He vanished at the last second, leaving the ball to fall into the grass.
“I could turn you into ash, you know,” he snarled into my ear.
The wind picked up, fluttering the waxy leaves on the laurels. If Rían truly planned on turning me to ash, he’d hardly warn me first.
Having him this near made me feel things that I shouldn’t want to feel. Dark, dangerous things.Reminding me of his confessions last night.
Choose how I unravel you.
I needed him far,faraway.
“If you turned me to ash,” I whispered, trying not to inhale, “then the breeze could blow me against your precious, clean shirt.” I whirled and dragged my hands down his sleeves, leaving a trail of brown streaks in their wake.
Rían let out an indignant yelp. The look of sheer horror contorting his features left me doubling over in a fit of laughter until a wet palm slid across my cheek. Cold muck slipped down my face, plopping onto my chest.
“There.” Rían smiled, even as he kept his dirty hand well away from his clothes. “Now, we’re even.” With a flick of his wrist, his shirt and hand were clean.
I scrubbed my cheek and slapped mud onto his black waistcoat. “Nowwe’re even.”
Rían kicked a mound of mud toward me, splattering my skirts.
I stomped in a puddle, soaking us both.
Rían magically appeared in a clean outfit.
If I’d had his magic, I would have picked up the entire wheelbarrow of topsoil and dumped it over his head. I supposed I’d have to make do with a handful. Black soil spilled down his ears, over his collar, and onto shoulders.
Loosing a string of vicious profanity, Rían unfastened the buttons at his throat, continuing until his shirt gaped open over his tanned, toned chest. A thick silver scar shaped like a crude X marred the skin over his heart. I told myself to turn away. My feet didn’t budge. I commanded my eyes to close. If anything, they widened as Rían untucked his shirt from the bottom of his breeches and shook the fabric, sprinkling the grass with black earth.
Another curse. Another flick. Another clean shirt.
This one I covered in compost.
“That’s it. You’re finished.” Rían stalked forward, sending me back and back until the branches from the laurels stabbed my spine. Trapped. Paralyzed. A mouse staring into the narrowed eyes of a hungry cat. The pounding in my chest filled my ears.
I expected another flick of his wrist. Instead, Rían lunged, caught me by the thighs, and threw me over his shoulder. This was worse. Far worse.
Budding flowers and discarded gardening tools witnessed my humiliation as Rían started toward the trees at the edge of my father’s property. If I had any strength at all, I would’ve beaten him until he released me.
“Put me down this instant!” The sea sang in the distance, rhythmic and violent as the darkness gathering in my core. A forbidden song forming deep in my marrow.
“If you wanted to get me undressed, all you had to do was say ‘please.’ You didn’t have to ruin my feckin’ clothes.”
Unbidden heat collected in my stomach when I thought of the ridges of his abdomen. The cut of his chest. That strange scar. I scrubbed my grimy hands down his back, painting his black waistcoat mucky brown.
Rían cursed again. “Stop that! I don’t have any more clean shirts.” His fingers tightened where they gripped my thighs. If I weren’t so angry and he weren’t so irritating, I may have liked the way his hands felt. Strong. Possessive.
“The fancy prince doesn’t own more than four shirts?”Don’t think about his hands. Don’t think about his hands.“Poor fancy prince. You really are cursed. The curse of four shirts. Lucky for you, I know how to break it. See, there’s a place in town where you can buy such things.”
“I have more than four feckin’ shirts, you wretched human. But the others aren’t pressed.” The pine needles beneath his boots left his footsteps completely silent. A misty breeze blew in off the coast, smelling of fish and seaweed.Waves slammed against the shore, then retreated to the sea only to come crashing back again.
I thumped him on the back.“Heaven forbid someone sees you in a wrinkled shirt.”
“Do it again and see what happens.”
The same warning he’d given me last night.
Choose how I unravel you.