“What about me?” Kace whines.
Lips stretching into a blinding smile, she laughs. “I'll buy a round.”
Fuck! That laugh. So throaty, uninhibited. Seductive. It takes all my willpower not to reach across the table to smother those pillowy lips with my own and taste that sexy rasp. Grimacing, I readjust myself in an attempt to conceal my throbbing cock currently beading with my seed.
“Don't worry, Darius.” Amara chuckles, misinterpreting my grimace. “Your guards won't be coming near us anytime soon. Males tend to think twice after you threaten to cut off their balls.”
“Ach! Females use that one too often,” Zander declares, sliding his empty tankard to the other end of the table. “You threatened that very same thing on the way here.”
“I hear it on a daily basis,” Kace adds with a proud lift to his chin.
Amara considers Kace thoughtfully. “You do seem like the type of person I'd castrate.”
“You mean the type of person you'd threaten to castrate. You forgot threaten.”
“No I didn't,” Amara deadpans.
Kace slowly arches away from her, bending over the back of his chair as he eyes Amara warily. “You're a bit terrifying.”
The first joyful smile I've seen from her spreads across her face. “Thank you.”
“On that note,” Lena says, “I think I’ll get that round.”
Pushing off the table, Lena stands and I watch her glide away, enthralled by the intoxicating sway of her hips, her confident bearing, and the graceful way she slips between the crowd, every part of my being completely entranced by her. Until I notice the countless male heads swiveling in her direction, watching her just as closely as I am.
“Stop glaring,” Aurora whispers, pressing her shoulder against mine.
“I'm not glaring.”
She laughs. “Yes, you are.”
Turning to face my annoying sister, I glare at her.
She laughs even harder. “Now you're glaring at me!”
“Shut it, Rory,” I growl. “I’m not glaring. I’m just looking… angrily.”
“You like her,” she says with a shocked gasp, as if she can't believe it herself. “You actually like her. The great Captain not only likes someone, but she’s a foreigner, to boot!”
I shrug. “She's gorgeous.”
“It's more than that.” Aurora cocks her head to the side and watches me with a pleased smirk. “You’ve never been addled by a pretty face. You're glaring at any person who so much as looks in her direction. Feeling protective, territorial. I can see it.” I shake my head, but she cuts off the motion with a swipe of her hand. “I’m halfway in love with her myself. She's beautiful and fierce. I can see the appeal."
“I don’t know anything about her,” I reply, rolling my shoulders, feeling a strange itch form between my shoulder blades, prickling along the shadows marking the entirety of my back.
“You won't, either, if you don't take the time to get to know her.” She puffs out an irritated breath, stray wisps of blonde hair whisking out of her face.
She makes it sound so simple. That if you give away a part of yourself, it’s to be expected that someone will keep that piece of you safe. But she’s not a bastard. The product of a rape, no less. As a legitimate child, she’ll never understand the difficulties those of us face just by existing.
Trust never has and never will come easily to me. People have always treated me poorly due to my bastard status. For the few who didn’t, they often only befriended me in an attempt to gain status. But that’s just for the males. Females, on the other hand, are even more cruel. One time too many, I’ve developed feelings for a pretty face, only later to learn their duplicitous motivations. Those experiences left me with very little faith in their gender. Human, fae, or immortal. As a result, I rarely seek out the opposite sex, and it’s not something I plan on changing anytime soon, if ever. Even for the sinfully wicked beauty that is Lena.
It’s sexual, nothing more.
No longer interested in listening to Aurora’s fantastical ideas, I dismiss her, ignoring her high-pitched growl as I return my attention to Lena.
Lena drums her fingers along the counter, patiently waiting for our drinks with a placid expression. But that expression quickly sours when a male squeezes in beside her, lowering his head to whisper in her ear. She says something to him that I’m unable to make out at this distance, but judging from his reddening face, it wasn’t flattering.
Undeterred, he presses into her side, aligning his body with hers. And when he places a palm on her ass and squeezes, that same protective, possessive streak that Aurora accused me of, and which I vehemently denied, swells within me and I spring from my chair.
“Sit the fuck down.”
I snap my head around with a snarl, eyeing Amara with a withering glare. “He’s touching her.”
She stares back defiantly, her arm tossed lazily across the back of her chair. “He won't harm a hair on that perfect little head of hers. She doesn’t need a hero. She can take care of herself.” Eyes boring into mine, Amara tilts her chair back, teetering on its back legs. “I saw you two eye-fucking each other all night. If you ever want a chance with her, I suggest not treating her like a maiden in distress.”
“She is nooo maiden,” Zander says, followed by a loud smack. “Ow!”
“No more talking,” Tristan orders.
Amara ignores them, continuing without pause. “Some can't see past their dicks to the predator in their midst.” Amara jerks her head in Lena’s direction, a sinister smile slowly lifting her lips. “And Lena will never be prey.”
Fighting my instincts, I ball my hands at my sides and try to calm the rage distorting my vision, to douse the fire thumping within my veins as I search for the male deep down who I know is capable of rational thought.
“It can be difficult to see past our cocks,” Kace offers. “They’re quite the demanding appendage when roused by a pretty face.”
“I know, right?” Zander agrees. “One time, there was this female who was just begging to suck my cock. Who am I to deny her? Anywho! She was gorgeous. Great tits, amazing ass, and gods, I could smell the lust bleeding from her-”
Kace sighs. “She sounds lovely.”
