“So, a man gave you this token and you’re supposed to wear it when he comes visiting or he’ll think that you don’t return his affections, am I right?”
“This is none of your business.”
“You don’t really like him but you think he’s a good catch. You don’t want to kiss him and you’re worried that you liked kissing me way too much. If you cared for him, you would have noticed the pendant missing from the start.”
“Arrogant much?” My face is burning. Has to be red like a setting sun. “Losing the pendant was an accident. And you don’t know how I feel about Iason. How would you know anything about feelings?”
“Iason, huh?” He grins. “I take it humans think they have a monopoly on love as on everything else.”
“Now you’re going to tell me that the Fae were the ones to teach us about emotions when we came out of our caves.”
He laughs. The sound is deep and rich and delicious. It makes my mouth water, it does something to my insides, sending the warmth from my face down to the center of me.
Then it vanishes when he says, “If you want your pendant back, you’d better take that iron trinket off your wrist, then get down on your knees and kiss me.”
Bastard.
And I do take the iron bracelet off and get down on my knees, because what choice do I have? It’s not that I want it, that it thrills me, the thought of kissing him again.
No, not at all.
Really.
I should be freaked out by his tail, his ears, the cold clammy touch of his skin, I think as I lean forward, bending over him. I should be horrified by that terrible gash seeping blood into the water, by his haughtiness and disdain for humans, his selfishness, keeping my pendant to blackmail me into this.
Where does he keep it anyway? He’s naked. No garments where he might keep it, unless the tail has pockets I can’t see, so he must have hidden it somewhere nearby.
He’s naked…
And then his lips are on mine, his strong hand curling around my neck, and Gods, what is this sensation gripping me, making me lift trembling hands to his face to trace his strong jaw, his neck, touch those strange ears?
He groans the moment I touch them, as if they’re particularly sensitive, and when I do it again, he growls and nips at my lips. I gasp, streaks of pleasure rushing through me. His taste fills my senses, salty and spicy with a sweetness hidden in its depths, a harsh exterior hiding a core of golden sugar.
“No.” I break the kiss, panting hard. Can’t let him get under my skin, can’t start thinking good things about him. He’s Fae! And he’s using me for his own means.
I lean back but his hand on my neck tightens. “Selina,” he says, his voice rough. His eyes seem very dark right now.
“My pendant,” I whisper.
“Thought it would be so easy?” His voice hardens.
“But—”
In a motion too swift for my mind to follow, he pushes me to the ground and rolls over me, propping himself on his elbows. He gazes down at me, his blue braid slipping over a shoulder to curl on my chest.
“Did you like what I did to you last time?” he whispers, his voice a low growl that I feel slide over my skin, into my body. “You shook in my arms. The sounds you made…”
“Stop it,” I breathe.
“Are you sure that’s what you want? Do you really want me to stop? Your scent tells me otherwise. You’re aroused.”
“I’m not.”
“Let me check, then.” His hand shoves my gown up and yanks my undergarments down. It smooths along my thigh, then moves between my legs. “Hm…”
“What are you doing?”
“Checking.” He grins down at me, his long fingers trailing now over my bare skin, over my inner thigh, inching closer and closer to my center, and I’m aching there, needing him to touch and press and do something to make it better. “It’s as I thought.”