Libra (The Zodiac Queen Book 7) Read online

I hide a gulp. “What secrets do you think I’m keeping?”

  He gives me a knowing look. “How about we start with Landon Astor?”

  My whole world comes to a standstill. Heartbeat racing, I clear my throat. “What about him?”

  “You tell me.” Dressed in casual attire—more jeans and soft cotton shirts I’m not used to seeing him in—Liam is still the epitome of his title. Back rigid and spine straight, he rests his chin on a tight fist as he watches me with authority.

  He thinks he has the upper hand, and maybe he does, but I’m not ready to give in just yet. “You first, Chancellor, unless you enjoy the silent treatment.”

  “You know I hate it when you call me that.”

  “Does the title not define you?”

  He shakes his head. “When it comes to you, I want to be more than a title, more than the man who touched you first.”

  I look down at my circling thumbs. “But you are the man who touched me first.” Which means that no matter how much I want to give my whole heart to Sebastian, there will always be a small piece stamped with Liam’s name. He touched me in ways a woman doesn’t forget—beneath the physical layers of pleasure and straight to the heart of my innocence.

  “Being the first isn’t as important as being the last,” he says with a soft gruffness that nearly disarms me.

  “You can’t expect me to choose you under these circumstances. I need to know everything.”

  With a sigh, he sits forward. “A couple of months ago, you asked me why I sold the necklace. Do you remember that conversation?”

  “Of course.”

  “I sold it to finance a backup plan.”

  “Kidnapping me was a backup plan?”

  “I hoped it wouldn’t come to this, but I was unable to eliminate the threat Pax posed before his month arrived.”

  “You were hoping to eliminate the bastard in him?” I raise a brow. “That’s ambitious.”

  A twitch of a smile tugs at his lips. “No, my sweet girl. I was hoping to eliminate him from the auction.”

  “How were you planning to do that?”

  “By finding leverage.” A heavy beat of disquiet slips by. “Instead, I found skeletons in the House of Gemini.”

  I gaze at the chess board, wondering if we need to move it out of the way for the cards we’re setting on the table. “You know about Landon?”

  “I know he’s your half-brother.”

  “How…when did you find out?”

  “After Landon married Elise, I had my private investigator look into all the houses.”

  “Your investigator must be good.”

  “He’s the best.”

  “Did he find out who wants me dead?”

  Liam’s eyes widen. “Why do you think someone wants to harm you?”

  “Landon believes someone from the Brotherhood is working with my uncle. Whoever this person is…their house is responsible for what happened to my parents.” Pain thickens my throat, and I swallow hard before continuing. “If you win the auction, Landon believes my uncle will move forward with an assassination attempt, you’ll abdicate, and he’ll get the throne.” Feeling as alone as I did the day my parents died, I gaze at the abandoned chess game. “That’s why Landon wants me to marry Sebastian. He’s the only one my brother trusts.”

  Leaving his seat, Liam crouches at my side and takes my hand. “Do you believe I’m capable of such a plot?”

  As our fingers entwine, I shake my head. “I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “I don’t know which house is working with your uncle, but I promise you it’s not mine. I’ll keep you safe.”

  “Why did you wait all this time? You could have spared me so much pain.” Resentment creeps into my tone, and I can do nothing to hold it back, even if the emotion lacks logic. Because if Liam had taken me out of the tower when I asked him to, I wouldn’t have had the chance to get to know the real Sebastian Stone. I wouldn’t love him with such intense fierceness as I do now.

  “You’re right,” Liam says, untangling our hands. “I should have moved faster. But I didn’t have all the pieces of the puzzle until now. After Landon’s wedding, I knew I needed to dig deeper.”

  “And you didn’t like what you found.”

  “No,” he says, and I know he’s thinking about the incident in the elevator, watching it happen in his mind as if seeing it for the first time—a moment of rough possessiveness enshrined in passion. The moment I promised Sebastian he’s the only man who owns my heart.

