Duncan shook his head as the fae wheeled the now empty cart back out of the office, shutting the door behind him. “How the hell does he do that?”
“What?” Moira looked confused.
“Know that I want privacy.”
Jaden smirked. “He’s a brownie, a house sprite. How can he not? Their very nature is to serve their master’s needs.”
“Hmph.” Duncan turned his attention back to Jaden. “What previous instructions had you given him?”
Jaden leaned back in his chair. “I’m in charge of your personal security, remember? If anything and I mean anything, looks like it might cause you to get a paper cut I want to know about it.” He gestured toward Moira. “Those orders now include Lady Malmayne.”
Moira was watching him through narrowed eyes. “All right. You’re here to investigate the Malmaynes. They’re making a pain of themselves but so far the only thing they’ve done is try to set aside Duncan’s Claim on me and Leo’s true bond. What are our options?”
Jaden blinked. Claim? He sat up straight, both feet planting themselves on the floor. “You two haven’t finished bonding yet?”
They shared a look that confused the hell out of him. Moira answered him first. “No, not yet.”
He was stunned. “Why not? If you two complete the bonding then Henri and his friends don’t have a leg to stand on! What’s left to do?”
“The Claiming is complete, but we still need to do the Vow and the Binding.” Moira’s expression was mischievous, but Duncan looked deadly serious.
“We can’t complete the ritual.” Duncan held up his hand, forestalling Jaden’s instant protest. “There are things you don’t understand yet. We’ll get into them later. But for now, completing the bond isn’t possible.”
Jaden was now fiercely worried. He didn’t understand why they hadn’t completed a ceremony they were both eager for.
Unless…
He stood, suddenly terrified. Duncan’s weary face suddenly took on ominous meaning. His eyes drifted automatically to the new silver in Duncan’s golden hair. “Is one of you ill?” He gestured toward those fine, terrifying silver hairs. “Duncan?” If there was something wrong with Duncan or Moira not even the Hob would be able to get him away from them. He’d fight Oberon himself to stay until Duncan was well.
A knock sounded on the office door. “I’m sorry, my lord, but there’s a visitor out front. He’s being very insistent that he be let in. I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold him off much longer.”
Moira put her hand on Duncan’s shoulder. “Why don’t you let me try and explain things to Jaden while you go and deal with the latest crisis. Okay?”
He kissed the top of her head. “Fine. Be gentle with him, though.” Duncan smiled and laid his hand on Jaden’s shoulder. “Welcome home.” He exited the office, his shoulders straight, his head held high. Whoever was waiting for the Malmayne lord was going to find the Malmayne lord, illness be damned.
You had to admire the man even while you wanted to knock some sense into him. If Duncan was ill he didn’t need to be worrying about anything but getting better. Moira should be tucking his ass into bed, not sending him out to deal with assholes.
“Jaden?”
“Hmm?”
“We need to talk.”
Jaden winced. Hell. It was never a good thing when a woman said that.
Moira wanted to kick Jaden and Duncan’s collective butts. How could they have danced around each other for so long? The heat between the two of them was burning her up! But the worry and fear in Jaden was reaching critical mass. She needed to diffuse it fast. “Duncan is suffering from mate sickness.”
Jaden turned on her so fast her head spun. He was quick, but she’d forgotten exactly how quick. “Why? Why won’t you complete the mating?” He stalked toward her, black bleeding out to the whites of his eyes. “C’mon, sweet. You can tell me.”
She shivered, the deep purr in his voice calling to her, a siren’s song she longed to answer. Where she found the strength to keep from responding to his vampiric lure she didn’t know. She took a deep breath, drawing in his coppery scent. “We couldn’t. Neither one of us could work ourselves up to it.”
Red flames danced in his eyes. “Why is that, Moira?” He stroked his finger down her cheek. “I can tell you that if I had you waiting in my bed there’s no way I’d hold off on making you mine.”
She smiled. He was trying to intimidate her. She shook her head, amused. You’d think he’d know better than that. She had to make him understand why they hadn’t been able to recite the Vow and complete the Binding. “How can you bond to your heart when your soul is missing?” He frowned, confused. Did he even understand what a true bond really meant? “Do you know what each step of the bond entails?”
He huffed out an irritated breath. “There’s the Claiming, which begins with a kiss and ends with a fuck.” She winced. He was being deliberately crude. “Then there’s the Vow and the Binding. The Sidhe recites the Vow, magic swirls, and the Binding takes place. Voila, you are married for eternity, life forces bound together.” He tilted his head to the side. “I hear Leo’s Binding with Ruby was quite the light show.” He smiled, the expression full of evil pleasure. “Kaitlynn was so pissed.”
She nodded. She’d been there. She’d known that if anyone had laid a hand on Ruby at that moment, Leo’s power would have destroyed them. It was never a good idea to get between a Sidhe lord and something he wanted. “It was. Do you know what was missing from my Claiming with Duncan?”
“No, but I’m sure you’ll tell me.” For the first time since Duncan left the room Jaden looked truly worried again.
She reached up and stroked his cheek, pleased beyond belief when he nuzzled into her touch. “You, Jaden. You’re the other third of our bond.”
He started to laugh. “Oh, that’s a good one. Try and sell me a bridge. C’mon. You know you want to.”
She kicked him in the shins.
He leaned down and clutched his leg. “Ow!” The surprise in his face would have been amusing if the situation wasn’t so serious.
“I’m not joking. You left, and Duncan and I both went into mate sickness. We were pining for you and didn’t even know it.” She figured the only reason she hadn’t been even more sick was her leprechaun blood. It must have shielded her. Duncan had taken the full brunt of it, the mark of his anguish left on his body for all to see.
“Uh-huh. Sure.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “So how come after all this time I’m not bound to him? I’d think in the hundred years we’ve been together he would have popped wood over me at some point.”
Oh, he was going to be a pain in the ass about this. “My mother thinks—”
“You talked to your mother about Duncan’s erectile dysfunction?” He glared down at her. “Has he considered taking your TV away?”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose with a weary sigh. “Jaden.”
“Hey, it’s not like we were together for a hundred years or anything.” He tapped his fingernail against his teeth and sucked in a breath. “No, wait.”
“If you don’t knock it off I’m going to kick your ass so hard you’ll fart everything you say.”
He barked out a startled laugh. “God, I love vicious women.”
She smirked up at him. “Listen. We think the reason Duncan didn’t feel the pull toward you was because of your blood bond. We think it masked the need to Claim you. When you went away and cut off all contact the mating sickness set in.”