Noble Blood

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.”

Jaden was shaking his head. “Duncan isn’t gay.”

“No, he’s not.” Jaden’s expression turned cynical. “He’s bi, just like you.”

Jaden frowned. “Honey, Duncan has never shown an interest in men. Believe me, I would have known.”

“Of course not. He had you.”

Jaden’s eyes rolled, which looked really weird. They were still vampiric, black with red hot flames in the center. “If Duncan was ever into men then he’s been so far in the closet he’s been living in Narnia.” Jaden turned his back on her. “Are you sure some other funky Sidhe sickness isn’t holding him back?”

“I’m positive.” She put her hand on the small of his back, smiling when he jumped. “He finally Claimed me today.”

“Good for you.”

God, the pain underlying that cheerful facade would drop a stronger man to his knees. She could feel it roiling within him. “Jaden, he couldn’t Claim me until you were here. Frankly, I think it was what you were doing in the shower that tipped him over the edge.”

His face turned bright red, his eyes leeching back to normal in shock. “Oh God.”

“Jaden, it’s all right.”

“No it’s not. He’s going to kill me.”

“Why?”

He shot her a disbelieving look. “I saw you naked. I rode, uninvited, in his head while he…” He gestured toward her body. “On the desk, no less!”

She laughed. Her sexy vamp sounded so prissy! “Are you kidding me? He was thrilled!”

His jaw dropped. “I have to get out of here.”

“Oh, no you don’t.”

His hand curled around her throat, but she wasn’t afraid. She could never be afraid of him. “Sweetheart, how are you planning on stopping me?”

”Like this.” She got up on her tiptoes and kissed him.

Jaden froze against her, his eyes wide. When her tongue reached out and tasted his lips he moaned.

She had to get him to stay. She had to. There was only one other man who tasted this wonderful, and no way would she lose either of them. She buried her fingers in the darkness of his hair and opened her mouth, offering herself to him. He tried to pull back but her hand in his hair stopped him. Unless he wanted to lose some of the silky strands or, worse, hurt her, he couldn’t get free.

Jaden would never deliberately hurt her. He’d go sunbathing first.

The tip of one of his fangs touched her lip. She ran her tongue along the tip, uncertain how he would