Silence fell for a while before he yawned. “You have a point though. Maybe we should ban ourselves from sex outdoors, just to be safe.”

He said it so dryly, so matter-of-factly, I burst out laughing.

He raised an eyebrow, his gaze warm and tender. “Now what? What did I say?”

I struggled to talk around my snickers. “You think a bed will survive better than a forest?”

His jaw tightened as I stupidly directed our already highly suggestive conversation back to the subject of sex. “My bed is pure redwood.”

“So were the trees.”

He smirked, male smugness filling him. “Are you saying we’ll do more than just crack the headboard?”

“I’m saying I’m not responsible if the curtains catch fire.” I held up three fingers in an oath. “I hereby absolve myself of any broken furniture.”

“What about if we destroy the entire estate?” he asked softly, darkly.

I groaned at the fading stars. “God, can you imagine.”

“Want to see what damage we can cause right now?”

“And summon a blizzard during foreplay? How will you explain to Auntie Mei and Uncle Wen when we decimate a pavilion or two?”

His eyes burned like twin coals. “Keep going, Rook, and I’ll do my utmost to make you come so hard you flatten an entire mountain.”

I choked on lust so hot, so sharp, I almost detonated there and then. “Hypothetically speaking...if you kissed me right now, would you burn that lounger to a crisp?”

He went instantly, lethally still. “Want to try it and find out?”

“I think we’ve caused enough disasters for one evening, don’t you?”

“It’s morning.”

“Even more reason to keep our hands and...mouths...to ourselves.”

“You,” he replied far too calmly, “are dangerous.”

“Me?” I squeaked.

With a groan, he readjusted himself, tugging at the black trousers he’d found in his wardrobe. “You’re the most dangerous person I’ve ever met, and after this...after the river, I hate to tell you, Rook, but you don’t get a choice anymore.”

“Choice? What choice?”

“About your future.” His eyes caught mine. “I’m your choice. Your only one. Your only choice is me because I’m never letting you go.”

I melted even as frost crackled over my arms. “Keep talking like that and I’ll return the favour I owe you.”

His eyes ignited. “Well, we’re no longer twenty thousand feet in the sky, so if you want to suck me off...I have no objections.”

Oh God.

Images of sucking him, licking him...right there on the terrace.

Behave. Behave. BEHAVE.

I did my best to sober up before I did something that would alert the staff that Lucien was well and truly living up to his name of Furnace Heart. I eyed up my empty cup. “You know what? I’m cutting myself off. I’ve had way too much.”

He just leaned over and splashed more deliciousness into it. “I’m curious to see how much more it would take before you stop behaving and straddle my lap right here.”

“You heard me?”

“Mm.”

“I hate you,” I whispered, hiccupping a little.

He chuckled with a smug smirk. “Only because you know you want it.”

The double entendre set my cheeks blazing again.

The sun crept higher. The valley glowed. And somewhere in the distance, another flock of birds took flight, blissfully unaware that the real threat to the local infrastructure wasn’t the weather.

As companionable silence fell, my thoughts inevitably went to all the things I was avoiding. My fingers strayed to my empty throat, wincing a little at the loss of my pendant.

If Lucien was right and it had been the cause of all my suffering, I should be glad it was gone...

Sighing heavily, I made the mistake of thinking out loud. “Tomorrow...or today when we wake up after we sleep off this wine...I’m going to call Frank.”

Lucien shot me a lazy glower. “Do you think that’s wise?”

“Probably not but I am the boss and he does work for me, and out of anyone, he’ll know if my parents truly did do something to us. He might know all about this R gene business and—”

“And if they did?” He narrowed his eyes. “If they are the ones who did this to us...how did they even get access to me? I was born here. To twins that were forced against their will to create me. I never left Ashfall Cliff. Not until the day Marcus took us to England to solidify his takeover.”

I froze, recalling what Laura had said. “Apparently, his parents were brother and sister. They were forced to have a child because the board wanted the purest blood to run it.”

“So that’s true?” I hiccupped, trying to stay focused despite the alcoholic haze. “Your parents were related?”

He looked away as if the subject was painful. “They were. And they killed themselves because they refused to make another.”

My hands balled as anger billowed. A quick snowstorm flurried, covering Whisper’s black pelt in little white flakes.

The panther snorted in his sleep.

“Marcus and all the men who did this to your family need to pay.”

Lucien nodded with a tight smile. “Don’t worry. I plan to make them pay a thousandfold.”

The way he discussed murder so coldly, so resolutely...I winced at the destruction he would deliver. Especially now. Especially with the type of firepower he wielded.

Focusing on the positive side of such slaughter, I asked, “When you take Brimstone back, can you let Laura and the other girls go?”

He tensed. “You care that much about them?”

“It’s the right thing to do.” I finished my cup. “Besides, I like Laura. She’s perfectly ordinary and was only there due to a breakup, a shitty ex-boyfriend, and a bad decision.”

“Fine.” Lucien scooted a little further down his lounger. “After I’ve slaughtered the Brimstone board members. Once I’ve climbed a mountain of their corpses and swam in a sea of their blood, I’ll ensure the girls are given back their freedom.”

I shuddered. “That was a bit dramatic.”

He shrugged. “Whisper had to learn it from someone.”

I laughed quietly, grateful he’d switched the atmosphere from tense back to tipsy.

My mind filled with happy reunions.

Once Laura was back home, I’d fly to see her. I’d offer to take her on holiday somewhere—to make up for the months in captivity.

“Thank you, Lucien.”

He grunted and topped up our glasses.

“Or should I say, Xiao Lu.”

His eyes flared. “You’ve figured out what that means?”

“No. Auntie Mei told me.”

“Ah.” He lay back down, his hand dangling off the side so he could trail his fingers over Whisper’s back. The panther purred like a broken chainsaw.

“I have to say...Furnace Heart is ridiculously perfect for you.”

“It’s a bit too perfect though, isn’t it?” He stopped stroking Whisper and balled his hand. “Was it just ironic coincidence or did they know my fate, even then?”

I didn’t answer right away. My mind slipped back into the past, through memories and lab notes, doing my best to recall something from my childhood that would hint at Lucien’s origins. But...as far as I knew, my parents had only ever experimented on animals. And not just the typical lab creature but beasts such as oxen, bears, and even a Komodo dragon.

I hadn’t been allowed into that part of the lab after I’d burst into tears seeing a snow leopard being—

I sat bolt upright; the terrace wobbled a little thanks to the wine. “Where did you say you got Whisper from?”

Lucien frowned at my sudden upright position. “Marcus threw him into Cinderkeep when I had my first mental breakdown. Why?” He didn’t sit up but his entire body tensed.

I eyed the sleepy predator sprawled between us. “And how old is he?”

“Fifteen or so.” He watched me carefully, waiting for me to explain my sudden interest. “Why?”

“Pretty sure big cats in the wild only live ten to twelve. And maybe upward of twenty in captivity.”