Now he just needed to ensure that was what she still wanted.
And that would start with some fucking fun.
As they walked over the threshold into the tavern, Merrick nodded to the short owner—a woman who’d been there every time he had—and she waved them over to a small booth by the dance floor, her face whitening as she told them someone would come serve them at once.
Merrick’s brows pulled as he stared after her, and when he moved his gaze to the bar, several others looked at them strangely, but they all snapped their eyes to anywhere but his own as he tried to catch them.
“You’re scaring them,” Lessia whispered as a flush bloomed across her cheeks, her golden eyes glittering.
His frown deepened, and Lessia’s smile shifted intogiggles that she tried to quell behind the hand she placed over her beautiful mouth.
“What do you mean?” Merrick muttered, sensing the amusement warming her gut, and while he was annoyed that the town appeared to have changed—because people had never stared at him this way before—he couldn’t not smile back at the perfect fucking female nearly bouncing on the bench opposite him.
“Th-they’re…” Lessia appeared unable to pull enough air into her lungs.
Merrick waited, his lips pulling wider as the warm waves rolled through her. He tried to ignore the barkeep, who seemed to be debating whether he dared approach them or not, one hand holding on to the bar behind him as if it was what would keep him alive.
“I don’t…” Lessia giggled again, tears mounting in her eyes from holding back the laughter. “I don’t think people know what to do with your smile. I think you’re scaring them because you look so happy.”
Merrick’s brows flew up. His smile?
They were afraid of his fucking smile?
His lips immediately turned down, and Merrick shot a dark glare around the tavern.
Sure enough… more people now met his gaze, although they all turned away after a few seconds, whispering to whoever was closest to them before shooting another glance back at Merrick and Lessia’s table.
Merrick’s hands balled into fists across his legs.
How was he supposed to make sure she had fun if his damnedsmilescared people?
Merrick forced his eyes up to the one person who mattered when she apparently couldn’t hold back anymore. Lessia’s laughter floated acrossthe bar, and as always, it was as if everything else quieted—as if she were the only thing in the room. And Merrick didn’t care what anyone made of him, or if he’d scare them further: He didn’t want this fucking table between them.
He got up and stepped around the table, and as he slid onto Lessia’s bench, he pulled her into his lap, swallowing her giggles with his lips until they were replaced with a low whine deep in her throat that made his cock twitch beneath her ass.
Her eyes were glossy in the way that drove him mad—and he made sure to wave over the barkeep when he came up for air, raising his brows when the man still hesitated.
As the server finally approached, Merrick dragged his lips across Lessia’s neck and whispered against her heated skin, “Maybe you need to keep me occupied so I don’t scare too many people and ruin all the plans I had for tonight.”
Lessia’s face was bloodred as she mumbled something the barkeep didn’t catch when he stopped by their table.
The male shifted from foot to foot, his eyes resting anywhere but on Merrick and Lessia. Merrick didn’t even bother looking up from the perfect spot between Lessia’s shoulder and neck as he ordered wine and whatever food was fresh and hot.
Mumbling something, the male backed away, and Lessia slapped at Merrick’s chest. “He looked like he was about to die on the spot. You can’t do that to people.”
Merrick nipped at her skin, watching those little bumps he couldn’t get enough of rise wherever his lips touched. “I can do whatever I want.Wecan do whatever we want. That’s what tonight is all about. Let him bescared. I plan to sit here, fill your stomach with food and wine, take you to that dance floor over there to dance, and then we’re going for a midnight swim.”
Lessia stared at him for a moment, her lips still lifted but slightly parted, as if she wasn’t entirely certain she’d heard him correctly. Merrick raised his brows playfully, and she shook her head, another chuckle shaking her body.
“We can,” she finally whispered. “We can do whatever we want.”
The wide smile spreading across her face hit him like a sword to the heart.
Then she leaned in and kissed him, her lips slow and sensual, the happiness and peace radiating from her spreading in his entire body until it felt like he was floating—or perhaps flying, like he’d heard one of the other Fae races could.
Merrick didn’t let go of her lips when the barkeep came first with their wine, nor when he returned a while later with their food. He kissed her lazily but deliberately until she squirmed in his lap like the flawless damn creature she was. His hands wove into her hair when he heard her breath stutter, his mouth swallowing the moan he knew would follow.
Fuck, this was everything he’d ever dreamed of.
