Chapter 41
Gemma
“Gemma,” he whispers in the instant before the door opens.
He looks like he longs for me. Like he’s devastated that we’re being interrupted, and he can’t have me.
I’ve always been the one to lose my mind for him. Even in the one time we slept together, there was a certain ruthless efficiency to
him.
But right now?
He looks like he’ll die if he doesn’t have me.
Then the door swings open, and Reyna stands there.
She takes us in. For an instant, she looks at me with so much rage it’s like she’s about to set me on fire with her gaze alone.
From my rumpled clothes and mussed hair, it’s clear what Cassian and I have been doing.
Then she blinks, and the rage is gone from her eyes. Instead, she looks delicate and sad. Her eyes shine like she’s about to cry.
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She turns her huge violet doe eyes on Cassian and whispers,
“Cassian? What’s going on?”
Incredibly, I feel a stab of guilt.
I’m Cassian’s wife, but from Reyna’s reaction, it feels like I’m the one he’s cheating with.
I shoot a glance at Cassian, but his face is perfectly unreadable. Somehow, even though I had my hands in his hair and was pulling at his shirt, he looks perfectly put together.
“I…I suppose if I’m interrupting, I can come back later,” Reyna says in a voice filled with quiet, dignified hurt.
Suddenly, my guilt turns to annoyance.
Cassian is my husband, and somehow, she has me feeling this
way.
Cassian always accuses me of being some kind of emotional manipulator, but it’s Reyna. It’s always been Reyna.
Well, she’s not the only one who can go after what she wants.
“Cassian,” I say in a low, purring voice, turning toward him, “I think you tore off one of my buttons. Can you take a look?”
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I don’t look at Reyna. I don’t need to. I swear I can feel the anger burning her up, even from here.
I have no expectation that Cassian will help me. In fact, I expect
him to scoff and turn away.
Instead, he leans down and appears to be inspecting my cleavage very closely.
“Mm,” he says in a low rumble that has my aching core turning liquid again. “No, they’re all here.
Then he reaches down and buttons me up, his knuckles scraping the heated skin of my breasts.
Shocked, I meet his eyes. He’s still so calm as he looks down at me, but there’s something behind his impassive gaze. A heat that I haven’t seen before.
“Cassian!” Reyna barks.
I’m shocked again. She’s dangerously close to sounding angry with him. Have I actually pushed her to the edge of her control?
He takes his time finishing my buttons, then casually turns to her. “Yes?”
“We’re supposed to be downstairs with four different underworld
CD
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leaders right now. But if you think this…distraction…is the best use of your time, I can let them know we have to reschedule.”
Cassian’s face hardens and he straightens and turns his whole body toward Reyna for the first time since she came into the kitchen. He takes a few steps toward her. “I am not distracted.”
My heart sinks. I know what’s going to come next. He’s going to claim it was my fault and tell her that he doesn’t care about me.
Instead of waiting for that to happen, I jump up and say, “I have things to do. I’d hate for you to keep four whole crime lords waiting.”
Then, as calmly as I can manage with my body still throbbing for Cassian’s touch, I walk out of the kitchen.
*****
Cassian
I must have lost my mind, offering to get Gemma pregnant.
But in that moment, with her under me, there’s a rightness and a wholeness I haven’t felt since she left me.
In the last few days, I’ve started to wonder how she’s affecting me so deeply, even when she isn’t there.
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It could be that Reyna is right about dark magic. That I’m craving Gemma like I’m going through withdrawal from a drug because she’s making it that way.
Or the answer could be something else.
It could be that I actually want her company.
This is what I’ve been saying, Zephyr huffs inside my mind. Of course, nothing is right without her. She’s our mate.
She doesn’t have a wolf. We can’t be mates, I snap back at him. She can never be a Luna.
That is not for you to decide, he says.
I’m not sure what he means. If Gemma has no wolf, Zephyr won’t have anyone to bond with.
Is Zephyr implying that wolves can choose non–wolves if they want? Or in Gemma’s case, a person with no wolf spirit?
“Cassian?”
Reyna is standing right in front of me, so close her breasts b sh against my chest. She reaches for my face and touches my
cheek.
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“She’s using magic on you,” Reyna says in a resigned tone. She
sighs. “I thought you were stronger than this. I thought you said you’d be able to tell!”
Zephyr and I both bristle at the implication that I’m weak.
I catch Reyna’s wrist in my hand. I don’t squeeze, but I’m not gentle, either.
“You are standing too close.”
And for the first time, I don’t believe what she’s saying about Gemma.
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