up a storm with you, but....”

“There is nothing unsightly about healing. We don’t get medals for most of the fights we survive; our scars are the closest thing to it,”she insisted, comforting him eagerly. Lai barely hid a smug smirk.

“Wow, I have a 500-pound wheel of cheese at home, and it’s still not as cheesy as you are.”Lai shook his head, letting his laughter shake his shoulders.

Freya lightly punched him on the arm. “You should be proud to bear such a scar! It makes you look like you can take a pounding.”

“Sounds kinky.Or do you just mean exercise? If it’s the latter, I’ll pass.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”She reached up to him and tucked his hair back behind his ear as it slid free. Lai drew back with a flinch, uncomfortable with the sudden closeness.

That wasn’t like him. He was trained to not shy away from strangers’ touches, and those were often much worse than the little, caring gesture.

He knew his confidence had taken a hit, but the flinching–that was a bad sign.

It hadn’t occurred to him until then that it wasn’t only his flesh that would need time to heal.

“No need to be shy. I’ve already seen it,”Freya assured.

“Never thought anyone would ever call me shy.”Lai sighed, adjusting his sitting position, putting a little more space between them and disguising it as making himself more comfortable.

“Hey, are we allowed to be here alone?”

Freya smiled. “Probably not, but my sisters trust me to care for myself.”

“What are they like?”Lai was a little surprised that Freya was willing to break the rules so easily, but he was getting used to her surprising him.

“They are complete opposites of one another, but they both care for me greatly. Agata is a little uptight; she fusses over rules, she’s a tad paranoid, and she trusts tea leaves over me most days.

I once lied to her about some missing sweets, and my own damned drink ratted me out.

”She chuckled and shook her head. “Sabira is more fun. Her lessons are more practical, too. She sings and dances while Agata mostly just glares.”

“The redhead looks like fun,”Lai agreed. “The other one reminds me of my older brother. All work and no play makes Klein a dull boy, and good luck getting a smile out of him. Even when he’s actually happy, he looks judgmental.”

“That’s a perfect description of Agata!”Freya laughed as she scooted closer, ignoring Lai’s attempts to put some distance between them. “Tell me more; with Lucy being head of the family, does that make her the matriarch? Even though she’s not your mother? How does that work?”

Lai winced, letting out a strained laugh.

“Guess she is the weird stepmom.”

“What, stepmoms not your kink?”

The joke was acceptable when he made it, but actually thinking about it made him shudder. Lucy would be insufferable with that much power.

“Back to that topic, are we?”Lai raised an eyebrow, curious, wondering how a girl in a hidden village in the middle of Russia knew what a stepmom kink was.

“What can I say?”Freya shrugged. “I’m restless.”

“I can imagine. An all-girls school must get lonely.”Lai gave her a knowing smile. He finally understood her. She wasn’t there for some nefarious reason, and she wasn’t there to interrogate him.

She was curious . Plain and simple. She had probably never even seen a man before, never mind being alone in a room with one.

He didn’t think she was ignorant of the concept of sex–not with the stepmom jokes–but Lai recognized the urgent desire to explore.

Freya wasn’t exactly trying to hide it; she just didn’t know how to ask.

“What gives you that idea? I only sleep alone when I want to; any one of my sisters will share my bed if I ask.”Freya huffed, her pretty face turning pink. “I just–I prefer to sleep alone. I like my own company.”

“Someone as pretty as you having to sleep alone seems like a travesty.”Lai shifted closer to her, his dread over his appearance easing. She wouldn’t have stayed with him for so long if she hated it.

“They just want to be close to power. It’s not the real thing.”

Lai cocked his head, waiting for her to elaborate.

“They want to impress the headmistresses. It’s fun to take advantage of every now and again, but it gets boring. They don’t care about me, just what it can get them.”

“Ah, so you’re like a status fuck around here?”

“You could say that.”

Touch starved, desperate, soon to be in power. Lai had it in the bag.

“Well, I’ve got nothing to gain from it.

”He leaned in, tracing his fingers from her cheek to the back of her neck, pulling the woman closer until their lips met.

She didn’t resist at all, melting against him with a soft gasp.

If he had been working, Lai would have started disassociating half an hour ago, running entirely on autopilot.

Tonight, he was present. Enjoying the moment.

Maybe he needed it too. Someone who could look at him and still want him.

“Like what you see?”She whispered in his ear, placing a lingering kiss at the base of his neck. Lai chuckled, eyes closed; he would have to have a word with her later about how much porn she was consuming, with cheesy lines like that. Until then, though, he would indulge her.

“I’d like to take a better look.”

His hands trailed down her body, studying the soft curves. Her scent–sweet and with traces of pine–eased his last hesitations. Laying her down gently, he paused to carefully unlace the beaded skirt, releasing her shirt and kissing every inch of her skin as it was revealed.

“No visible marks for now, okay...?”Freya breathed, leaning back and enjoying his attention, goosebumps slowly creeping up her arms as she shivered beneath him.

“I wouldn’t dare mark anything so perfect.”Lai slid her shirt over her head and bared her full breasts with a low moan, kissing down her throat and across the tender flesh, paying attention to each nipple, his tongue teasing the hardening buds.

“You have a silver tongue,”Freya purred. “I can’t wait to try it out.”