He grips my wrist and forces me to fuck myself harder, as if he wants to punish me for enjoying this game.

“I’ve never fucked a bare pussy,” Shane says.

I can’t fathom why Shane would be so forthcoming. He has to realize how screwed he is. Surely he can read Henry’s very obvious anger. Then again, he also thought I was a woman to mess with, so maybe he’s just not great at reading people.

“Is that what you wanted to do when you brought her up here?” Henry asks.

“I wanted her to sit on my face. I wanted to taste her.”

I watch Henry’s mouth tip into a grin in my peripheral. “And? Is that all you wanted to do?” His aura stretches out long fingers, almost like it’s shoving at Shane’s chest in challenge.

Shane clears his throat. “I wanted to hold her down and watch her struggle as I fucked some respect into her.”

“I know the feeling,” Henry says. “And why did you think you had a right to do that?”

Shane nods toward my rumpled gown. “She wore that dress and brought me up here alone. I know what she wanted even if she wouldn’t say so directly. All women need a firm hand from time to time.”

Henry’s chuckle is low and lethal as he pumps my hand faster. I’m so close, the tension in my belly hurts. I just need a little more friction and I will go right over the edge.

Instead, Henry pulls my hand away and swats my pussy hard. I grunt in frustration from the spoiled orgasm as much as from the stinging pain on my sensitive flesh.

Henry holds my hand up in front of my face and nips at my ear. “Summon your magic to those fingers.”

The failed orgasm has me seeing red. I want to punch him, but I listen, watching as my fingers turn dark purple.

Henry wrenches me up to stand and drags me to Shane.

“You tried to take something from her that wasn’t given freely,” Henry growls. “The only taste of my wife you’ll ever get will be your last.”

He shoves my poison fingers, still soaked from my pussy, into Shane’s mouth.

Shane has no idea what he’s doing. He clearly thinks this is a kink because he sucks my fingers hard and groans.

Henry goes so still at the sound that I wonder if he’ll rip the man’s throat out before my poison can kill him.

I’m spared the suspense when Shane’s face goes suddenly pale. He tries to clear his throat but starts to choke. His mouth foams and his eyes go comically wide as he struggles to breathe.

The sound of his head going limp against the back of the chair snaps me out of my haze.

I yank my panties out of my mouth. “You brute! He had information. Why would you kill him before we asked more questions?” I snap, wrenching myself away from Henry and spinning to face him.

The look in his eye is lethal and half-crazed. “What’s wrong with me?”

I take an instinctive step back, shrugging my shoulder strap back into place.

“You came out in public in that dress that is hardly appropriate for a bedroom, brought yet another man who isn’t me upstairs with you, and, from the sound of things, were nearly assaulted in the process.”

I shove his chest. “I took care of it. He had valuable information and loose lips. I thought I could entice him to share more.”

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he says, one fist clenched at his side. “You’re my wife, and as much of a performance as that may be for you, I expect you to at the very least be discreet.”

“You’re jealous.” I smile, and a terrible idea pops into my head. “You thought your cock was going to be the next one in my mouth, and you’re disappointed he beat you to it. I know it’s hard to manage disappointment, but⁠—”

Henry is on me in a second, pinning me to the wall, one hand in my hair, the other on my hip. “Stop trying to rile me up because I denied you an orgasm. Given how much you show off, I thought you would be pleased to have another opportunity to perform.”

I wish I had never let him touch me. I’m furious with myself for letting him when I don’t trust him. When I need to keep my head.

Hyperaware of his proximity, I want him to step away so I can have some space to think. But a bigger part of me doesn’t want him to step away at all. That part of me wants him to finish what he started.

He lifts his hand from my hair. When I flinch, he freezes with his hand in the air. “There’s a flower petal.”

“Oh.” I’m mortified by the unnecessary vigilance, by the way I’ve just confirmed something he suspected.

He plucks something from the top of my head and holds up a pale white petal.

I stare at it in his palm.

He clenches his jaw. “Harlow. Why did you flinch?”

I force myself to meet his eyes with as much defiance as I can muster. “Because you’re an animal.”

Henry’s eyes narrow. “Not that kind of animal.” He steps away and runs a hand over his face. “We learned something valuable tonight. I’m sorry about the note. I didn’t mean to drop it. I think I can write down what it said.”

I appraise him skeptically, body still buzzing.

He crosses the room, unties the bindings on Shane’s wrists, and fastens the cords on the curtains where they belong. Then, he gestures toward the door.

“I should get you home. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”

I want to argue, but we’re literally in a room with a dead body. A poisoned dead body. I never stay at a scene this long. I’m getting sloppy—or, rather, Henry is making me sloppy.

He grabs his coat from the bed and tosses it at me. “Put that on.”

I pull on the oversized coat, take his arm, and let him lead me away from yet another poisoned corpse.

OceanofPDF.com

42HARLOW

I’ve been searching through the Carrenwell House library for an hour when Kellan finds me.

I don’t even need to look up from my research to know that it’s him. His aura and the rhythm of his gait as he saunters across the room are so familiar. I glance at him when he’s a few feet away.

In the foggy gray morning light, he looks depleted. His aura is a dull orange, like he’s been over-exerting himself or using too much magic too quickly.

“You’re up early,” he says, peeking over the stack of books I’ve pulled from the shelves.

“Henry is a cuddler. I have to escape the first chance I get if I don’t want to be smothered,” I say.

What I don’t say is that I hesitated to leave the bed when he shifted enough for me to squirm free this morning. I’m pretty sure he only holds me because he’s worried I’ll sleepwalk again and he’ll lose his chance to get the men he needs to defend the fort. Whatever his reasons, I’ve never slept as heavily as I do with Henry’s arm curled protectively around me.

I continue to page through the book in front of me. It’s a large, handwritten tome with brittle pages and faded ink, and it contains the history of my family and the wells. I’m hoping to find any answer as to why the madness is only getting worse for some of us and why or how the Drained evolved.

Kellan chuckles. “So you’re enjoying the honeymoon period?”

I gesture to an abandoned needlepoint project that I’m planning to make into a pillow. “I’m fantasizing about creative ways to kill him.”

Kellan grins as he reads the nearly finished linen. “Disembowelment?”

“I’ve already run through the more obvious choices,” I say with a shrug. It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him about Henry’s unique ability, but I hold back. I don’t trust him not to tell my parents out of fear for my safety, and I won’t lose my chance to get the tunnel key.

Kellan comes to stand over my shoulder to see what I’m reading. “Interesting choice. Doing some light research?”

Up close, the dark circles under his eyes are more severe, as is the distinct crease permanently etched between his brow.

“You look old.”

He laughs, and the lightness brings some youth back to his face. Still, I can tell something is weighing on him. He sits down beside me and takes a book from my stack.