  Liam saw it all, and that was the final blow he needed to deploy his “backup plan.” I have no doubt he would have gotten me out of the tower sooner had he known about the assassination plot, but in the end it was jealousy that got us to this place.

  And now that he knows about the potential threat to my life, I fear his protectiveness will be what keeps me here.

  3

  I’m trapped in the suffocating pitch dark, but I’m not alone. A masculine presence hovers too close, his nearness lacking Liam’s warm aura and familiar spicy scent. Whoever’s present emits a cold vibe and a void so massive that I’ll never come back from this terrifying place. As the walls seem to close in, glaring light floods my eyes at the last second, and even though my subconscious tells me I’m confined in a nightmare, my body responds as if the scenario is real.

  I thrash upright in a cold sweat, my heart racing, body trembling, my mind disoriented. Terror shudders through my limbs as Liam switches on a soft light. He shakes me to awareness, and that’s when I find him sitting on the edge of my bed, shirtless with his hair mussed from sleep.

  “Are you okay?”

  “No.” Feeling boneless, I lie back down and hug my pillow, trying to calm my rapid breathing as flashes of blood and shackles assault my memory. “I haven’t been okay in a long time.”

  “Turn over,” he says, nodding toward the wall at my back.

  “Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  I obey, and a second later, the narrow mattress dips. He slides in behind me and spoons me, his arms surrounding me in familiar warmth. It doesn’t take more than a few minutes in his embrace before I remember what it’s like to be loved and protected by Liam Castle.

  As the remnants of my nightmare subside and my breathing evens out, we don’t speak. There’s a thickness in the air, a tightness in my throat, bitter moisture on my cheeks as he holds me against his chest.

  Fiercely.

  Unapologetically.

  His strength and power binding my soul in one piece.

  “Bad dream?” he finally asks, his voice gruff.

  It’s a rhetorical question aiming to unearth more, to tempt me to confide in him. Part of me wants to, but I’d rather close my eyes and hold on to this moment. My mind is blessedly numb, body warm and protected as he splays a hand on my abdomen.

  But despite the comfort of his arms, my nightmare crystalizes in my head once more, and I try not to shudder. Pax’s face is there, unwavering. So is blood. Sebastian’s blood…on the floor, the walls…my hands.

  Infusing the darkness with metallic horror.

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “I don’t remember anything,” I whisper, choking out the lie. Many months ago, he would have admonished me for the deceit, but things have changed between us. They’re still changing.

  Changing too fast.

  “I’m okay now. You can go back to bed.” With a gentle push, I dislodge his arm and turn over to face him, meaning to put more space between us, but the bed is too small. I have nowhere to go.

  “You’re not okay,” he says, palming my cheek. “You’ve been whimpering in your sleep every night.”

  “Have I been keeping you awake?”

  In the dim light, I catch a hint of his mouth curving in gentle amusement. He presses his lips against my forehead. “I’d sacrifice sleep every night if it meant you’d be at peace.”

  “Why do you have to make this so hard?”

  “What do you mea
n?”

  “You make my heart conflicted.” I regret the admission instantly.

  Tangling his fingers in my hair, he sucks in a breath. “I can live with that, Novalee. I’ll take any part of your heart you’re willing to give me.”

  “But that’s the issue. I’m not willing. I haven’t been willing since day one.”

  “It started out that way, but you’re exactly where you belong now.”

  “How can you expect me to live like this?”

  “Our accommodations on this ship are temporary.”

  “Are you purposefully being obtuse?”

  “Maybe a little.”

  “Loving you both, hurting you both, all while sharing my body with the Brotherhood…no one comes out of this unscathed.”

  “What you say is true, if we go back.”

  “Running away won’t fix this.” I shake my head. “You can’t keep making decisions for me without my consent.”

  “It’s my job to make decisions for you.”

  “According to who?”

  He sighs. “I’m trying, Novalee. I’m giving you the choice to go back and sacrifice yourself for him, if you decide that’s what you want.”

