“Go,” Lucien ground out.
“Lucien, don’t do this,” Cosmo implored.
Lucien lowered his voice to a dangerous rumble. “Now.”
There was a hesitation before Avery, as ever, played diplomat.
Glancing at the occupants of the room, Avery said on a whisper, “There’s a way. No one need know, Cosmo. This doesn’t leave this room.”
“I don’t like it,” Cosmo replied to Avery.
“Lucien, let me talk to her,” Lydia pleaded, her hand coming toward him.
“I will not say it again,” Lucien snarled.
With that, they knew they’d tried his patience, they knew what that meant and without further hesitation all of them moved to leave.
Including Leah.
“Not you,” he demanded and everyone turned.
“What?” Leah asked, her soft, sweet voice grating on his nerves.
“Not you. You stay.”
Her eyes darted to her mother, Cosmo, Avery then back to Lucien. “But I thought –”
“Come over here,” Lucien ordered, cutting off her words as the others quickly and silently left the room.
She didn’t do as he’d commanded. Instead, she looked at the closed door in confusion.
In fact, since she’d stepped foot in the Contract Room she hadn’t done a single thing that he’d commanded.
It wasn’t just her voice that was grating on his nerves, everything about her was.
He’d expected to enjoy this. He hadn’t had a challenge in five hundred years.
He wasn’t enjoying this.
“Leah,” he called, his voice as strained as his patience.
Her head snapped around. “What?” she asked sharply.
He felt his body go taut fighting back the desire to teach her the respect he was owed.
Instead of acting on this urge, he warned quietly, “Don’t ever speak to me that way.”
She stared at him, confusion warring with fear in her face, another look he hadn’t seen in a long time. A look he liked, a look he missed, a look he craved.
This appeased his anger. Not all of it, but enough.
“I don’t get it,” she said, the same fear and confusion in her voice and he felt it stir his blood.
Especially the fear.
Every concubine itched to be selected. This served a purpose but it also eradicated the chase, the capture, the taming.
All of which Lucien also liked, missed and most assuredly craved.