“No, but they would have played games with you.” He stalked toward her. “The only person who gets to mess with your head is me.”
She felt her brow furrow. “I don’t even know what to do with that comment.” She didn’t know what to do with himin general. “You’re like no one I’ve ever met before.”
He trailed his fingertip from the hollow beneath her ear all the way down her throat. “I could say the same to you. I’m not easy to intrigue. I’m even harder to shock. You managed to do both.”
“Hmm, well, I appreciate you coming all the way here to take away that barrier thing.”
“You think that’s why I’m here?” he asked, his mouth kicking up in amusement.Amusement.
She felt her lips flatten. “Itshouldbe why you’re here. I want whatever you put inside me gone.”
“I’m only guarding what’s mine. Is that so bad?”
“Since when am I yours?” And since when did her body get all tingly over the M word?
“Since I decided.” He bit her lip before she could bark out a retort of any kind. “The barrier, as you call it, will fade on its own within a few days. Now, the reason I came here was to tell you not to make any plans for after tonight’s celebration. You’ll be coming home with me.”
Bold bastard. “Oh, I will?”
“You will. Because you want to.”
“So very sure of that, aren’t you?”
“We can pretend I’m wrong, if you’d like. But you don’t strike me as a game player, or as a person who has an issue with reaching out to take what they want.”
Ordinarily, no, she didn’t have such an issue. Nor did she play games. Life was too short for that shit—something she’d learned early. But this was … oh, who the hell was she kidding? Certainly not herself. The truth was that she had no intention of resisting him, whether it would be wise or not.
He stroked a hand down her hair. “I want to fuck you in my bed. I want you to break for me again.” He dipped his head and stared deep into her eyes. “You want the same thing. And so you’ll come home with me later, won’t you?”
Sniffing, she lifted an imperious brow. “I’ll expect more than one orgasm.”
One of his sexy-as-shit smiles surfaced. “I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”
“Iprefer the seats we had last time,” said Hattie as they waited for the celebration to begin. “They were comfier.”
Anabel sighed. “They were exactly the same, simply in a different section of the arena. You’re just moody because you had to come away from your book.”
“The hero was about to declare his love for the heroine. It was about damn time. He hesitated for too long. How hard is it to admit that you love someone?” Hattie patted her hair. “I said it to all my husbands.”
Anabel’s brow puckered. “But did you actually mean it? I only ask because, well, you killed them. In cold blood.”
“I warned them I don’t handle betrayal well.”
“I don’t think they knew that meant you’d poison them.”
“They did seem surprised when they were dying.”
Beside Wynter, Xavier rolled his eyes before leaning toward her. “Cain is staring at you again,” he said. “He’s not the only one who’s been sliding glances your way. Except she’s not so much glancing as glaring.”
Wynter felt her mouth flatten. “If you’re referring to Ishtar then, yeah, I’m aware.”
“I heard some whispers that she’s been trying to seduce both CainandSeth ever since she woke from her Rest,” said Xavier.
Ignoring the way her gut twisted in what suspiciously felt like jealousy, Wynter frowned. “Is she imagining some kind of triad or something?”
He shrugged. “Actually, I thought maybe she had her eye firmly on one of them and was hoping that flirting with their brother would spur them to make a move on her. But it might be that she has her heart set on a triad. She seems like a person who’d get off big time on having two men worship her like that.”
“She probablycouldhave that kind of relationship. I’ve seen enough guys eat her up with their eyes.” Cain wasn’t one of them, though.