At that sudden statement, I fling the blankets down and sit up with ramrod straight posture. “You did what?!” I can’t keep the annoyance from grating my tone.
“I told him you weren’t feeling well.” Roman lifts his bronze shoulders with a careless shrug that I want to shake right out of him.
My legs tangle with Avian’s as I climb over him, his silver eyes wide with stunned surprise.Surprise, bitch, I’m gonna kill your friend right in front of you.
I shove off of him, and my bare feet slam over each board as I bring myself inches from this little empty skulled man. “You fucked up my plans? You canceled the date I worked days to get?” My anger flares hot between us, and his pretty eyes darken as he looks down the straight line of his nose to glare properly at me.
“I saved you. I.Saved. You. Say thank you, Beautiful.”
“Thank you?!” My voice shakes so hard I nearly choke on it.
“You’re fuckin’ welcome.”
Oh no, he didn’t.
My palms land on the smooth panes of his chest, and I shove him with all the strength I possess. He stumbles back, but he recovers fast, and he reacts even faster. Strong arms wrap around me like a vise, and my hair flings over my face as he spins me until my back is against his front. He holds my arms crisscrossed against my breasts, and I’m seething from the manhandling he seems to think he’s entitled to do.
Why do they hold me like this? All of them constantly spin me around like a princess, just to wrap me into submission. And I fucking hate it!
My foot lifts, but I quickly realize he’s wearing boots, and the pain there won’t be enough.
So, my head flings back in the matter of half a second. Pain sears through my skull as I crack that blow against his perfect little nose.
“Fucckk,” he hisses like a sweet secret against the back of my neck. “Why do you hate my nose? Why? Fuck, Cersia!”
Fuck indeed.
“Okay, let’s calm down.” Avian stands, and though Roman is still cursing, he hasn’t released me yet either.
Impressive.
“She’s right,” Avian draws every ounce of my attention, and I look up at him through a tangle of hair hanging in myface. “Don’t put yourself in the Prince’s way again, Rome.” The intensity in the shifter’s gaze is as daunting as it is worried.
He’s worried about me as well as Roman.
“You can’t protect everyone, Av,” Roman grinds those words out, his hold on me wrapping around me in more of a touch of comfort rather than aggression.
Is he…is he hugging me right now?
What. The. Fuck.
“And if you don’t watch your step, you’ll be as cursed as the witch.” The ominous darkness that clings to Avian’s low-spoken warning crawls over my skin.
“The Night Witch is cursed?” It doesn’t occur to me that I’m still having this conversation while Roman snuggles me from behind like I’m the slut puppy’s favorite chew toy.
“She’s…exiled from hell.” Avian looks from Roman to me and then back again, and I can tell there’s so much more they can’t say. “That’s not the point. The point is, Roman’s going to stop playing hero before he gets his throat slit.”
“He wouldn’t kill me. He enjoys watching me suffer. But he’d gladly have you kill me just to watch you suffer. You gonna do that for your Prince? You gonna take my life, Avian?” Roman snaps back with cruelty cutting into his every word.
A scent of rage stings the air, and in a flash of dark magic, Avian’s chest collides with mine. His hand reaches high, and he grips the other man’s neck so fast I don’t realize what’s happened until Roman and myself are both pinned against the wall.
“Don’t talk to me like you talk to them. Don’t parade around your littleI don’t give a fuckattitude like you do for the rest of this kingdom.” Avian seethes the words out with his face just inches from mine, his anger breathing down Roman’s throat.
While I’m stuck in the middle of them. I stand between the two men and try not to make a sound.
But I can’t help it.
I can’t fucking help the gasp that slides from my lips.
