Without lifting her head from his cock, she maneuvered herself around so she straddled his face, and Bael eagerly pulled her down to him. Her cunt was dripping wet, the folds swollen and pink, and he dipped his tongue inside happily. He loved her taste, could lick her for hours.

Her hand stroked roughly up and down his shaft as she teased and tormented the head. Burying his face in her pussy, he flicked her clit with his tongue and reached down to cup her breasts and stroke her nipples.

She gasped, brought her head up and moaned. “Good,” she choked. “So good.”

“I could lick you forever,” Bael said, and drove his tongue deep into her pussy. Kett writhed, then sat up and slid down his body until her pussy rubbed his cock. Holding his throbbing length in one hand, she rubbed it against her sopping-wet folds, the tight nub of her clit, and rocked her hips.

“Do you want me inside you?” Bael asked, sitting up and pressing her smooth back against his chest.

She nodded, and as he brushed her hair away from the back of her neck, kissing the damp skin there, she fed his cock into her hungry pussy, taking him in all the way and squeezing tight around his whole length. Bael cupped her breast with one hand, slid the other down to stroke her clit and rocked his hips against hers. He couldn’t thrust into her properly like this, but it was a great position for slow, glorious fucking.

“I only wish we had a mirror,” he whispered, and she squeezed her internal muscles around him.

“Your cock feels so good inside me,” she moaned. “Just like I knew it would.”

“Mmm,” he said-then frowned as he realized what she’d said.

“You’re so big. I felt it, under the table, but I didn’t realize it was this big.” Her fingers joined his between her legs, but while his rubbed her clit, hers stroked his balls and the base of his cock, slippery with her own juices.

“You-”

She writhed against him, her back rubbing his hard nipples, and Bael suddenly went cold as he realized what was wrong. Her back was completely smooth.

Not scarred.

“Kett,” he said, and she giggled.

Bael went completely still.

“You can call me Kett if you’d like,” she said, “but it’s actually Marisa, remember?”

He breathed in, trying to capture Kett’s scent, but smelled nothing. Panic swamped him and for a moment he couldn’t move.

Still bouncing happily on his cock, she said, “You passed out, poor baby, but I couldn’t wait to see what that big juicy dick of yours felt like in my mouth.”

“Get off me,” Bael said, shoving her away and scrambling backward. Horror consumed him as the girl with the dark curly hair turned and looked at him with a face that wasn’t Kett’s.

The barmaid from downstairs was sprawled there on the bed, legs open wide, pussy slick and swollen, and his cock leapt at the sight. She arched her back, her bountiful breasts aimed right at him, and stroked her own pussy.

“Come on in, lover,” she purred, and Bael leapt backward so far he fell off the bed.

“Get out,” he said. “Get out!”

Her face fell. “But we were having such a good time,” she pouted. “Is this because I sucked your dick before you were awake? Well, I’m sorry, babe, but I couldn’t resist, and you did enjoy it.” She licked her lips. “I can still taste your come.”

“No,” Bael said, pulling himself shakily to his feet. “No-I-this was a mistake-”

“She doesn’t need to find out,” said Marisa, crawling toward him and reaching for his cock, which twitched eagerly.

“I thought you were her,” he said desperately.

“I can pretend to be her, if you’d like,” she purred.

“No! You’re not her. I can’t-I can’t have sex with you,” he said, his voice trailing off as he realized what he’d just been doing. “I can’t,” he repeated.

“Oh, you can,” Marisa said, her hands encircling his cock and pumping gently. “You definitely can. Mmm, you felt good inside me. Want to finish it off? I want to feel you come inside me.”

“No,” Bael said, his voice weak as she started kissing his chest. “It was just because I thought you were her,” he repeated.

“Well, now you know I’m not,” she said, looking up at him with those strange silver eyes that so reminded him of Kett’s. But the coy look on her face wasn’t like his mate’s.

His mate. What if she isn’t?

Trying hard to silence the voices in his head that told him it was a really bad idea, Bael pulled Marisa up into his arms and kissed her, hard. His cock leapt, and lust flooded through him as her body pressed against his.

He hadn’t even managed to get hard with any of the other women he’d tried. He’d been so sure it was Kett.

“If I can fuck you, and I know who you are,” he told Marisa, “then she’s not my mate.”

“If you say so,” she said, nibbling on his ear.

Bael threw her down on the bed, lifted her ankles over his shoulders and plunged into her, his eyes on her face the whole time. And while Marisa closed her eyes and stroked herself and moaned and writhed, Bael kept on grimly pounding into her until he came.

He came inside a strange woman, a barmaid-and wanted to cry.

“Get out of here,” he said, withdrawing from her and turning away.

“But-”

“Get out!” Bael snarled, turning back, Var shining through, and she fled.

Bael fell back on the bed where he’d betrayed Kett, and cried for the first time in years.

Middle of the afternoon, and the bar of the up-market hotel was deserted but for a few wealthy-looking older women and their suspiciously young and handsome escorts. Every so often a pair of them would disappear in the direction of the rooms upstairs. The place was a shiny-fronted brothel, but Kett didn’t particularly care.

Her stomach churned with the knowledge of what she’d just done. Of how she’d been offered something wonderful and deliberately turned it into something horrible. The Curse of Kett had come upon them both.

It was better this way. Hurt him now and let him go on with his life.

But she couldn’t get his face out of her sight. The hurt, the anger, the betrayal on Bael’s face. She’d made him betray her, and now she couldn’t forgive herself.

“Another drink, signora?” asked the handsome bartender. His name was Giacomo and he had pronounced himself dedicated to cheering her up.

Kett pinched the bridge of her nose and blinked at the man, trying to focus. All she wanted to do was get incredibly drunk and forget what she’d just done-to Bael, and to herself.

Actually, all she really wanted to do was curl up somewhere and cry, but she’d never let herself do that before in her life and she wasn’t about to start now.

“Sure,” she said. “Keep ’em coming.”

Don’t tell her.

It was the first thought in Bael’s mind after Marisa had shut the door behind herself and fled, clutching her clothes. If he didn’t tell Kett, then she’d never know and she’d believe she was his mate-

He closed his eyes. She didn’t believe it now.

She’d never wanted to be his mate, she’d spent every second fighting him. And Kett fighting was damn hot, so he’d never minded, but now…

Now he’d be lying to her, and not just some small lie of omission but a huge, fundamental lie. How did you go from We were meant to be together to I shagged a barmaid?

He paced. He punched the wall. He turned himself into an eagle and went flying around the city, but it didn’t help. None of it helped.

He’d betrayed Kett. He wasn’t her mate, and she should know. Imagine twenty years down the line, he thought, she’s been with you, resenting being tied to you, hating you and all the time she could have been free.