Sophie Oak - Beauty

Bron took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

“Damn it, Bron.” Shim gritted his teeth. “Fine, but this is a mistake.”

Even Lach could feel it. Bron reached and held the connection. She drew on it, passing up his cold power for Shim’s hot one. Lach was fascinated. Now that he knew what was happening, he realized it had happened before. His power was buried deep, deep down inside, but Shim’s simmered at the surface. It was easy to reach and hold. It was easy to share.

Charlie gasped and looked down at his hand. “Bugger me. I’m on fire and it doesn’t hurt.”

He wiggled his fingers a little, flames at the tips. His fathers both stared.

Dellacourt cursed. “She’s a conduit. Gods, she isn’t a broadcaster. She’s a bloody conduit.”

Bron’s whole face lit up. “I can help us win. Lach, Shim. I can win this war.”

Lach shook his head. “Absolutely not. You’re going home and there you will stay. Roan, if you don’t have us in Aoibhneas by dark tomorrow, I will find my own way. If any of you thinks for one bloody second that I intend to let you use my mate as a fucking psychic cannon, you’re insane. She is not going to any battlefield.”

Lach turned before Bronwyn could curse him.

Curse him or not. She would be alive at the end of the day.

* * * *

Bron approached Lach with no small amount of trepidation. Shim walked behind her, his boots shuffling along the ground. Shim hadn’t argued, hadn’t said much at all. He’d just watched Lach walk away after ordering Duffy to not walk past the river.

The gnome had looked up with a sad look on his face until Gillian had taken his hand and asked him to sit with her while she healed Charlie.

A curious excitement flowed through her, but it was tempered with sadness. She had one more play to make and then it would be over.

She would lose her kingdom or her men.

“Please don’t be angry with him.” Shim reached out and grasped her hand.

Funny. His hand felt right tangling with hers as though all these years it had been waiting to be entwined with his. She’d only been physically with them for a few days and already she knew she wanted them forever. She was happy just being around them, but happiness wasn’t the only thing important in life.

She respected the fact that they would one day rule a kingdom. They owed their people. Couldn’t they understand that she owed hers, too?

“I’m not angry, Shim. I’m sad.”

His eyes turned down, watching the place where their fingers met. “I can feel it. It’s worse than mad. Please, Bron. Can’t you understand?”

“I can’t. Don’t you love your people? Wouldn’t you do anything to keep them safe? You will rule over them one day.” She remembered her father’s words. “A king is only good to his people if he is useful.”

It was a lesson her uncle hadn’t learned.

“After Lach was burned and I was weak, I think my father decided we would never be fit to rule. Bron, we weren’t brought up to lead. We were hidden away because my father feared we would either be killed or judged as too weak to rule. So we concentrated on the one thing we had.”

“Me.” She understood that much. They loved her. She accepted it. Over the last days, they had treated her with an affection that went far beyond courtesy. They seemed to anticipate her needs. When they had stopped in a village, they would bring her favorite cheese and bread and fruit. When her feet hurt from walking, Lach had dropped down, removed her boots, and rubbed the soles of her aching feet until she was purring.

She’d never felt so loved and taken care of. They held her at night, passing her between them. Lach would hold her with a possessive strength that made her feel safe and Shim with such delicacy that she felt adored.

Why couldn’t they see to her soul? She could answer that question. Because she’d been too afraid to show them.

That ended tonight and she would either have them on her side or she would have a decision to make—one she feared she’d already made.

“Shim, I am sorry for how your father handled your illness and Lach’s injury, but you have to see that I can win this war.”

He used his free hand to touch her face. “I see that you can die. Gods, Bron, a handful of days wasn’t enough.”

She was just going to have to show him. She couldn’t tell him what she was going to do. They would shut down. But she knew them. She knew what they longed for. She would make love with them and when they reached out for the true bond. She would take it, give them her soul.

And she would have her answer.

There was no more point in talking. She went to her tiptoes. Shim was so tall. He made her feel small and delicate though years of hard work had proven to her how sturdy she was. She brushed her lips to his. It was good to feel feminine. They reminded her of all that should have been hers.

She should have been a fragile thing, a sweet princess who waved at her people from the palace walls as her husbands made the decisions. She should have laughed with her maids as her mother had. Her whole world would have been wrapped up in children and love and making things beautiful.

But she knew too much. She couldn’t go back. She wasn’t that dainty girl.

She was a warrior. She had to fight.

And, in this case, the battle would be a sweet one.

“Bron, you’re killing me.” Shim kissed her again, his tongue playing along the seam of her lips. “We need to talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” She ran her hands up his chest, reveling in the feel of his ripped stomach. For all his previous weakness, he was a muscular man. Every inch of him was lean and hard. She let her hands drift to his tight waist and pulled his hips to hers. It wasn’t something she could get away with when making love with Lach. He would turn her over his knee and tan her ass red if she thought about taking over, but Shim liked it when she got aggressive. She could feel how much it made him feel wanted.

She let her tongue forage deep as she rubbed against Shim.

She adored the differences in them. Because they were split, she could really know every aspect of the man. His dominant half and his softer heart. She was welcomed to both sides of his souls. He was right there, a whole man laid out in two parts ready for her to love, to adore, to worship. She couldn’t think of anything better.

Yet she had something she had to do. She had a plan in her brain and it was a horrible thing. But it just might work.

She felt Shim’s hands skim her breasts as he came up for air.

“Please tell me this isn’t good-bye.”

It wasn’t. She hoped it wasn’t. “Can’t we just make love?”

He sighed and she felt the moment he gave in. He leaned over and picked her up, his strong arms lifting her high on his chest. He walked toward their little base.

Lach sat on the bed Shim had made, his head in his hands. He looked up as they approached. For a single second, she could see his naked pain before a mask of cold will settled over him.

“It won’t work, Bron. I won’t accept good-bye.” He straightened his shoulders. “You should just go to bed because we have a long trek in the morning. I’ll find a way into Aoibhneas. I will find us a way home. I know what Roan’s been doing. He’s using the fact that the guards are patrolling to start building an army for Beck and Cian Finn. I won’t allow you to be used.”

He wouldn’t allow her to be in a moment’s danger no matter how important it was to her soul. He needed his arrogance, but it got to her sometimes. She wrapped her arms around Shim’s neck and kissed him, knowing just how to get to Lachlan McIver. She let her tongue play against Shim’s, allowing it to show as they kissed. She could feel Lach’s interest rise.