“I don’t want you to tease me.”
“What makes you think I’m teasing?” Her throat bobbed on a swallow, and she inched closer to him.
He sneered and shook his head. “I’ve looked in a mirror, Harlow. I know what I am.”
The words seemed to hit her like a slap. She took a step back and spread her hands. “And what exactly is that?”
“A monster, a ghost, a freak of nature.” He said the words through his teeth. “A woman like you doesn’t want a man like me… unless she needs something.”
Her jaw dropped and she blinked slowly before leveling a heated glare on him. “Please, O knowledgeable one, tell me what it is I must need to dare act as if I’m attracted to you.”
He didn’t like her tone. She was mocking him, but it had to be a defensive tactic. “You’re looking for an… arrangement. Not marriage but money. No matter how freakish I look, a relationship with me would offer you stability.”
She inhaled sharply and gaped at him.
He shrugged. “We don’t have to play this game where you pretend you want me. If you’re looking for a sponsor, I’m interested. I’d be happy to pay you for sex if that’s what you had in mind.” There, he’d said it. He sipped his drink.
Her fist came out of nowhere, colliding with his jaw and knocking his water out of his hand. Stars exploded behind his eyes. He went down hard, his back slapping the gravel. Her face appeared within the circle of blinking lights dancing above his head. “Fuck you, Marius, and the mountain horse you rode in on.”
She kicked him in the ribs.
“Sorry I’m late,” Brantley strode into the arena and tossed his bag onto one of the observation benches. “Why is Marius on the ground?”
“Never mind,” Harlow barked. “Assume fighting positions. Brantley, hold nothing back. Marius, let’s go. Time to train.”
Chapter Twelve
Three training sessions later, Harlow was still taking immense satisfaction every time Marius’s back hit the gravel, and it happened again and again. He was good, but Brant was better. After what Marius had suggested, she was happy to let her friend mop the floor with the royal. Accusing her of pretending to want him sexually for money, or worse, status! Goddess, she replayed punching his face again and again in her head. The bastard. If she didn’t need the money from these sessions so badly, she would have walked out that very minute.
The sad part was that she was attracted to him. Even now, her mind wanted to go there, to the afternoon she’d pinned him between her legs and felt the massive length of him pressed up against her center. Those feelings had nothing to do with money. Her inner dragon thought he was a fine piece of male. She’d dreamed about those silver eyes more times than she could count. She found him undeniably sexy.
No, what bothered her the most was how he thought about himself. She’d known he was having a crisis of confidence when she’d offered to help him, but to describe himself as a monster? It almost made her feel sorry for him. Almost. Until she thought about him offering her money for sex. Then she wanted to knock his head off.
“Harlow?” Brantley was staring at her.
Marius was on the gravel, face bloody. He wasn’t getting up.
“Congratulations, Brantley. Looks like you won again.” She clapped her hands together. “That’s all for today. Tomorrow is a rest day. Take it easy and allow your body to heal. We’ll meet back here at the top of next week and keep going.”
Brant reached a hand forward and helped Marius up.
Harlow grabbed her bag and headed for the exit. She’d decided to walk home today and save the money she’d been spending on carriage rides. Adradys would want his answer soon. She wanted to be prepared to move out of her parents’ place before then. Both of her parents had suggested she save herself through marriage. She planned to prove she could save herself without it. That meant she needed every dragmar she had left in her mattress along with whatever she could win at the pits between now and then.
“Can I speak with you a moment?” Marius appeared in front of her, snapped his nose back into place, and wiped blood from his upper lip.
Brantley shot her a wide-eyed look and headed for the exit at abnormal speed. Coward.
“What’s on your mind?”
“How long is this going to go on?”
She flipped over a hand. “You paid me for a month.”
“You know what I’m talking about. This punishment for what I said.”
“Punishment? The only punishment is watching your piss-poor performance in this arena.”
“Ouch.”
