“Going to let me in, Wrayburn?” I asked wryly, trying to push past his looming frame.
He shook his head.
“Come on,” I pleaded, all pretense of joking aside. “It’s freezing out here.”
“In a moment,” he replied, his lips twitching at my dramatics. “First, you should know that I’ve been smoking like a fiend all day. It’s just that I like to smoke when I’m stressed and?—”
“Wrayburn,” I cut in. “I’m cold, and it’s late. I couldn’t care less about your stupid addiction right now. All I care about is not freezing to death on your doorstep. Now,move.”
“Have it your way.” He shrugged and finally stepped aside.
As it turned out, he hadn’t been exaggerating. A thick haze of smoke greeted me upon entry, but I was too invested in warming my freezing limbs next to the fire to take much notice.
Ever the gentleman, Casimir flung open the windows to allow in fresh air to dilute the smoke.
I accepted the glass of whiskey he offered me a moment later, grimacing as I forced down the burning liquid.
Casimir swirled his glass pensively before asking, with infuriating nonchalance, “Did you receive my gift?”
“Gifts, plural, you mean,” I corrected him.
The Darkseer sank into a chair across from the sofa, a gleam of mischief in his eyes. “I thought it went well with the dress.” He shrugged.
I shot him a withering glare and opened my mouth to argue before he cut in, “I only agreed not to purchase a dress, and I kept my word.”
My nostrils flared in earnest as I continued to glower at him from my perch on the sofa. “You just can’t respect other people’s boundaries, can you? I guess that’s just a side effect of you being an interfering prick.”
Unfazed, he stood to refill his glass before sinking into the seat beside me. “Does this show of temper mean you’re still refusing to wear the necklace?”
I stiffened at his sudden proximity. “No, not exactly.”
His expression was set squarely between amusement and irritation as he watched me over the rim of his glass.
“Dare I hope that you might overlook the necklace’s admittedly thorny history and wear it to the ball tomorrow?”
I gave a noncommittal shrug. “Maybe my self-preservation is finally kicking in.”
“Thank the gods for that.”
I retaliated by tossing a well-aimed pillow at his head.
“You are utterly absurd,” he chided, dodging the attack smoothly.
“I am not!”
He merely smirked at my petulance and, throwing an arm over the back of the sofa, sighed with the air of a man dealing with a particularly pugnacious child.
I felt the heat of his arm as it grazed my shoulder. His probing amber eyes, rendered darker in the low light, found mine and held them steadily.
It was a look that always made me feel like he already knew all of my secrets, and tonight was no exception. I returned his gaze, knowing that he trusted me too much to glamour his way into my mind, and imagining how he would react to my planned betrayal. Unease creeped in at the edges of my thoughts, threatening to dismantle my composure, but Casimir was speaking again.
“You’re impossibly stubborn, I don’t know why I bother.” A lazy smile played across his lips, and I found it difficult to look away. He leaned in closer. “You ask me to go to a ball with you, and then you deny ever wanting to be near me in the first place.”
He was even nearer now. I could count the specks of silver in the rich brown of his irises. His free hand traced along the edge of my collarbone.
My breathing became uneven.
“I give you theBook of Erebos…”