were sensitive, layered with nerves. Oh, how she must have suffered.
“Who did this?” he demanded quietly.
She tugged from his grip and once again snaked her arms behind her back. Embarrassed?
He...mourned the loss of her warmth and softness.
It was irritating. Confusing.
And not to be tolerated.
“Who?” he insisted, determined to mete out punishment. And he didn’t miss the irony. He, of all people, had no right to condemn another for causing a female pain.
She thought for a moment, shrugged. “It’s not like I have any loyalty toward her. It was Kendra. After you brought her back to camp, but before she snuck out and returned with you.”
Vile witch. Tonight, he would administer like for like to the princess. “Why did she do it?”
“I mouthed off.”
Well, then, after Thane sliced up Kendra’s hands, he would cut off her ears. Perhaps growing a new pair would help her appreciate the gift of listening to others.
It’s almost time. Xerxes’s voice drifted through his mind.
“I must go,” he said, “but when I return we will speak.” And he would force—allow Elin to touch his wing again. He would realize she affected him as little as everyone else, that the first contact had been a deviation.
She gazed up at him with dawning horror. “Speak about what?”
He wasn’t used to being questioned but opted to indulge her. Just because. “You.”
She backed away from him until her thighs hit the edge of the table. “Are you going to stake me?”
He frowned. “No. I have more questions for you.”
“What kind of questions?”
“The kind that will help me get to know you better. You are my employee, after all.”
“Oh.” She released a heavy breath. “Okay, then.”
What, she’d expected him to attack her? “I have told you before, kulta, I’m not going to harm you. I’m going to take care of you.”
The admission startled her as much as it did him.
Him? Take care of a female? Something that went far beyond mere protection.
But even as it surprised him, it felt as natural as breathing.
“What does kulta mean?” she asked.
Honey. Baby. Darling. Precious. Any of those things. All of them. Take your pick.
Little wonder he’d never used the endearment before. He wasn’t sure why he’d used it now.
He was the one to back away this time. Only, he didn’t stop. As he strode from the room, he snapped, “Adrian, I don’t recall telling you to wait before overseeing my orders. Go. Now.”
CHAPTER SIX
FINALLY, ELIN COULD BREATHE.
Thane’s presence somehow sucked the oxygen out of her lungs. He was just so much...man. Big and hard, undeniably dangerous, he soaked the atmosphere with the fiercest testosterone, making every woman in his vicinity downright giddy with an intoxicating rush of hormones, endorphins and chemicals.
Seriously. She’d wanted to have him for dinner. No crumb left behind.
She imagined him spread out on a buffet table. If he were a food, he would be a Grade A fillet, marinated in a rich sweet-and-tangy sauce—and sprinkled with enough cayenne pepper to burn just right.
No. No! Bad Elin. But...he’d looked at her with dark intent, only to touch her with tender kindness. He’d broken a man’s wrist for grazing his wing, only to demand Elin caress it.
He was a bundle of contradictions. But then, so was she, both frightened of him and attracted to him. An attraction that would only get her in trouble. He held her future in his strong, snap-her-neck-with-a-single-flick-of-his-wrist hands.
Even still, there was no controlling her body’s reactions to him. In his presence, wanton heat liquefied her bones. And her brain! She forgot who she was, who he was, saying “screw you” to the vast gulf between them and the danger he represented to her, focusing only on the things they could be doing to each other. Kissing, tasting. Licking. Touching. Stroking.
Devouring.
She shivered at the thought. Then she cursed.
These reckless desires meant nothing, changed nothing. Thane was her boss, and therefore off-limits. He was also a borderline sociopath with extra stakes, and he would hurt her the moment he learned of her origins. But the nail in the I-wanna-slice-of-that coffin, besides her vow to Bay? He was a blatant womanizer.
He and Blondie had clearly gone nuclear between the sheets. His hair had been tousled, the strands sticking out in spikes. There had been claw marks in his cheek and bite marks on his neck.
Elin ignored the pang in her chest.
He wasn’t worth the mental anguish he would surely inflict on her. So, pursue him? Break her vow? Become one in a line of thousands? Lose her cash cow of a job, not to mention her new, blooming friendship with the other barmaids? No, thanks.
So, moving on. Elin donned the rest of the trinkets she’d won and headed to her room. She desperately needed a nap.
Bellorie was sprawled on her bed, wearing adorable flannel pj’s and reading a book—Decapitation For Idiots—looking so normal Elin momentarily flashed back to college.
She’d attended the University of Arizona what seemed a lifetime ago, getting married when she was only six credits shy of a business-management degree, and deciding to take time off and finish later. After all, her best years were ahead of her.
Yeah. Right. If “best years ahead” is the answer, then “things stupid people say” is the question.
She’d moved out of the dorm, and into an apartment with Bay, but oh, how she’d missed the way her roommate used to stack pizza boxes in the corner. She’d enjoyed making art out of empty beer cans. There’d been a message board on the door and borrowed clothes from six different people on the floor. The clash of diverse styles and tastes should have been overwhelming, but they had been comforting. There’d been nothing to worry about but midterms and which party to crash.
This new bedroom provided the same whimsical variety. One of the beds seemed to be made from LEGO. Another had a huge stuffed panda as the headboard. The only side table had wooden human legs as the, well, legs, with fake vomit spilled on top. The reading chair was normal, but the ottoman in front of it was shaped like a turtle, with the head, arms and legs peeking out at the bottom.
“Hey,” Elin said, noting the other girls hadn’t yet arrived.
Dark eyes
