“Why didn’t you tell me you have a sister?”

Phoebe was perched on the end of the bed, her hands clasped in her lap. We were in a nomads’ inn, the same we had stopped into for rest on our way to Ka-lik’et, in a tiny village on the outskirts of the city. Last time, I had ensured we had separate rooms. This time, however, having already slept in the same bed, we had agreed to share a room, and she was now sitting on the bed I would soon be in with her.

I was stunned to hear her ask about Ola. She looked a little apprehensive, as if she expected the question would anger me, but it did not. I was merely surprised. “How do you know about Ola?”

“Your mother,” she said. The answer had already struck me before she responded. Why my mother had brought Ola into conversation at all, I did not know, but she would have been the only source through which Phoebe could have learned about my little sister.

“I did not intentionally omit Ola from our conversations,” I said. “I simply do not think about her. It is a waste of time.”

“What did she do?” Phoebe pressed. “Oraaka said you and Venan haven’t spoken to her in years.”

I nodded. “We have not. She is not someone with whom we wish to associate.” Phoebe raised an eyebrow, and I grinned. “I know. It sounds hypocritical coming from me, having the past like the one I have, but it is my belief Ola crossed a line that is irredeemable.”

“What did she do?” she repeated. I could see the curiosity burning in her cheeks, and her teeth closed over her bottom lip with intrigued interest.

“It is a long story,” I returned. “The short version is Ola was in a relationship with an A’li-uud from another kingdom. I became friends with him, but we both discovered she was having an affair with a local Dhal’atian. I was accused of urging her to commit the adultery, which I did not, and the friendship between her significant other and me was broken. At the time, I allowed Khrel to believe I had indeed encouraged her to seek another relationship because I knew that was what he needed to heal from the pain of her deceit.”

“That was big of you,” Phoebe remarked, sounding impressed.

With a shrug, I idly replied, “Perhaps, but the fact is I lost a friendship over it, and my sister hurt someone I considered to be a good A’li-uud. I cannot forgive what she has done. Adultery is the greatest betrayal.”

While I spoke, Phoebe’s face changed from curious to surprised.

“Why do you look at me so?” I asked, now interested to hear her answers.

She tipped her head thoughtfully. “I just…” She paused. “I guess I didn’t take you for the kind of person who’d have such strong feelings on cheating.”

I stared at her. “Cheating?”

“Affairs. Adultery,” she explained. “I mean, humans don’t like it either, but it happens so frequently nowadays that it’s pretty rare to never meet anyone who’s been cheated on or did the cheating themselves.”

“Well,” I said dryly, “perhaps it is common practice on Earth, but it is not on Albaterra, and I have no desire to have my sister in my life after she proved herself so self-serving and unvirtuous.”

She nodded and looked at her hands. “I’m sorry for bringing it up if it bothers you to talk about it,” she apologized.

I studied her momentarily. She did, indeed, look quite sorry, though she had no reason to be. Talking about Ola was far from painful for me. I strode across the room to her, dropping my belt with my dagger sheaths to the floor as I did, then placed a hand on either side of her body and leaned down until we were just inches apart.

“You need not apologize,” I murmured. “There is no question you might ask I will not answer.”

She looked up at me through her lashes, and I felt an immediate physical response. Pressure blossomed in my lower region, and my fingers twitched. Bending even lower, I kissed her. She returned the kiss eagerly, slipping her tongue into my mouth before I could slip mine into hers. I started easing forward, pushing her down onto her back on the bed. Her arms lifted to wrap around my neck, and she pulled my chest down to hers. The temperature of her body, cooler than mine, sent a shiver throughout me.

She was delicious.

I scooped a hand beneath her to the small of her back and lifted, raising her hips to meet mine. She moaned slightly, and I immediately felt the hot tension in my groin. I became urgent, hungry. I slid my lips from hers to her jawline, and then lower to seek out the softest part of her neck where it curved into her collarbone. She mewed and rolled her head back, her fingers clutching my hair like a lifeline. I lapped my tongue from her shoulder to her earlobe, drowning myself in her flavor. Her skin tasted just as divine as her mouth.

She groaned in response, and she lifted her hips of her own accord then, pushing herself against my hardness. I wanted her. I would have taken her in an instant, too, had we not been in a village inn with nomads in the rooms on both sides of ours.

“Please,” she whispered, voicing my desires in that one, single, simple word.

I suckled on her ear for a moment and listened to her needy whines before humming softly, “Do not tempt me.”

With a measure of defiance I had not believed possible of her, she shot her hand downward and palmed my firm girth. It was I who groaned now, loudly and hoarsely with frustrated restraint. I seized her wrist and pinned her arm above her head.

“Do not test me, laaka,” I growled dangerously. “You do not know the steps to this dance.”

“If I’m a laaka, isn’t it your job to entertain me?” she breathed.

I smirked and rolled off of her, pulling her with me until she was on top of me and I was on my back. “Absolutely,” I agreed. “But I do not have enough money to pay for the damage we would do to this room.”