Chapter 2

Two

In Bran's bedroom in the Anneliese, I find more clothing hanging in the closet from thick wooden hangers. There are several dresses, a few t-shirts, sweaters, jeans, and leggings. Since we're going to the human court to file paperwork for my Pledge, I decide I better act the part of a respectable mortal and go with a deep crimson dress with a pleated skirt and a white Peter Pan collar.

It's as I'm getting dressed that Bran comes into the room and steals the panties I have sitting out on the bed.

I try to snatch them back, but my speed is no match for his.

I put my hands on my hips. "Is this another test of my obedience?"

He tosses the ball of fabric into the bathroom. "This time it's for my pleasure and nothing more."

A buzzy warmth fills my veins. He scents the air, his eyes burning golden, and then bends down to me and plants a chaste kiss on the corner of my mouth.

Then he turns away.

"Wait...is that it?"

"Did you expect more?" he asks from the door.

"Yes. You just took my underwear. That feels like a promise."

I'm wound up tight, waiting for him to touch me, grab me, slip his hand beneath the dress. But he doesn't, and the ache starts immediately.

"Come, Mouse, we really should be going." His face is blank, but I know him well enough by now to sense he's pleased with himself and my wet desire.

I could put the panties on. Pretend I'm not vexed by this at all.

But the promise of him having easier access to me is enough to make me abandon the idea. And I think he knows that.

I follow him out of the room and down the hall. We find my sister filling the dishwasher and Damien on a call on his cell phone.

He cuts it short when he spots us.

"In and out," he tells Bran. "Let's play our cards right. Don't piss anyone off."

"I take offense to that, brother. I'm a goddamn delight."

I snort beside him. He smiles down at me.

"Don't leave her side," Damien adds.

Bran's tone of voice immediately turns biting. "As if I would."

Damien seems satisfied with this and gives his brother a nod. "Call me if you need me. I can be there quickly."

Bran sets his hand on the small of my back. But before we leave, I look back at my sister. "You'll be all right while I'm gone?"

"Of course." She dries her hands on a plush gray towel. She's looking at me, but I think most of her awareness is on Damien.

"I'll look after her," Damien tells me.

I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.

My mother worked in the human government until she died and my sister has been in the clerk's office since she was old enough to have a job there. I've been to the court a lot, but never on official business.

Our court isn't as fancy as the vampire court, but it feels imposing anyway with its creaking, wide plank floors that gleam beneath old-fashioned pendant lights.

The main floor houses the clerk's office, the Pledge office, and the county surveyor with a maze of waiting rooms and smaller offices throughout. The second floor has one main courtroom and three smaller ones with several large offices for our mortal judges.

Years ago, I overheard one of the receptionists telling another woman that one of the judges asked out my sister only for him to be turned down. I vividly remember them whispering, "If she'd said yes, I would have worried we'd find the judge staked in his bed the next day!"

At the time I thought it was strange that they were insinuating Julian would have staked a mortal judge because of a date, but now I'm wondering if they maybe knew more about my sister's love life than I did and were gossiping about her involvement with Damien.

I vaguely recall seeing him at the mortal court once in a heated conversation with my sister.

There are all of these little memories that I brushed off at the time, thinking they were nothing.

Would Damien go so far as to kill a mortal for touching my sister?

I think Bran would.

I think his brother might be worse.

Sometimes it's weird to think back on all of the forked paths we ignored, and the others we took.

The Pledge office is at the end of a hallway where arched doors open to an annex. There's a high counter that separates the annex from the rest of the admin.

Alice, one of the assistants, stands at the counter stamping paperwork with vigor.

Thunk. Thunk. Thunk-thunk.

Bran and I enter the annex and Alice looks up and sputters on a greeting.

"Hi Alice," I say, trying to stop her flustering.

"Jessie! Hi! Wow. Hey." She looks at Bran with quick interest, her face burning red before turning back to me. "Is it time for your Pledge already?" She trails off in a nervous giggle.

"Yep. Can you help me get started?"

"Of course." She sets the stamp down and grabs a few sheets of paper and a pen. "Come this way. I'll put you in one of the consultation rooms and a Pledge Clerk will be with you shortly."

She leads us down another hall of closed doors and shows us into room #3.

"Go ahead and get started on that paperwork. I'll have a clerk in soon."

"Thanks."

The door clicks shut behind us a little too loudly.

I sit at the table in the center of the room while Bran circles it with interest.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for cameras or microphones."

