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“She’s going to be fine. She fainted. Can’t say I blame her. She was bound to snap sooner or later.” King gestures to Sass, who is stretched out on my bed. After she fainted in the forest, I carried her back to my bed at the house I have on the property.
“I told you all to leave her alone,” Perse mutters, brushing her hair back from her face. “She has just found out all this information, way more than I had to, and you expect her to also stand up against your mother?”
I flinch, because she’s right. I didn’t think about everything being piled on top of what she already knew.
“Is it true, Kill?” Perse asks, turning to face me. The sun hits her red hair from the back, beaming through the binding doors that open out onto the patio.
“Is what true?” I ask, even though I half know what she’s about to ask.
“That you’re stuck between her and Maya?”
I can’t help it, my head tilts back and a laugh erupts from my mouth. “Let me ask you something, if I wanted Maya in that way, would she not already be mine?”
“But Saskia isn’t exactly either…”
“Saskia was mine the day she was born, Perse. That was inevitable. When she came in as a Royal, and if she had stayed a Royal, she would have been wife’d already, but then Dragavei was revealed and Patience happened. I tried to fight my impulses at every turn because to be honest with you, I didn’t trust her. Her intentions. Patience is manipulative and toxic, and I wasn’t sure exactly how much of that was sewn into her—but the day I found out that she was my Saskia, it all made fuckin’ sense to me. Even if I didn’t trust her.”
Perse grins. “So she is yours?”
My eyes snap to hers as a round of chuckles sound off behind me. I flip them all off. “Don’t act like you all didn’t already know.”
“Oh, we knew,” Keaton mutters. “But we weren’t sure you did.”
There’s a knock on the door, and I make my way toward it, swinging it open to see my mom on the other side.
“What?” I love my mom, and I hate disrespecting her, but every time she does something to hurt Saskia, it’s my impulse to rear my back up and protect her, because I know what my mom is like. I know how she plays. I know that she doesn’t just play a game, she owns the whole board.
“Maya needs you.”
My grip on the door handle tightens. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s not handling this well, Killian. I get that you want to be here for Saskia.” She looks over my shoulder, and I turn, following her sight.
Sass is awake, watching me across the room. A pool of emotions begins swimming in my gut. Confusion, need, hunger.
Mom draws my attention back to her. “But right now, Maya needs her best friend.”
I lean against the door frame. “She’ll have to settle for you until I know Sass is fine.” Shutting the door in her face, I make my way to the bed.
Sass wriggles into the covers farther, bringing my dark cotton sheets up to her mouth, displaying her eyes only. “I like your bed.”
“My bed likes you back.” I grin at her.
She looks around the room. “Am I in trouble? Why is everyone here?”
Perse scolds her. “You fucking fainted. Freaked me out when Killian was carrying you through his house.”
The only reason why I brought her back here was because my house is the closest to Delila’s, and I didn’t want to take her back there with Maya on some next level shit.
“I’m sorry,” she says, flipping the sheets off her body and swinging her legs over the bed. She turns, looking at me over her shoulder. “Thank you for bringing me back here.”
“Where the fuck else would I take you?”
She rolls her eyes at my outburst, standing to her feet. Over the months, I’ve come to learn how well Saskia takes my personality. It ain’t an easy one to handle, either, but she takes it in her hands and fucking owns it. It’s the sexiest shit in the world when a woman knows how to handle a troubled yet defiant man.
She stretches her arms just as Keaton and Kyrin pile out behind King. Perse pauses, watches me, and then brings her eyes back to Sass. “I’ll be out there if you need me. We’re just getting the last minute things ready for the road.”
Sass nods her head, piling her hair into a knot on the top of her head. “I’ll be a minute.”
Dropping down onto the foot of the bed, I run my hand over my face as she takes a seat beside me. “You need to make sure Maya is alright.”
I still, shaking my head. “Wish people would shut the fuck up about that.”
“Killian…” she whispers, and I bring my eyes to hers over my shoulder. I hide my mouth behind my shoulder, looking right into her bright blue eyes.
“Saskia…” I reply in the same tone she used.
She turns to face me, her hand coming to my cheek. “It all makes sense now, right? The you and I, the bond, but I can’t help but think about the same bond you also share with Maya. I’m a jealous person, Killian. I can’t share anything.”
I open my mouth. “First of—”
“I’m not done.” Her thumb presses against my lip, and I have to fight with all of my instincts that are telling me to suck the fucking thing into my mouth and bite on it. “On top of that, you need to be a good friend to her. She needs you. It’s not in my nature to be selfish and take you away from her.”
“Fuck that.” I stand from the bed, unable to contain my anger.
She searches my eyes from her seat, and I step closer, bringing my hand to her chin and slowly slipping my thumb between her teeth.
“Fucking be selfish, baby. Take me. Hell, just tell me where the fuck to go and I’ll follow willingly. You don’t have to be selfish with anything else, Saskia, but you will always be selfish with me.”
“How so?” she asks, tilting her head.
I feel when she twists her fingers into mine and my heart pounds in my chest.
“Because I’m yours.”
She flushes, sucking her bottom lip into her mouth. “Thought you weren’t into monogamy.”
I keep my eyes on hers. “I wasn’t, until I met someone who made me not want to be with anyone else.”
Her eyes squeeze shut, and I lean down to face her. “Look at me, baby.”
She doesn’t open her eyes, so I bring my lips to hers and kiss her softly. The electricity that shoots through from her to me is electric, fucking hypnotic and damn earth shattering, but she doesn’t pull away.
I don’t pull away.
I bring my hand to the back of her neck and slowly massage the skin between her hairline and her spine. “Look at me,” I murmur over her swollen lips.
Slowly, she opens her eyes and sucks the oxygen out of the room while doing it.
“I can’t promise you that I won’t make mistakes. I’ve never had a girlfriend before, and well, my relationship with my mother is fucking fragile. Those are red flags alone, and I know that, but—” I need to fucking breathe, but my chest isn’t working. She inches closer, waiting for my next words. “And I know that I’ve done some fucked up things. I will do more fucked up things in the future too, because this is who I am, and I won’t change. I can’t change. You don’t have to forgive me right now for your dad, or even for Hope, but I still need you to know that I’ll wait.”
Slowly, I hear her release air from between her lips.
I continue. “I’ll fucking wait for you for as long as I need to, because time doesn’t tick unless you’re in my arms.”