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His hand tightened around mine. “This is her night,” he said. “I’m sure she’ll spend it wisely.”
Sure enough, she’d slipped off to visit with another group. She spotted me, and I raised my brows in an unspoken question. She shooed me with one hand and winked.
“I won’t let anything happen to her,” Lachlan reminded me, echoing what she had said earlier, and despite the uncertainty I felt about him, I knew he was telling the truth.
He led me away, deeper into the belly of the crowd. I suspected this had been Ciara’s plan all along. The reaction she’d intended to provoke. Was it her revenge on Lachlan to play matchmaker? If so, she was going to be very disappointed.
We paused as a server stepped into our path, holding a gold tray laden with champagne coupes. Lachlan reached for two, passing one to me. I took it gratefully, already overheated in the crowd—at least that was what I was telling myself. But the first taste of the drink on my lips made my eyes widen. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever tasted. It was much sweeter, like pure nectar, with none of the fire of whiskey or the warm fullness of wine. I found myself gulping more, relishing the honeyed taste of it on my tongue.
“Careful with that,” he told me. “Ambrosia will give you one hell of a hangover.”
“Ambrosia?” That was the name of this heavenly substance. The fae were really holding out on us poor humans, hoarding all these delicious delicacies in their world.
“And it’s got a kick to it,” he warned me.
“I can handle myself.”
He drew a breath and pulled me closer—not so close that our bodies touched; just close enough to make me wish they were. “You’ll want more,” he said, “and you can have as much as you want as long as you’re willing to risk the consequences.”
He really saw everything, and somehow that made this strange, forbidden attraction to him worse. “Do I need your permission?”
“No.” Sadness stole his smile. “Just know that you will be safe if you want to let loose.”
The offer cracked something inside me open, and I clung to the pieces and tried to wrench them back together. “I thought you didn’t want me to let loose.”
“It’s not about me,” he said darkly. “It’s about you, and since you’re going to hide behind that sarcastic mouth I adore, I will spell it out.”
Adore? Him? Me? The very mouth in question fell open because the way he held my gaze told me he’d meant what he said. He wasn’t mocking or teasing.
“No one touches you—human, fae, or any other creature—without your permission.” He definitely wasn’t joking now. “So enjoy yourself, because if you say no, it will be respected, or I will personally remove the offending part from the bastard’s body and choke them to death with it.”
Every word eddied from my head. Lachlan snagged another glass of ambrosia from a passing tray and handed it to me. I gulped it down and instantly relaxed enough to nod.
He waited a minute. “Better?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“That’s fair.” He scanned the room over his shoulder, his face tightening. “But I should warn you that things are about to get very interesting.”
A hush fell over the crowd, and all around us, fae rippled apart, creating a wide chasm in the middle of the room.
Bain strode into the center, the chandeliers overhead catching his platinum hair and sharp features, making him look as dazzling and sharp as its crystals. Ciara stood on the edge of the crowd, hands clasped together. Everyone stilled as Bain addressed the room. “I regret to inform you that the rumors are true: the lovely Ciara Gage has agreed to marry me.”
“I regret to inform you,” I muttered along with a few choice words.
Lachlan hmphed. “I’m the one getting stuck with the bastard as a brother-in-law.”
“Whose fault is that?” I bumped my hip against his. His thumb stroked the back of my hand, and my entire body tensed.
“Tonight, we partake in the Midnight Feast—a last supper, if you will.” Bain’s voice was smooth and wicked. Fae around us began to whisper, the entire room crackling with an electric energy that hummed over my skin and found its way into my blood.
That might also have been the ambrosia.
“Marriage is the binding of not only two souls but two families. It is not something I enter lightly,” Bain continued. “I’ve had three hundred years to wait for the perfect woman to come along.” He extended an arm toward Ciara. She strolled toward him, a smug smile on her face, but it didn’t extend to her eyes. His speech might be winning over the crowd, but he was going to need to worry about her. When she reached him, he seized her hand. “I’ve found her.”
I was going to throw up on her behalf.
Lachlan cleared his throat, and I realized I might have said that bit aloud.