  “Even knowing there’s a possible threat to my life?”

  He doesn’t say anything at first, and the disquiet makes my heart rise into my throat. Slowly, he brushes my hair back from my face and presses his lips to my forehead again.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I won’t put you in danger, but I won’t hold you hostage forever either. I just want you to meet me halfway.”

  “That might take some time,” I whisper.

  “We have time.”

  “How can you still want me, knowing that he’s been inside me? Knowing that I’m in love with him?”

  “Wanting you isn’t a choice, my queen.”

  “Drugging and kidnapping me was.”

  “I never claimed to be the good guy.” His hand tightens in my hair, yanking my neck back. “I won’t force you into a decision, but once you decide to come to me on your own—and I believe you will—I won’t hold back. I’ll command your orgasms, hold them back when I see fit, and take my hand to your bare ass when you deserve it. I’ll care for you and discipline you. I’ll love you with all that I am.”

  Instead of scaring me, his promise shoots arousal straight to my core. I remember the weight of his hand on my bottom, the sting, the unbearable ache he refused to satisfy until he decided I deserved it.

  Until I’d earned it.

  “I’m not ready,” I choke out.

  “Your body is.” He brushes a thumb across my cheek. “Your skin is flushed, and I bet if I put my hand between your legs, I’d find your thighs pressed together, trying to hide that wet pussy.” His breathing quickens. “If I pushed you right now, just a little, I have no doubt your legs would open for me, and the sweet sound of your voice would beg me to make you come.”

  “Stop,” I whimper, my thighs wanting to do exactly what he described.

  “I can smell the need on you, my sweet girl.” We exchange uneven breaths for several moments.

  “Don’t do this now. Please.” I’m too vulnerable and unhinged, shaken to the core from my nightmare and the undeniable truth in his words.

  With a small groan, he pulls away and sits at the edge of the cot. “I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it. I won’t touch you until you ask me to, but when you do, I want what you gave him.” He turns off the light, and the silhouette of his beautiful profile tempts me as he glances over his shoulder. “And just so you know, once you beg me to take you, I won’t stop. So be sure, Novalee.”

  “What if I’m never sure?”

  He stands in the darkness, a shadow of confident power. “You will be.”

  4

  We spend sixteen days at sea. He holds the pieces of me together after two more nightmares, banters with me over endless games of chess, and makes it more difficult than ever to forget the reasons I fell for him in the first place. By the time the ship docks, the sexual tension between us is so thick it would take the sharpest of knives to slice through it.

  As we prepare to disembark, Liam adjusts my auburn wig, his brown eyes assessing the effectiveness of the disguise. “Can I trust you to behave?”

  I brush the fake bangs from my brow. “In what way should I behave, Chancellor?”

  He shakes his head, a look of frustration on his face. “If we’re caught, the Brotherhood will drag you back to the tower. Are you ready for that?”

  It’s a devious question—one to which he already knows the answer.

  “Pax is the last man I want to go back to.” Speaking the monster’s name is a harsh reminder of the terrifying scenarios I could be going through right now if I were still on Zodiac Island. Instead of preparing to leave with Liam for parts unknown, I’d be subjected to unfathomable horrors at the unmerciful whim of the dungeon’s keeper.

  I hide a shudder at the thought. Although I’m not happy about the position Liam’s forced me into, I can’t deny I’d rather be with him instead of Pax.

  Liam tugs a baseball cap over his copper hair, and a terse knock sounds on the door, prompting him to grab the handle of the duffle bag he packed an hour ago.

  “Ready?” he asks, pushing his glasses higher onto the bridge of his nose. It’s part of his disguise—the hat, jeans, clean-shaven face, and those glasses he doesn’t need for the purpose of improved vision. I’m amazed how such a simple change can transform someone’s appearance.

  Inhaling a nervous breath, I take his hand and exit into the hall on his heels. It’s the first time we’ve ventured out of the cabin in over two weeks, and my head swims with the sudden activity flourishing around us. Crewmen pass without acknowledgment, too busy with their jobs to pay attention to civilian passengers.

