Page 84 of Consort's Glory
“I don’t want to talk about my sister anymore,” he muttered. Theodore slid his hand into the gap to stroke his gloved fingertips over her skin. “I’ve got my consort in my lap, a marriage tomorrow, and a speech to make in front of the entire Protectorate the next day. I’ve got to win over my in-laws so they don’t kidnap my wife-to-be from under my nose, and I’ve got to convince my myopic brethren to abandon a practice that’s killing us. My sister has been a thorn in my side for my entire life. She’s not going anywhere.”
Margot shuddered at the feeling of his claws dragging over her skin. “Th-that’s a lot on your plate.”
He inclined his head, sending a lock of inky hair tumbling over his forehead. “It is. I planned to introduce myself to you after the Summit so this kind of thing wouldn’t happen, but…” Theodore shrugged again. His big shoulders moved under his elvish suit and rumpled white shirt in ways that tantalized her. “I have you now. Nothing else matters.”
Warmth was a slow drip in her veins, spreading outward from his touch with bursts of feel-good hormones she knew, clinically, were natural, but felt like a new, delicious drug. When he stopped to pull off his gloves and set them on the arm of the loveseat, she watched from under half-lidded eyes.
Theodore had lovely hands. Long-fingered and sturdy, the knuckles toughened, his skin a pale blue. The claws she was so worried about? Nowhere in sight. His fingers looked human enough, the diamond-hard tips pulled back to be flush against his skin.
When he ran those callused knuckles over her sternum, she sighed and closed her eyes.
“You should eat something before you go to sleep.” His voice was a purr against her cheek.
I should do a lot of things before I go to sleep, she thought. Like tell him he’s marrying a half-breed.
A pang of guilt, barbed with anxiety, shook off some of her drowsy haze.
Bile churned in her mostly-empty stomach. Really, she should have told him before she bonded to him, but that was out of her control. The marriage, though, wasn’t. She had plenty of time to tell him, to make sure he was okay with it, but when she thought of revealing it to him, Margot’s chest tightened painfully, that sick feeling tracing a fiery path up her throat.
What if he’s disgusted? What if he doesn’t want you anymore?
Was it silly to worry so much when she’d only just accepted this might be real? Probably. But Margot was sensible enough to not beat herself up about it. After all, wouldn’t any reasonable person cling to such an impossible dream if it was presented to them? After a lifetime of hiding in plain sight, she was loath to give up the sweetness of his touch, the heady scent of him in her nose, the affectionate purr rumbling in her ear.
But she had to tell him. He wanted to marry her tomorrow. He wanted to tell the whole world about their… relationship, and it wouldn’t be right to start things out with such a massive secret between them.
Even if it ruined things, Margot had to tell the truth.
She opened her mouth to say it, but when Theodore rose in one smooth motion, taking her with him like she weighed nothing, all that came out was a squeak.
His laugh was husky. “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you.”
Margot wrapped her arms around his neck anyway, relieved and disappointed to be interrupted. “Where are you taking me?”
“To the shower,” he answered, like that was normal, as he strode across the sitting room to head down a narrow, high-ceilinged hallway lined with more suspiciously Pacific Northwestern landscapes. “We both need one, and I don’t want you going to sleep before I get some food in you.”
“I had a protein bar.”
“That’s not food.”
No, she supposed, to him it wouldn’t be. Elves were almost entirely carnivorous, with stomachs that could handle raw meat better than any human could. She wondered if watching her eat greens and carbs was as strange to him as watching him eat raw steak was for her.
But that stray thought couldn’t completely distract her from the fact that Theodore very much appeared to be suggesting that they shower together, nor that he had swept them into a massive bedroom dominated by a huge, elf-sized bed.
Margot’s heart lurched at the sight of it. Four-poster, with luxurious velvet curtains, and planted in the center of the room — it was utterly unmissable.
Am I going to sleep there? With him?
Margot hadn’t slept next to anyone since she was a kid. She didn’t really count their night on the couch, since Margot spent most of it pretending to sleep but actually agonizing about how nice it was, and how stupid she was for doing it. But it made sense that they would sleep together now, considering what transpired in the clinic and what they planned for tomorrow, but she couldn’t tell whether she dreaded the idea or worried it wouldn’t happen.
What if he didn’t want to sleep next to her? The sharp bite of hurt was as unexpected as it was painful.
Theodore was stepping over the threshold into a glittering, marble-floored bathroom when he froze. His eyes swung down to pin her in place. “What’s wrong?”
Margot raised her head to look at him, taken aback. “I— oh, you felt that?”
Just how sensitive was the bond, anyway? Was that normal, or did it have something to do with Theodore and his abilities? It frustrated her that she didn’t know, when knowing things was about all she was good for.
“Yes,” he answered, staring down his nose at her with an uncompromising look. “Now you tell me what made you hurt that way.”
