I saw the exact moment he made the decision to be an asshole, his gaze turning as hard as stone. Although his questionseemed harmless enough, his words were sharp. “Do you want coffee, Kieran?”
“Not particularly?—”
“Or would you prefer I finger fuck you until you come first?”
Shit.
I stared at him, surprise parting my lips as my cheeks flooded with heat. A wave of anger, embarrassment, frustration, confusion, and a hell of a lot of hurt crashed into me violently. My hearing went static for a moment, making the room seem absolutely silent. I refused to look anywhere but at him as my body came alive, feeling like it was burning alive with rage.
My nostrils flared and I tried to take deep, steadying breaths as he stared at me with a smirk on his face.
Before I could say anything, the back door opened as Gabe walked back in, seeming to kick-start everything back into motion. I blinked as I heard him say something to Niz. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Ronan was frozen over the cooktop, no longer flipping pancakes. The sound of the bacon sizzling crawled across my skin uncomfortably.
“Well, Princess?” Steele demanded, apparently not satisfied that I needed a second to process his words
I heard the cooktop turn off, and my gaze moved over to Ronan. He stared at me in confusion—with hurt filling his gaze—as if he was willing me to explain Steele’s harsh words.
Fuck.The last thing I wanted to do was to hurt Ronan.
“Steele,” I started, glancing back at him as I narrowed my eyes, “I don’t understand why you would?—”
“Bring it up? What, you didn’t want everyone to know?” Steele asked knowingly as he tilted his head. “You wanted to keep what happened between us a secret?”
Bastian stole a piece of bacon from my plate before settling against his chairback. “Well…that’s an interesting development.”
There was no anger in his words, only surprise.
“What is going on?” Gabe asked, appearing next to me, and I tried to not lean into the comforting touch of his hand on my back. I chewed my lip, trying to decide how the hell I wanted to handle this with Steele.
“You two hooked up?” Ronan asked softly, causing Gabe to stop rubbing small circles on my back.
“I…” I faltered as my head sank, hanging low. I had to be honest. I wasn’t strong enough to deny Steele in the moment, and I needed to face the consequences. “Yes, something happened between us.”
Steele chuckled darkly, and my hands curled into fists in my lap. “No, Princess, you coming around my fingers, moaning for me to keep going wasn’tjustsomething.”
Shame and embarrassment flowed through me, and I wanted to scream at him. Maybe I wanted to cry a little too. But more importantly, I wanted to erase the look of hurt on Ronan’s face. I didn’t need to turn to know that Gabe probably wore a similar expression. This wasn’t how I wanted them to find out.
It seemed like Steele wasn’t done inflicting damage, though. My stomach clenched as he purred, “In fact, it wasn’tjust somethingwhen you did any of this shit, Kieran. You’re playing with the emotions of everyone in this damn house, and I’m the only fucking person willing to say that?—”
“Stop.” Ronan’s voice was harsh around the one-word command.
But at the end of the day, Steele wasn’t wrong. My eyes burned as tears welled behind them. I wasn’t intentionally playing with anyone, yet I’d landed myself in this position. What was happening here wasn’t fair to anyone.
Steele barely offered him a glance before looking back at me.
My eyes stung, and frustration laced my voice as I spoke in a low hiss, “Why are you doing this, Steele? Why are you trying to embarrass me and make everyone hate me?”
“You know why,” he growled in a hard tone, leaning forward on the counter. My words seemed to infuriate him even more. “I’m not going to sit around while you play fucking house with the three of them?—”
“I’m not playinganything,withanyone!” I stood, feeling hot anger flooding my brain. “Besides, who I care about and what I do is none of your business.”
Especially after this.
“Clearly it is,” Steele said before his eyes narrowed on me. “Or have you not told all of them how closely we’re intertwined? After all, Princess, you should probably be focused on the prophecy instead of who you want to fuck next.”
“Out.” Ronan demanded softly, his body trembling. Niz trilled, the noise sounding concerned enough that I nearly echoed. I could tell Ronan was on the edge of losing his shit. “I need you to get the fuck out of here, Steele. Now.”
“Fuck you,” Steele huffed before flashing him a dark smile. “This is my damn house, Ronan. You’re just pissed because she doesn’t even like me, yet I managed to probably get further with her than you ever have.”