"Seriously? I don't think the mortal court has a budget for that."

"Better to be sure."

There are two windows behind me that overlook the nearest side street. Bran stops at one and leans against the casing while I work at the forms.

It's basic information that I've filled out many times before, but now I have to question whether any of it is true. Parents? Not biological. Birthday? Who knows? Ethnicity? No clue.

"Should I even be here?" I ask Bran while marking off several boxes on the form. "I'm technically not human."

"They don't know that. And we're not going to offer it. Not yet, anyway."

"What happens afterward? Like after I'm Pledged? After Rita undoes the binding? There isn't a single fae in Midnight bound to a vampire house. Someone's going to get bent out of shape about it."

"But there's little they can do after the fact."

I finish one form and start on the second.

Bran shifts to the other window.

Fifteen minutes later, I'm finished with the paperwork but the clerk has yet to visit us. "How long is this going to take?" I drop back against the chair. "Do you think they forgot about us?"

Bran's gaze goes distant. "No, they're currently discussing me being here with you."

"Oh, really? Well, if they stopped gossiping, they could speed this up."

Bran comes over, grabs me at the hips and sits me on the edge of the table. "However will we pass the time?"

His hands come to my thighs, fingers slipping in under the hem of my skirt.

"You planned this," I say up to him.

"Not this, exactly, but the ability to touch you whenever I'd like? That I will always be guilty of."

"What are they doing now?" I ask him as he brings his mouth closer to mine.

He listens, then, "Discussing who will take your case." His hand trails higher.

"How long do you think we have?"

Leaning over me, he brings his mouth down on mine, gentle at first, a brush of his lips, a flick of his tongue. It's enough to send a shock of anticipation through me, sinking to a buzz in my clit.

The thought of getting Bran in a waiting room while people are just beyond the door going about their days is exhilarating.

"Sounds like Ed is getting the short stick," Bran says, his mouth still on me, his hands slipping further up my thighs, sending gooseflesh up and down my body. "He's grumbling now."

"Why?" I circle my arms around Bran's neck, urging him closer.

"He's telling the office girls he wants to leave here with his head attached to his neck."

I hook my feet around Bran's legs and my skirt slips up my thighs. I'm so close to being completely bare for him. "You'll behave, won't you?”

He adjusts his grip on me, grabbing my ass and yanking me to the edge of the table. "In what way?"

"No heads will leave their necks."

"Mmm." He kisses me again. "Ed is telling Alice that his wife is making a lasagna and they plan to re-watch Lord of the Rings . 'You heard what the Duvals did at the vampire court last night, didn't you? Alice, I can't miss Lord of the Rings! Janet will kill me!'"

I burst out laughing. "I think Ed might be more terrified of his wife than of you."

"Every man knows that to be fact."

"What's that?"

"That if his partner is not happy, then he might as well dig his grave now."

I roll my eyes as his mouth sinks to my neck. "With regular people, maybe, with you? Never. You aren't afraid of me in the slightest."

"On the contrary. I'm terrified of you." And then he nips at my neck, breaking the flesh.

I jolt beneath him from the sharp pain, but he tightens his hold on me and flattens his tongue against the bead of blood.

I breathe a little faster, heart drumming a little harder. "You are not terrified of me."

"I'm terrified of how you make me feel."

"How's that?"

He pulls back, meets my eyes. There's a stain of red on his teeth. "Whole," he answers. "Awake."

"And that scares you?"

"I think I'm more terrified of losing it. And you."

"You won't."

"I won't if I do my job." He runs his tongue over his teeth, swiping away the blood.

"Which is?"

"To protect you. Which circles us back to the original argument. If you are unhappy—or unwell—then I might as well dig my grave."

I reach between us and unbutton his jeans. "We'll be all right." With the zipper down, I slip my hand into his pants and grope him. He growls deep in the base of his chest. "We make a good team."

His eyes close as I put more pressure on his cock. "Indeed we do, Mouse."

"You think you can fuck me in the time we have before Ed comes in?" I pull his cock out, fist him in my hand, and his eyes flare up.

His attention wanders for a split second to the hall beyond our waiting room and then he spins me around and impales me on his cock in one swift motion as he sits in the chair, me on his lap, my back to his chest.

Just as the door clicks open.

I yelp and scramble to climb off him, but he tightens his hold on my hips and says, "Stay put, Mouse."

His cock throbs deep inside of me just as Ed walks in the room.