Kel sighed. “Just to be clear, I’m not volunteering if she backs out.”
Neither of them paid him any attention.
“Will it hurt?” she whispered, though she was fairly certain she knew the answer. The redhead in the parking lot certainly hadn’t complained, and Briana had been ready to tear her apart for even that much.
His thumb slowly circled beneath her jaw. “Never.”
Lucan curled his fingers around her nape, gentle and coaxing and making her forget where they were and why she’d been nervous. Nothing about this was like that night in the forest. Not her, and certainly not the former knight fighting something so much darker than animal instinct.
And yet she trusted him. Completely. Maybe more now than back then.
His breath licked along her skin, triggering a shiver she couldn’t tamp down. Everything came to a standstill, neither of them moving, though every cell in her body felt him. There would be no undoing this, no going back.
Tipping forward a fraction brought her in full contact with his mouth. The grip on her nape tightened, but instead of panicking, all of the tension holding her stiff against him evaporated, and she melted into him.
What started out as a necessity had become absolutely essential, a gift she felt compelled to offer, to demand he accept.
And then he did.
The pressure of his lips, the lazy slide of his tongue, masked the piercing of his fangs as he bit down.
Breath held, all the anger, uncertainty and fear she’d been drowning in for days collided with a hot wall of devastating pleasure that crashed over her.
Sweet Avalon. More.
Briana slid her hands into his hair, tugging just hard enough to match each silken pull of his mouth at her neck. Not even in her wildest fantasies had she believed this would feel so right, his arms around her, his face tucked against her throat.
Liquid heat tunneled through her veins, leaving her trembling, her body caught on the edge of sheer want. In the back of her mind she kept waiting for the venom in his fangs to overrun her system and leave her bonelessly compliant.
That’s how it was supposed to work, wasn’t it? She wasn’t supposed to crave his hands on her, wasn’t supposed to imagine his mouth sliding so much lower. Her thighs contracted as though his tongue had parted the slick folds, and she squirmed in place, thinking long and hard about crawling into his lap.
“Lucan,” she hissed, torn between begging him to end this and demanding he never, ever stop.
All of it was too much. Too intimate. Too vulnerable. Too terrifying.
Because she was in love with him.
Shaken by the clarity of that realization, she pushed at his chest, her breaths coming in painful gasps. She wanted the blissful ignorance she’d been convinced would accompany the venom in his bite. She’d been counting on it to make her forget how desperately she needed to win the competition and free herself from a one-sided bond.
Lucan didn’t release her, taking another carnal draw from her neck. She cried out, plunged into a place where she couldn’t separate the pleasure from the pain threatening to consume her.
Maybe she’d still been in denial before, or maybe instead of driving him out, the Gauntlet had pushed Lucan even deeper into her heart. She wasn’t sure how she’d be able to sever their connection or how she’d ever survive it.
“Don’t cry,” Lucan mouthed against her wet cheeks.
Her shoulders shook uncontrollably, her body unable to take any more. The gods. The games. Lucan. She didn’t even care that he hauled her to him, caressing her back as the endless shudders ripped through her.
“Is that normal?” Kel asked.
“Shut up.” Lucan or the wraith—she wasn’t sure which of them answered and held her so carefully.
It didn’t matter. At the end of the day, they were two parts of the same whole. Like Briana was with the cat.
Exhausted from so much more than the tears that had finally escaped her stranglehold, she lifted her head, unable to meet Lucan’s gaze. “You should go.”
He cradled her jaw, forcing her to look at him. “I’m sorry if you felt that was betraying your mate. I never wanted—”
Unable to stand the thought of him regretting what had just happened, she shook her head cutting him off. “We need to get out of here.”
Nodding slowly, he grazed the marks on her neck. “I don’t know how long it will take to heal with the poison in your system.”
“I’ll be fine.” She couldn’t imagine telling a bigger lie.
His hand found hers, his fingers squeezing tight. He stood and the cold of the chamber rushed in to swallow her.
“If anything happens to her,” he warned Kel, the wraith as close to the surface as she’d heard without it taking over entirely. “I will end you.”
Half expecting an arrogant response to the threat, she stared in disbelief when Kel angled his head in a stiff nod.
With a quick glance in her direction, Lucan slipped into shadow and through the collapsed wall.
Kel lit another fire. “If you told him the truth it might destroy him.”
Briana didn’t move. “How long have you known?”
“Does it matter?”
It did if the others had also come to the same conclusion and planned to take advantage of it. “You don’t care about Lucan or Lancelot or whatever else you called him.”
“Ah, that little detail took you by surprise.”
That may have been putting it mildly, but the revelation had certainly made it a little easier to understand why he’d pushed her away the night of the festival. Had Gwen been the woman in his tent? “It doesn’t matter.”
Kel arched a brow. “He’s your mate.”
“Who shouldn’t know the truth, right?” Was she supposed to believe the dragon didn’t have his own reasons for wanting her to keep it a secret?
Kel stared at the fading firelight. “It’s far crueler knowing you can never be with the one you’re meant to, isn’t it?”
Cocking her head, she asked. “Who is she?”
The dragon feigned interest in his injury.
“Does she know she’s your mate?” Briana pressed.
He took his time answering. “No. And that’s the way it has to be.”
They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence—there would never be a comfortable one given that he’d been moments from snapping her neck at Tintagel.
“He never loved Gwen, you know. Lucan. Lancelot.” Kel closed his eyes. “Arthur was hammered when he came up with that nickname by the way. Or that’s how the story went.”
Shivering from the chill and blood loss, Briana gave up on trying to keep her eyes open. “Is that so?”
“You’d have to be wondering about their relationship by now.”
She thought about throwing Kel’s knife back at him. Hard. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Even if you can’t be with him, you should be able to take some small comfort in knowing his heart has never belonged to another.” There was bitterness in his voice, as though he didn’t have that luxury.
“How do you know,” she finally asked, “that Lucan didn’t love Gwen?” She could pretend she didn’t want to know, but she’d spent more than enough time avoiding the truth already. She wanted to know how much of the rumors surrounding Lancelot, Guinevere and Arthur were true.
“Lucan cared for her deeply, but like you do for your brothers.” The barest hint of respect echoed behind the words. “And although it dishonored both their families, he broke his betrothal to Gwen, freeing her to be with Arthur.”
“Arthur was already king. Wouldn’t her family have been in favor of that?”
Kel shrugged. “He was still considered the rebel king then. Half of Avalon loved and followed him, while the other half expected him to align with Morgana. Before Excalibur, Arthur wasn’t exactly known for doing the right thing.”