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I turned on Lach. “He tried to tell me you were fae the night he was shot, but he couldn’t. Why?”
“Humans bound to the court through magic cannot speak of it,” he admitted.
Channing had known and couldn’t warn me, and then he had gotten released from jail—because Lach had intervened—only to find me here with a man he considered a monster. I wrapped a hand around my throat as I considered what it must look like to my brother.
“What is he making you do?” Channing returned his attention to the ground, too disgusted to look at me.
“Nothing, really.” The last thing I wanted to do was explain our complicated relationship to Channing in front of Lach.
“Don’t lie to me,” Channing growled. “That asshole doesn’t do anything unless it benefits him.”
“That asshole is standing right here,” Lach reminded us.
We both ignored him. I fluttered a hand, trying to act as casually as possible. “It’s nothing.”
“What’s nothing?” Channing demanded. “What did you give him?”
The best thing I could do was convince Channing that there was no issue. The deal was done. The bargain had been made. I belonged to Lachlan Gage, and there was nothing that could be done about it. “I come here at night and stay until morning.”
It wasn’t the time to explain the banns and Ciara’s betrothal or that I slept down the hall from the man he considered a monster. But I wouldn’t lie to him.
The blood drained from his face, and he stumbled a step before catching himself on the back of a chair. “You have to spend the night with him?”
I hadn’t considered how it would sound to him.
“Not like that,” I said a little too quickly.
“What is it like?” Channing asked, suspicion seeping into his voice.
“We hang out.” Not exactly. “I make his life a living hell, and he annoys the shit out of me.”
Displeasure flattened Lach’s mouth at this description of our arrangement, but he remained silent.
A storm brewed in my brother’s blue eyes as he scrutinized my face. “That’s all? There’s nothing more between you two?”
I swallowed. He didn’t need to hear that Lach knew how I tasted or that I knew how good his cock felt in my hands. Nope. That was on a need-to-know basis, and nobody, especially my brother, needed to know. “I can take care of myself.”
Channing winced, pressing his fingers to his temple like he’d heard what I refused to admit.
“For how long?” he asked in a voice so soft it made me go completely still.
“Until morning,” I repeated.
He shook his head, panting slightly. “How long do you have to keep doing this?”
I licked my lips, peeking to find Lach silent and stone-faced. “Technically or realistically?”
“How long, Cate?” Channing demanded.
“Until he decides to release me.” It was close to the truth, and it was going to be easier for him to swallow than the actual terms of our arrangement.
His breath sawed in and out of him, his chest heaving. He turned to Lach. “Release her and I will do anything—”
“Don’t you dare,” I cut him off before he ruined his own life. “This was my decision to make.”
But Channing shook his head again. “Like hell it was. You did it because of me. Now let me undo it.”
I whipped toward Lach. “Stay out of this,” I warned my…whatever he was.