A warm hand touched the back of his. “With your permission, Suzerain, Lord Durand would like to stay for a few days,” Christian Lang said. “He’s been looking forward to spending some time with you and your lady and his friends among the household.”
“Has he?” Lucan eyed the girl.
Jamys hid his surprise and inclined his head in agreement.
“Still having trouble getting the words out?” A glimmer of sympathy warmed the suzerain’s silvery eyes. “Well, we’ve plenty of mortals around the place to help you with that. Chris, since you’re already acquainted with Jamys, you can look after him while he’s here.” He rose from his chair. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go collect my sygkenis before she spends the whole of the night filling out police forms in triplicate.”
“My lord, perhaps you should text her first,” Burke said as he followed Lucan out of the room.
At last Jamys was alone with Chris, and he turned his hand to catch hers as he projected his thoughts. What have they done to you?
“Done? Nothing.” She lowered her voice before she added, “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t have jumped in like that, but I got the feeling you didn’t want to play twenty questions.”
I don’t mean that. He looked at her dark brown hair, which she wore in a sleek twist, and then all over her face, which had been made up with sheer, neutral cosmetics but no longer sported any piercings. The only jewelry she wore, in fact, was two blue pearl studs in her ears and a short, matching strand around her throat. Why do you look like this?
She glanced down at the front of her tailored navy blue suit. “This is what I wear to work.” Her lips curved in an impersonal smile as she extracted her hand from his. “Would you like a tour of the stronghold? The suzerain has made quite a few changes since your last visit.”
Jamys had no interest in going anywhere until Chris gave him some answers. Somehow during the three years they had been apart, Lucan and his sygkenis had turned the rebellious, fiercely loyal girl he had known into this polite, cool stranger. If he had not imprinted her features so deeply in his memory, he might not even have recognized her.
“If you’d rather have someone else assigned to you, I can ask Mr. Burke who’s available,” Chris was saying, this time without the smile. “You just have to let me know what sort of girl you’d like. There’s a very pretty woman who runs our property management office downtown. She’s a blonde. We also have a redhead who manages the restaurant Lucan just bought over on Las Olas—”
“No.” He held up his hand to stop her. “You. I want you.”
He had practiced using his voice during his journey from his father’s stronghold to Alenfar, so it had improved, but now his emotions made the words sound too rough, like the growl of an animal. He wanted to touch Chris again, and this time channel his thoughts into hers, to make her understand that he had come back in order to win her. Given the force of his emotions, however, doing so would also trigger his talent, which allowed him to enter the mind of any mortals in his presence, and compel them to think, do, or say anything Jamys wished while believing it to be their own desire.
He wanted Chris in every way he could have her, and under the influence of his talent, she would give herself to him completely. For as long as they were together, she would even believe it was her idea.
Nothing had ever tempted him more than the prospect of using his talent to command Chris’s passion. Back at his father’s stronghold he had often thought on it, and in the dark corners of his heart he knew himself capable of it. He wanted her that much. But to turn this bright and beautiful girl into his personal puppet would be a horrendous transgression, one that would render meaningless everything he felt for her.
If Chris came to him, it had to be without his coercion. He wouldn’t have her any other way but willingly.
“You sound tired.” Chris reached out to him, but when he stepped aside to prevent the physical contact, she snatched her hand back. “I’m sorry, I . . . I should show you to your rooms now.”
Jamys maintained the space between them as he followed her to the elevator. If he had hurt her, she concealed it well; her expression had shifted back to the calm, impersonal mask she wore in front of Lucan and the other Kyn. He wanted to tell her why he had come—to explain to her everything he had planned—but he knew it had to wait until he felt more certain of her feelings and his own self-control.
On the fifth floor Christian led him through a hall interspersed with starkly designed stainless steel block columns to a zebrawood door set between two massive white and gray marble monoliths.