he’d been thinking ever since he observed the interplay between Annika and Mason. Add to that she championed a charity that helped abused women, he was pretty sure that was the deal. He wanted to know the truth but also knew Annika was an extremely private person. He hoped that she would open up to him about it.
On the flip side, he didn’t know if he could handle the truth. If Mason had hurt Annika, Kieran thought he may have to kill the man. And even being related to the most powerful sorceress in their AltVeritas didn’t give him the right to kill someone in cold blood.
As if sensing his thoughts, Carrick pointed out. “There’s nothing you can do about Mason now. You both need to concentrate on retrieving The Scepter.”
“Agreed. Annika is stocked up on supplies and we are going to wait one more day to make sure Mary is out of the woods then we will head to Balvraine. I can’t imagine it would take us more than a few days to get inside the palace and retrieve it.”
“Well, keep your head up bro and don’t do anything stupid to get yourself killed…or maimed…or hurt. I wouldn’t take kindly to that.”
Kieran grinned at his brother. “I’ll take that under advisement. Now, I’m off to get a ride in before dinner time. I’ll see you at breakfast tomorrow.”
CHAPTER 14
When Kieran came in from his ride, he had found that Annika had already made it back from her tour with Ava. She was in Mary’s room visiting her. Even better, Ava had arranged for the palace cooks to make their evening meal, and it was being laid out when he had walked in.
Now in his bedroom, Kieran took a few moments to spell cleanse himself and change out of his riding gear. He put on a pair of jeans and a simple white t-shirt with a v-neck. Walking barefoot back into the kitchen, he saw Annika at the table, making up a tray for Mary.
His heart thudded hard when he saw her. Ava had apparently brought her some clothes, since when they transferred from Myridian she was not able to bring her backpack. Annika was wearing a gown traditional of the Vyronasian style. While Kieran loved the fashion of The First Dimension, there was something about seeing Annika in that silky gown that made his mouth literally water.
Women’s dress fashion in Vyronas varied from mildy alluring to downright erotic. The gown Annika was wearing was lavender, to match the color of her eyes. It didn’t bare a lot of skin, but it was still sexy as hell. The top was sleeveless, and seemed to be nothing more than a few layers of lavender and cream chiffon draped across her breasts. The layers were so thin he could see her dark pink nipples shining through. The bottom portion of the dress was, again, nothing but layers of cream and lavender chiffon that seemed to be haphazardly sewn together, to fall in varying lengths around her legs. As she moved, the material flowed and moved, showing tantalizing glimpses of her fair skin and he noticed she wasn’t wearing any shoes but was also barefoot.
The only thing that saved him from having a heart attack was that the lower portion of the dress clearly had more layers stacked on top of each other and were not see through. Still, he didn’t need to imagine what lay below. The fantasy image running through his head of those lovely dark curls between her legs wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.
She had not realized he’d entered the kitchen so he cleared his throat. She spun around quickly but once she saw it was him, her shoulders visibly relaxed. “Ava sure knows how to lay out a meal, huh?
“That she does. I assume you are making a tray to take to Mary?”
Annika nodded. “Yes, I’ll bring this in to her and then be back. But don’t wait on me to eat. Go ahead and dig in.”
Kieran watched as Annika picked up the tray and glided out of the room. Without thinking further about it, Kieran grabbed a bottle of honey wine and opened it. He walked outside to the balcony and set it on a wrought iron table that graced one side. Returning to the kitchen, he fixed two plates with various items of food that Ava’s cooks had provided. There was poached salmon swimming in a delicate butter sauce, broiled oysters and roasted peacock. A variety of