What is This?

Go ahead and look. Keep busy searching. It’ll take more than a book to outmaneuver me, Little Harpie.

You’re not going anywhere.

“If you think somewhere in these aisles, I keep my secrets…” He inspected perfectly squared nails thoughtfully. “You’d be right…”

“You could just tell me where it is?”

Not a chance.

He shook his head and crossed his arms again. “Now what fun would that be?”

“Then you could simply tell me how Sebastian Bodane came to be King of the Castle of Water?” She mocked.

It’s not me you care to know about. I know better.

“So that’s the answer you want?” He mulled it over. “So, which is it you search for? A book of lineage, a book of heritage, or something of lore?”

“Which one would have your tale?”

“You wish to know about my world or my amulet?” He asked perceptively.

“Perhaps both.”

Perhaps my amulet.

He lifted a brow. “So, you’d know how to escape me or how to kill me?”

“And what if my answer was ‘perhaps both’?”

Then you’d be honest for once…

His gaze searched her face. “Haven’t you learned yet that with me you get much more than you bargained for? Especially when attacking me.”

Sneering she bit her tongue.

“Didn’t anyone warn you about this?” He lifted his chain from under his shirt.

“Iceron cautioned me but I believed it’d be a simple enough mission.”

Then you were mistaken.

“Stealing from a man is never simple.”

She scoffed. “Quite often it is. They’re easily distracted by something lovely.”

Not me.

I’m distracted by very little. He was not inclined to admit that her statement incited him because he knew there was a grain of truth in it. He’d thought of little else since she’d entered WaterRose.

Stepping close he used a crooked finger to lift her chin, ignoring her wince at the contact. “You’re quite lovely, yet still I keep you at my mercy…So you see…Stealing is never simple.” Shaking his head slowly he kept her eyes. “There is always a consequence. Be it to your person, your time, or your soul.”

“Ye think I still have one?” She laughed coldly.

“I know you do.” His face was solemn. “I’ve seen how you act with the animals here. You’re no soulless murderess as you’d have me think.”

“Bring me some fluffy bunny and tell me so then.” She grated through clenched teeth.

After a long pause he turned and left the library without another word.

She watched him leave. Staring at the doorway, gnawing her cheek before finally collecting the book she’d been reading.

In the early hours of the following morning. Sebastian had gone to the chamber on the floor level to evade the company of the other knights in an effort to ease enough he might take his Knight Sleep. He blew out a long breath and was quiet for a couple hours in an effort to sleep.

But he heard a whispering step outside his door. Too soft for any knight in this castle.

The door groaned slightly as it eased open. There was little hesitation as the step approached.

He felt slight weight on the bed near him where someone put a hand down. He sensed someone leaning over him. Felt the barest hint of strands of hair brushing his cheek. He was overcome with the scent of wildflowers.

What’s she doing?

Or even more interestingly. How many times has she done this?

What if she intends to kill me?

Instead he felt the barest touch of fingertips over his bare chest. Grazing over his skin tentatively. As if curious?

He felt the weight of her hair across his torso as she leaned her face near his shoulder and neck. Felt the slight breeze as she took in his scent. Heard the slight parting of her lips as she studied him.

Making him smile.

“Are you smiling?” She reared back, irises flashing to red at his small, telltale movement. Horror was written over her face when his eyes snapped open.

He took in the view of her pretty face and the ample display of cleavage the nightgown offered.

Before she could bolt, he put a hand over hers on his chest, pinning it to him. His other circled her waist to topple her down onto him.

She squealed and struggled to writhe away.

“Mmm.” He murmured. Rolling her to tuck her into the corner against the wall. He draped a leg over hers and an arm over her waist heavily. Snorting as though he were only moving in his sleep. Molding every muscle of his body along her softness.

She pushed at him, struggling against his superior weight. “Sebastian!”

“Told you, you’d say my name.” He murmured. Grinning sleepily.

“Lord Bodane!” She corrected “Get off me.”

“Why? You come creeping into a man’s chamber what’d you expect to happen?”

“Him to be asleep!”

“I wasn’t.”

“I know!” She kicked her legs trying to toss him off her.

“Lay here. Sleep next to me. You’ll be surprised at how warm I can be…”

And how pleasurable the things I'd do to you, could be.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

He lifted his brows invitingly. Palm flattening over her stomach. And skidding lower. Curving around the plane as it folded between her thighs. “Perhaps I do…”

He applied the barest hint of pressure there and felt her heat emanating through the cloth.

She writhed in need and confusion.

"I bet I could slip right in...You're warm and wet."

"I'm not!"

"You are." He smirked. "I can smell it. And feel it."

He stroked a circle more forcefully.

She yelped and nearly levitated from the bed. Running for the door as soon as her feet hit the floor.

He rolled to his back and propped an arm up, so his palm rested under the back of his head. “Come back soon!” He called laughingly.

“Never!” She shrieked, fleeing down the hall. Footsteps thudding.

“You’ll be back.”