Page 100 of Hollow Court

He was right. I knew he was. So why did it feel that way?

“Indeed,” I said drily. “Then who would you pick?”

He furrowed his brow. “For myself?”

“For me,” I said flatly. “As myally, Davin, who would you choose?”

My grip tightened around the stem of my wine glass, frustration surging through me at both my insistence on pressing this issue and whatever he was about to say in response.

His eyes blazed into mine. He opened his mouth, then closed it, before finally parting his lips to utter a single name.

“Gallagher,” he said, looking out at the moonlit countryside.

Was I imagining the slightest hint of challenge in his voice?

I froze, blinking several times. Of all the names he could have mentioned, he chose his cousin?

“He is the highest ranking, aside from me, obviously, and the kindest,” he continued on. “He doesn’t have a weird set of quirks—at least, not bad weird. He would be faithful. Why wouldn’t you want to be with him?”

That time, I was certain there was a dare hidden in his words, certain that the smug arsehat knew perfectly well why I wouldn’t want to be with his cousin or anyone else at this court.

I finally found my voice. “Gallagher doesn’t want that.”

Davin huffed out an imitation of a laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous. He just thinks it would upset me.”

Would it?I wasn’t brave enough to ask.

“That’s not it,” I said, unwilling to say more on the subject lest I out Gallagher’s secret lady friend.

Davin leveled a look at me. “You can’t honestly think that anyone could look at you and not want you, Galina.”

He said it like it was obvious. Like it was an indisputable fact, like the sky being blue or the sea being wet.

Years of carefully honed self-control once again turned to dust because of this single, infuriating man. So instead of brushing his comment off the way I should have, I tilted my head up, looking at him with pure, unveiled challenge.

“We both know that isn’t true.”

His lips parted. One heartbeat passed. Then another.

“Is that what you think?” Davin stepped closer, close enough that his breath was warm against my lips. “I told you once before, that’s the problem, Lina. Sometimes, it’sallI want.”

Then his perfect mouth was on mine, cutting off my stream of consciousness and any objections the more rational part of me may have made. I melded my body with his, taking his breaths for my own, scraping my nails along his scalp, and swallowing the groan he let out in response.

He pulled me against himself, a gesture that was equal parts possession and need. His lips trailed from my mouth, down to my neck, and lower as he pressed me up against the cool stones of the castle wall. For the first time since I got here, I was grateful for the dipping neckline of these stupid Lochlannian nightgowns, grateful for the access it gave him to my exposed skin.

I gasped, gripping him tighter to me, desperate to feel him closer still. He pushed my dressing gown off of one shoulder along with my nightgown, his mouth chasing the fabric as it slid along my skin.

Storms, I wished he would just take it off.

That thought stopped me short.

Der’mo.

I had been here before.Wehad been here before, and I couldn’t believe I was stupid enough to let us wind up here again. Hell, to goad us into this very moment.

“Davin,” I breathed, barely able to force his name past my lips.

He made a noise in the back of his throat, and I realized that saying his name was in no way the deterrent I needed it to be.