  I keep my head down, peeking through my fake bangs as Liam’s mysterious contact leads us through a labyrinth of halls until we’re exiting into the hot and humid air. After an arduous walk off of the docks, we’re escorted into a waiting SUV, the windows tinted for privacy and the air conditioner on full blast. The man behind the wheel doesn’t give us a single glance. He just drives—without instruction. For the next six hours, the air teems with nervous energy. Liam has his guard on high alert, his muscles in a constant state of fight-or-flight. We only stop once for food and to use the restroom.

  After the sun sets, a speedboat takes us the rest of the way. I’ve reached critical mass—emotionally and physically exhausted from the long day of travel in the humidity—and as Liam ushers me onto the private island he obtained in secret, I don’t have the strength to fend off the hand he places at the small of my back. He leads me up a sandy path toward a bungalow nestled in a backdrop of majestic bluffs. A half moon hangs in the sky, illuminating the area in surreal wonder.

  I catch a familiar whiff of plumeria. “How far south did we travel?”

  “Far enough to not worry about cold weather.”

  “You still won’t tell me where we are?”

  “We’re off the coast of South America.”

  Well that’s a broad answer, and one I’d already guessed, but at least it’s progress.

  “Are we near other islands?”

  “Yes. I’ve hired someone to bring supplies when we need them.” With a gentle push, he urges me up a wide staircase and onto a wraparound deck. “And as you know, we’re not far from the mainland.” Giving me a pointed look, he opens the front door. “However, the island is completely private. Not another soul on it, my sweet girl.”

  There’s an underlying threat in that promise, driving home the fact that I’m at his mercy. But there’s also a sense of sanctuary in those words, because with Liam, I’m safe.

  Flicking on a light, he drops our sparse luggage by the door. “I know it’s not as luxurious as you’re used to, but it’s completely isolated.” He reaches out and palms my cheek. “We’re free to be ourselves here.”

  Under the rim of his
cap, I spy truth in his gaze. He believes every word. Part of me wants to yank that hat off and get a better glimpse of those warm, caring eyes.

  Instead, I pull off my wig. “It’s been a long day. Can you show me to my room, please?” I just want to crawl into a comfortable bed and sleep for a week.

  Clearing his throat, he picks up the duffle bag and gestures toward a short hall on the left. But at the end, there’s only one door...and one bed.

  “Is there another bedroom?”

  He shakes his head. “I intend to marry you, and that doesn’t include sleeping in separate quarters.”

  “You said you would wait.” Nervousness loops my words together, resulting in a mantra that won’t quit.

  “I’ve had to wait five months since you left the House of Aries. I can wait a while longer, but until then, I want to be close to you.”

  “Because you don’t trust me?”

  He frowns. “I’ll trust you more once you’ve made a decision.” Dropping the duffle, he steps closer, eating up the inches between us. “Until that time comes, I plan to keep you very close to me.” His chest grazes the tips of my breasts, setting off a shiver deep in my bones.

  “You’re touching me,” I say, breathless.

  “This isn’t touching.” Placing a hand on the wall, he leans in, his hooded gaze full of longing. “Trust me, my sweet girl. You’ll know when I’m touching you.”

  And that’s when I can no longer deny that I want him. The need snuck up on me in the way spring gradually shifted into summer on Zodiac Island. It’s a subtle but consistent awareness that it exists whenever Liam gets too close.

  It being a twinge. A quick, heart-skipping throb between my legs—one that I shoved down to lie dormant until suddenly…

  It’s not dormant anymore. That twinge flares and erupts, refusing to be denied.

  Every time his hand brushes my back.

  Every time the spicy scent of his skin reaches my nostrils.

  That’s when the twinge breaks into the most sacred and intimate parts of my soul.

  “I can see it all over your face.” His voice deepens, reminding me of the authoritarian lurking in the power of his hands. “You want me, Novalee.”