“I had intended that as metaphorical, not literal,” he said drily, tapping her sternum like a schoolteacher offering a reprimand.“What happened to you?I know Katu didn’t wreck on the ley-lines, despite your terrifying risk-taking, because he’s just fine.”
Ah, so he didn’t know about Sunshine.It suddenly occurred to her that, if he did find out, the repercussions could be ugly.Somehow she didn’t think Azul would take it well that another fae had attempted—and, let’s face it, succeeded in—seducing and enchanting her.And then trying to kill her as a second alternative.
Fae politics and all that.She didn’t want to start a war between Amethyst and Citrine, in case there wasn’t a cold one waging already.And it seemed she’d already caused an escalation with the agnicurna trade.But what would be a plausible lie?
He saw the calculation in her, narrowing his eyes to purple slits.“Don’t you dare lie to me, Arantxa Evermore.”His velvety tone held more than a warning.Was that a hint of compulsion?She certainly felt an urge to comply and obedience so wasn’t in her nature.
“You can’t command me just by weaponizing my full name,” she snapped.Could he?
“Can’t I?”he asked in that hypnotic voice.
“Well, you’d better not,” she instructed, realizing as she said it how silly that sounded, like a mouse telling Big Betty she’d better not step on her or she’d be sorry.“Or I’ll never forgive you.That’s a dealbreaker, Prince Azulejah.”
He flinched slightly at the use ofhisname.Ha!How do you like them apples?Not that threatening him with the end of the relationship they didn’t have and he didn’t want held much power, but she did have her lines in the sand.
“Apologies,” he said, inclining his head and surprising the fuck out of her.“What is an acceptable agreement?I will not use fae magic to coerce your behavior in any way.Yes?”
“Yes,” she answered, her flabbers more than a little gasted.Were they setting up guidelines for that relationship they didn’t have and he didn’t want?
“Agreed,” Azul said with a quirk of a smile, seeming to have read the thought in her.
She tried to lever up again.Azul kept her flat with one finger.He rarely demonstrated his superior strength, but he easily held her down.
“You’re not getting up until you tell me,” he said, this time conversationally.
“What happened to not coercing me?”she demanded, extra indignant for how silly she felt batting at the single finger overpowering her.
“No fae magic,” he corrected with a sensual smile that did very pleasant things to her anatomy.“I reserve the right to use other forms of persuasion.”
Uh oh.That didn’t bode well for her.That’s what she got for bargaining with the fae, even one she had a soft spot for.Maybe particularly that one.“What, you’re just going to keep me here, flat on my back for all eternity?”
“Mmm, what an intriguing offer,” he mused, voice sinking further into that erotic burr that undid her.“I didn’t know you wanted to be my human pet.”
“I don’t and it wasn’t an offer,” she protested, but she sounded as breathless as a virgin poised for her first fucking.Funny, she felt like one, too.Being with him again, touching him, smelling his scent, like a juicy berry that had never existed as a fruit… all of it dizzied her.She wanted him to kiss her again.And again.
“Wasn’t it?”His wings unfurled from nowhere, taking her breath at the sight.They were the color of deepest lavender twilight at the base and along the bones that formed the hand-wing like a bat’s, but the soft as a feather membranes—she remembered the texture too well, her dreams haunted by the sensation—paled to lilac-tinged white at the tips.They still dazzled her, so elegant and erotic at once.
They were beautiful.
“Wasn’t it, Arantxa?”Azul prompted, calling her attention back to his entrancing violet eyes and sensual lips.
Wasn’t it what?
Oh!An offer to stay on her back for all eternity.No.No way.As enticing as the prospect seemed with his wings unfurled and his delicious body poised over hers and her own body humming with anticipation, she couldn’t lose herself to him.You are nobody to him,she reminded herself fiercely.You heard him say so.
“No,” she got out in a reasonably firm tone, strengthened by her resolve not to be a ninny.
“Alas.”He tsked, then lowered one wing to stroke her cheek with the indigo claw at the tip.He possessed remarkable dexterity with his wing-thumbs, as she well recalled, a memory that heated her further and only weakened her resolve to remain unmoved by him.“I’m still not letting you up,” he continued, “until you tell me exactly how you got injured, in detail.”
“This is ridiculous,” she protested, bucking with renewed vigor.
He lowered the tips of both wings to the divots beneath her collarbones, caressing the skin there bared by the open collar of her shirt.“I don’t see bruises here,” he commented.“Does this hurt?”
Finding that her bucking attempts to escape had segued into pleading arches of her back and hips, in deep chagrin, Cha forced herself to hold still.“No.Really I wasn’t all that injured and I feel fine now.”Thanks to him, but one didn’t express gratitude to the fae any more than you bargained with them.
“Good.”He increased the pressure, not painfully, but nothing she could wriggle out from under.“Now, start talking.”
She clamped her lips shut and glared at him.This wasn’t just about protecting him from fae politics anymore.He didn’t get to boss her around.Other forms of persuasion or not.