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My eyes narrowed to slits until all I could see was his perfect, annoying face. “Take off your ring and let’s test that theory.”
Lachlan leaned in, leaving nothing but a breath between us. “Why do you think we’re out here?”
I gulped, my eyes straying to the bag over his shoulder. He dropped it on the ground, where it landed with a thump that echoed in my chest. My heart pounded as he bent and unzipped it. When he straightened, he was holding a heavy black pistol.
“You need to learn how to use this.” His tone suggested this was not a conversation so much as an order.
I inched back a step, shaking my head. “I’m not…”
Words failed me as I stared at the gun.
“You are.” His gaze pinned me. “You have.”
I opened my mouth to deny it but found I couldn’t.
His wicked smile taunted me. “You pulled the trigger.” His tongue swept over his lower lip like he enjoyed the way the truth of that statement tasted. “And since I prefer to know that you’re safe, even in my absence, you need to be willing to do it again.”
“I’m not sure…” I could barely think over the blood roaring inside me.
“It’s different when you have no choice.” Something grim streaked his tone. I caught a fleeting glimpse of sadness in his eyes, but then he blinked and it was gone.
He pressed the gun into my hand.
It was the same one I’d pulled from his waistband the night of the Equinox, but it felt different without adrenaline coursing through my veins. Heavier.
“It’s a 9-millimeter. This is the safety.” He pressed a small button down on the side of the gun, each word clipped and efficient. “It needs to be off before you can shoot someone.”
I rolled my eyes, hoping he didn’t notice my trembling hand. “I know that.”
“You didn’t the night you tried to kill me.” His look dared me to challenge him. “Feel its weight. It’s loaded.”
That’s why it felt heavier. He hadn’t just relied on me not knowing about the safety that night. I recalled him reloading the bullets in front of me. He’d told me he would teach me how to use it—after I’d earned the right to a weapon. I had no idea what I’d done to warrant his sudden decision that now was the time for me to learn.
Lachlan touched the broad end of the muzzle. “This is a built-in silencer.”
I lifted a brow.
“It means that it’s not going to blow your eardrums,” he explained. He moved behind me, close enough that his body brushed against mine. His arms circled around me, and he took both of my hands, coaxing the gun into position until it was firmly in my grasp and my index finger was curled over the trigger. He drew my arms up and lowered his head over my shoulder. It was harder to concentrate with his warm breath ghosting over my neck, with his hard chest bracing my back, with my body riveted to everywhere it touched his. “Keep both hands on it when you fire. It’s got a hell of a recoil.” His finger settled over mine, but he didn’t force the trigger. “Lock your elbows.”
I tried to steady my breathing as I stared straight ahead. We weren’t pointing at anything in particular, just a vast expanse of swampland. No wonder he had dragged me all the way out here. I wasn’t in danger of hitting anything.
I wondered what the other courts would think of the Nether Prince teaching me how to kill their kind. If that was the real reason we’d driven all the way to the bayou—so that no one could see what we were up to.
“Whenever you’re ready,” he whispered, his mouth so close that the words felt like a kiss. “Just pull the trigger.”
My chest heaved as I stared ahead, everything fading away except the heat of his body, the steadiness of him bolstering me, and the certainty that seemed to seep into me where we touched. I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger. The shot reverberated through my fingers into my muscles, the gun’s butt biting into my palm as it jolted me against him. He remained solid, unaffected, an anchor as my entire world shifted and rewrote itself. I held back a gasp as adrenaline soaked my senses.
His lips nipped my earlobe, and a bolt of pleasure barreled down the back of my neck. His body curved firmly around me, and his finger twitched. “Again.”
The second shot pushed me even deeper into his arms, and I shivered.
“You like it, don’t you?” he breathed. The question was as scorching as where his flesh met mine.
I swallowed. “No.”
“You feel powerful.” His lips spelled the last word on my skin.
My eyes fluttered closed, caught in whatever spell he was weaving. I softened into his strong embrace, our arms still stretched before us, my palm throbbing from the gun’s recoil. This wasn’t me, but I couldn’t deny that he was right. I did feel powerful. Part of me hated that, but the rest…