Chapter 149 Secret desires
“Where did you both wander off to this time?” The dragon prompted, his scrutinizing gaze sweeping between Finn and me.
It was early evening. One of those calm hours between our afternoon city excursions and yet another dinner party or ball for the evening.
Sometimes Hale joined us in the city, and then all three of us would return to the suite together. Mordaine often came in within an hour of our return.
We then lounged, or helped Finn with the Christmas village project he had started, before we got dressed for the evening.
Peaceful calm, fireplace, warm bodies. It was perfect, except for the sexual tension.
“More like us three.” Hale mercifully filled the silence when neither Finn nor I responded.
My hands trembled, acutely aware of Mordaine’s gaze on me from where he sat by the balcony. I should have nothing to be embarrassed about. I have done nothing wrong with Finn so far, and planned to keep my promise of zero sexual exchange between us.
But since this trip, Finn and I have moved past innocent friendship. The way our eyes found each other in the crowd, the way his hands brushed over my body while we danced, the flirty comments he made a couple of times a day…
It was as if we were holding onto our self-control by a flimsy thread. And Mordaine knew this. Somehow, he had managed to see through us even though we acted appropriately.
He was waiting for us to fail. I saw it in those silver eyes that promised pain. He was waiting for us to fail so he could punish us like he promised that night he made me crawl.
My pussy clenched.
“There were no breakout meetings today, so I caught up with them just before they got an Uber,“ Hale continued, likely oblivious to all the tension. Maybe he wasn't, he was the only man here who knew the entire extent of my dirty desire.
How bad I wanted to be for them, with them, all three of them.
Mordaine shut his laptop now, and crossed the room to sit with us on the carpet with the array of ornaments.
His eyes met mine again as he reached for a cottage. My cheeks flamed.
It did not help that they had barely touched me the whole trip. I slept naked between them as usual, but other than gentle caresses to ease me to sleep, they kept their hands off.
“Do you politicians do any work at all?” he finally responded. Dipping a flat brush in paint, he began to coat the porcelain cottage in a green shade.
Hale glared up from the hub of LED bulbs surrounding him. “I may shrug off the public calling us two-faced, but I draw the line at defending the value of politicians to my own husband.”
“Ah, touchy subject. I apologize.” He did not sound apologetic. “It is rather difficult to like you folks when you sit on your assess and get fat on our taxes.”
The suite fell silent, and I stopped breathing. Hale and Mordaine often argued like drunks at a bar, seemingly at the edge of swinging a punch. Although they never did, you could not be certain they wouldn't in moments like this.
And then Hale started to laugh, throwing his head back. “Taxes? From a billionaire?” He laughed harder, and I had to flatten my lips to crush my smile. “You bloody tax evaders?”
Finn reached towards me to pick a reel of wire by my calf. His fingers brushed me accidentally and my breath hitched. Our eyes met, and he looked away quickly.
My cheeks were aflame now, as shivers kissed my spine.
“.... a nice day at Gyeongbokgung Palace,” I caught the last of Hale’s words, and realized they had drifted from their banter.
“I thought you all went there yesterday?” Mordaine paused, his eyes flicking between the three of us.
Hale looked up from the bulbs he was stringing together like a necklace. “Hanok village, darling. That's where we were yesterday, it's not the same as the royal palace.”
Finn shifted with a wince, as if the carpet had suddenly become itchy. Mordaine shot him a look. “Did you like the palace?”
“Never went.”
The dragon’s brows arched in surprise, as surprised as we all had been when Finn split from us as we left the Namsam park, opting out of the trip to the palace.
“Why?”
“I don’t like palaces and royals and all that bullshit.” He was wincing now, still shifting on the carpet.
I stared at him. Nymphaea liked that French court and mostly had nice things to say about it in her diary. Maybe there was more information in the pages I had not yet read that would explain her distaste for it in this lifetime.
“Fairy.”
I turned to find Hale watching me. I frowned at his straight back and serious expression. All traces of his earlier humor were gone. “There's an important discussion we need to have.”
Unease spread round my body. He was speaking to me, but his eyes were on Mordaine. And when I looked at Mordaine, he seemed extra invested in carving patterns on his cottage with a small gold knife.
Finn. Moon above. Finn. He told them the truth about four years ago, after all.