Chapter 24: Her House

"Come in," Thora said. "All of you. I'm not shouting this down a stairwell."

They filed into the flat and stood in a row against the wall.

It was five big men in a room built for one cot.

She sat on the edge of the cot and looked at them.

"You can say whatever you came to say," she said.

"We came to ask," Dax said.

"Ask what?"

"Whether you want us."

"I want you," Thora said. "I wanted you before I knew why."

The room went very quiet.

"But I'm setting terms. Mine, not the show's."

"Name them," Joren said.

"No one hands me a cup unless I've watched it filled."

"Done," said Dax.

"No one decides what I feel. If you're angry, you say it. If you're wrong, you say it."

"Done," said the Heir.

"I choose where I sleep and who with, and some nights it's all of you, and some nights it's none."

"Done," said Keir, and grinned.

"And every one of you tells me the truth. Even when it's ugly."

"Especially then," Ansel said.

Thora stood.

"No bonds, no promises," she said. "That was my rule on Karst. I'm throwing it out. Here's the new one."

She put her hand flat on Joren's chest.

"You stay. All of you. And you keep up."

Joren covered her hand with his.

"Every day," he said.

She pulled him down by the front of his shirt and kissed him.

Then Dax was behind her with his hands at her waist.

His mouth found the back of her neck, slow and careful.

"I've wanted to touch you without a needle in my hand," he said.

"Then do it."

His fingers pushed under her shirt and found her ribs, her stomach, her breasts, and she leaned back into him and moaned.

Ansel knelt in front of her and unbuttoned her trousers with a grin.

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