I turn sharply to Seth. “Explain?”
Seth shrugs, popping up to sit on the bench, and acting like this isn’t important. “You have a pretty amazing singing voice.”
“Nope – I suck. And I wasn’t singing,” I say.
“Yes, you were. You sang the whole chorus before Killian shut you up.”
He’s right, the words did slip from me. But it felt like I was moving my mouth and the sound was vibrating between Roarke and me. More Roarke than me – because he can sing.
“Why was I singing? I don’t even know the stupid song.” It’s a rhetorical question because I know I was singing because I was relaxed, drunk, and enjoying myself.
And at this point I really regret it.
“Allure,” he says, stabbing his thumb towards the roof.
“I don’t think so. I didn’t feel any Allure.” I groan, moving closer to the bench.
Someone pads up the stairs, probably going up to Roarke. I look up at the ceiling, trying to guess who it is – the steps are too light for any of my guys. Seth grabs my arm before I can move, tugging me back to stand between his knees, then wrapping his legs around my ass to keep me here.
He shrugs. “I don’t know why he started singing. He never sings anymore. He did when we were kids, before the Seduction part of his Seed kicked in. Ever heard of sirens?”
I nod.
“AllureSeeds were the beginning to that myth.”
“I don’t get it. He likes drawing people to him. He likes the attention. He likes walking around with no shirt on and his pants rolled up and wet and all.”
Seth’s lips tweak to the side as if the gravity of something he knows but I don’t is just hitting him.
“Sirens only sing to lure in their equivalent of a soulmate – a Harmony. They make plenty of Silvari swoon and fall into their arms. It’s like puberty, you can’t control it. Singing makes those around him fill with lust and fall to his feet. I’m guessing you didn’t see Teegan and her triune edging closer?”
I shake my head. “My eyes were closed.”
“That’s why Killian cut you off.”
“Me? Why didn’t he smack Roarke in the head? It was Roarke’s fault!”
“Who knows why Killian does anything?”
“Roarke started singing when he knows he shouldn’t,” I moan, blaming Roarke for the ache in my skull just as much as Killian.
“Singing makes Roarke happy. Like cleaning weapons calms Killian and running calms Pax.”
Now I feel like an ass. Of course, Roarke should be allowed to sing. It’s not his fault.
“An Allure mate is the other half of his harmony. Two Allures working together can sing an audience into whatever feeling or state they want. He’s had Allure partners before. Even married one, but never the other half to his harmony. I’m sure he’s convinced it’s a myth.”
“That wasn’t…” My sentence fades away, words failing me.
Seth shrugs. “I’m not the best guy to ask for answers here.”
A tight fist of overwhelming self-doubt snatches at my heart. “Nope, not asking because it’s not possible. One MateBond thingy is impossible enough. Since when does a Saber take more than one mate? I bet never – right?”
He nods slowly, rolling his bottom lip between his teeth ever so slightly, like there’s something he’s stopping himself from saying.
“So that settles it. It doesn’t happen. That was just some weird reaction he has to singing with mortals or something.”
He hooks a finger under my chin and tilts my head back, meeting my gaze with a gentle expression that can’t quite mask the fact that he’s hiding something. I can’t deal with unraveling two Elorsins at once – so I let him keep his secrets.
“You’re scared,” he says.
I wrap my fingers around his, but I don’t actually pull them away from my face. His touch is soft and comforting.
“We have rules, Vexy. Whatever is happening, you won’t be hurt by it.”
I swallow hard, searching for words that just don’t want to come out.
“I’m hurting Pax enough already. I don’t need to hurt Roarke too. I don’t want to – and I don’t know how to stop it. I don’t know how to fix the damage I’ve done to Pax –”
He cuts me off, suddenly leaning forward to grab my waist and lift me effortlessly up and into his lap. For a split second, I feel like I’m just going to slide right off him, then he shuffles back, and I’m perched securely on my knees, on the bench, and in his lap.
Pretty sure I just squealed though.
He chuckles at me, wrapping his arms around me and pinning me in place. “What if I told you we all want connections with you?”
I note his careful use of the word connections and not bonds. Bonds is a word that freaks me out. More than that – the future freaks me out. Short and laced with the prophesied end of my life. A prophecy they have no idea about.
“I’d say you’re all crazy. Seth, I’m going to d –”
He cuts me off hard with his lips, like he knew what I was going to say before the words even left my mouth. Nothing is leaving my mouth now, as his lips brush in complete tenderness over mine. His hands run up my spine and into my hair. Then down my spine to cup my ass and press my hips deeper into his.
Both my arms settle around his neck, completely at his mercy and direction and loving it. Loving every touch, every stutter of his breathing. The way his tongue lazily parts my lips to explore my mouth. Each movement in control but equally as demanding. Maybe if my heart would stop pounding so hard I’d be able to think, to push him back and insist on whatever it was we were arguing about before all the kissing started.
What were we talking about?
I can’t gather enough give-a-bralls to care. Not when he’s kissing me, one hand staying in my hair and the other
