Azul.
She breathed his name out and breathedhimin.
Azul.
Cha realized she’d been moaning his name—his real name—at the same moment he broke off the kiss.Lips wet, eyes blazing like violets on fire—even though that isn’t a thing, that’s how they looked—he stared fiercely at her, gripping her shoulders as if he simultaneously wanted to pull her close and thrust her away.Probably he did.
“I reiterate my previous question,” he ground out, flexing his grip on her.“Why.The.Fuck.Are.You.Here?”
He had a way of doing that, spacing out his words like she was stupid enough that she needed time to parse their meaning.She glared at him and answered in the same vein.“Because.You.Needed.Rescuing.”
He stared at her in disbelief.No—that was very real astonishment.
“What?”he finally asked, and if she’d been in a snarkier—and less erotically dazzled—mood, she might’ve given that dumbfounded question a flip answer.But shewasdazzled and, far from snarky, feeling unexpectedly raw inside and tender toward the arrogant fae prince, even if he neither needed nor deserved any tenderness from her.He well and truly hadn’t expected that answer, which gave her a very bad feeling, indeed.
“I told you that,” she said.When he only looked more confused, she pressed on, trying not to sound irritated.“When we talked in my head.You’re saying that was a real conversation and not a dream and I’m saying that I told you then that I was coming to rescue you.”
“You,” he echoed, sounding as if this was the most ridiculous thing he’d heard in his entire, very long life.“Are planning to…rescue me.”
“You don’t have to make it sound absurd.”
“Oh yes, I do, Arantxa.Because itisabsurd.What, pray tell, do you imagine in that scrambled noggin of yours, I need rescuing from?”
Said noggin was started to throb again and her stomach roiled uneasily.“Well, I don’t know,” she admitted, feeling more like a fool every passing moment.He didn’t look like he needed rescuing.He looked just fine.More than fine.Look at him.Dressed in silks she couldn’t buy even if she pooled the coin from all of the tournaments she’d won.Glowing with magic and health and clearly king—or whatever metaphor worked for his position in the hierarchy here—of all he surveyed.
“Youdon’t know,” he repeated incredulously.She wished he’d stop doing that.“So… what?You just flung yourself and your partners onto theCitrineley lines to come after me—how did you even get through Moonstone intact, by the way—because why?Are you that infatuated with me?I know mortals develop addictions to their fae lovers, but—”
“Oh, please,” she interrupted.“You are not all that.I am not addicted to you.”Liar, that treacherous voice within her whispered.At least it was her own voice.“In fact, right now, you are officially my least favorite person in all the realms.You can go boil in a pit of fire for all care!”
His beautiful mouth quirked in vast amusement at her expense.“I don’t think one boils in a pit of fire.”
“You know what I mean,” she fired back, even more embarrassed that she’d tripped over her own words in her ire.She tried to wrench out of his grip.“Let me go, you foul fairy creep.”
“No,” he replied.“Next on the agenda is you explaining, in detail, if you have the least idea what kind of situation you’ve created selling this particular cargo to fucking Citrine of all places.”
Hmm.Not really.“No?”she asked more than answered.
“No?”he repeated as if he couldn’t believe that answer, tightening his hands on her.“How can you—what?”
Shit, that hurt.Had she dislocated something?Because something had crunched in her shoulder so agonizingly, she could feel the blood drain out of her face.Could one feel oneself going pale?Not really important at the moment because she also felt herself going faint, which was even worse, the edges of her vision going dark and sparkling, not in the sexy way.
“Ow,” she said.And the blackness swamped her.
~19~
Reunited—and It Feels So… Questionable
Cha opened hereyes to the same view of the gilded orgy in the ceiling in the salon at the Citrine Palace, on her back on that not very comfortable sofa.For a much-too long moment, she thought that she’d simply fallen asleep there and dreamed the whole Azul reunion/fight.
“You mortals are distressingly fragile,” Azul commented, shattering that idea.
She rolled her head—hey, it didn’t hurt!—and saw he sat beside her on the narrow sofa, as languid and warm and comforting as Katu would be.Though considerably more dangerous.His violet eyes even gleamed with a feline glow.Despite the tone of his callous words, he gazed on her with something like concern.“Why didn’t you tell me you were close to fainting from your injuries, which you also didn’t tell me about?”
“You weren’t giving me much opportunity to contribute to my end of the conversation,” she pointed out, levering up on her elbows.“I feel tons better now.”
“Because I healed you.Which I could’ve done much earlier if you hadn’t been so blasted stubborn and told me.”He planted a long-fingered hand between her breasts and pushed her firmly back down.“You’re not going anywhere yet.”
“I feel fine now,” she protested.“And, for the record, the fainting was a surprise to me, too.Besides, you knew I was hurt.You said something about my messed-up head.”