Christ, she makes me mad.
I couldn’t want her any more than I already do.
My balls tighten, and my orgasm rushes through me, and I spurt deep inside Aubrey. I stay where I am as we both catch our breath. Inside the shed, it’s dark and dusty, and thin slits of sunlight paint Aubrey’s hips and ass.
“Daddy says you tricked me. You should have told me who you are.”
I pump my cock lazily in and out of her, enjoying the slick feel of my come in her pussy. “I told you who I am.”
She buries her face in her hands, but stays where she is. “It would have been good to know the truth, considering who our fathers are.”
“My birth certificate reads Cassian Bellerose. I’ve been Cassian Bellerose all my life. I never lied to anyone.” I pull my cock out of her so fast she gasps.
I watch her pull her underwear and jodhpurs up wriggling those hips into the tight fabric. I wonder if my father would be angry with me for fucking Levanter’s daughter, or if he’d find it amusing.
I fist my hands in my hair and growl. I wish I could get him out of my head. Ever since I laid eyes on her, I’ve thought about that bastard more than I have in my whole life.
Aubrey looks up at me, her eyes uncertain in the half-light. “Cassian? What’s wrong?”
“I’m wondering if he loved my mother, or if he just pinned her down and fucked her every chance he got. He never married her, after all. Probably, he couldn’t love anyone. I wonder if I can, or if I’m too much like him.”
She sits on the bench, regarding me solemnly. “General Lungren led a campaign of death and destruction through Paravel. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me, you’re nothing like him.”
I laugh and rub a hand over my face.
“You care about Onyx so much that you keep him happy and safe, even though his presence at your stables must be a painful reminder of the past. You’re a good man, Cassian.” A smile twitches the corner of her mouth. “An asshole, but a good man.”
I gaze at her, an ache in my chest. No one’s ever told me that before. “I wish I could stop thinking about them, but that would mean not thinking about you, too.” I step toward Lady Aubrey and tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “I don’t want to not think about you.”
“I don’t want to not think about you, either,” she whispers.
I kiss her mouth in the dim light, reddened from my rough kisses. “Congratulations, baby.”
I wrap my arms tightly around her with her head tucked beneath my chin, and we stay like that for a long time.12Aubrey“This is nice. It’s like it was before.” Wraye smiles at me across the table at Les Trois Petits Cochons.
This is where I took her for breakfast a few weeks ago, before I knew she was seeing my father. After everything that’s happened with Cassian, that feels like a hundred years ago now.
“Yes and no,” I reply, picking up my fork, “but the scrambled eggs are still amazing.”
The last time we were here, Wraye was pale and quiet, like she had a lot on her mind. A few days before that, she’d been in tears after dancing with Daddy. We eat in silence for a few minutes, but then curiosity overwhelms me.
“What was happening between you and Daddy then?”
Wraye plays with the straw in her orange juice, her expression sad as she recalls, “I’d told him I didn’t want to have anything to do with him anymore. We were going behind your back, and I was deceiving him about belonging at Court as well.”
“You were in tears. It made you miserable to tell him that.”
“Yes. I was falling in love with him.”
Wraye shoots me a wary look, but I just smile at her. After he developed feelings for Wraye, Daddy finally talked to me about his past and my mother. He softened because of her. I think the only reason he hasn’t lost his temper and locked me in my room rather than let me keep Cinnamon at Bellerose stables is because of her, too. God knows how she’s persuaded him to leave me be.
I can see Wraye is dying to ask me about what’s been happening between Cassian and me, and pinwheels go off in my belly, as they have ever since the competition. I don’t know what Cassian and I are doing.
But I like it.
“Are you excited about the international competition?” Wraye asks. “You competed so beautifully on the weekend.”
They were in the crowd, and I’m glad all over again that I asked Daddy and Wraye not to come to help me get ready or come to the horse box after, remembering what Cassian and I got up to.