“You don’t know me.”
“And I never will.”
I grinned. “Is that a challenge?”
“It’s a promise.”
My fingers drifted from her palm to whisper over her wrist. “If you hate me so much, why is your pulse racing?”
She snatched her hand from my grasp, creating space between us. Again, she didn’t deny her reaction. “From—from the dancing, of course.”
I nodded, amused. I would let her keep her small secrets. For now. She would soon learn they were useless around me.
I would unravel every detail of her life.
“Final round!” the mayor called out as the music changed once again.
Ginger bolted.
“See you soon,” I called after her.
She glared over her shoulder and tried to lose me, ducking around larger folk, but I could not be deterred.
I followed.
As the music changed, I slipped behind the faun, grasping her around the waist and lifting her into a grand spin.
She squealed rather dramatically. “Ahh! Put me down!” she screeched.
I placed her onto her hoofed feet, but I didn’t release her. I simply tugged her into me.
“Damn you!” She pounded her soft fists against my chest.
“I told you I would see you soon, did I not?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes, refusing to meet my gaze. “I don’t even know your name.”
“No, you don’t,” I agreed.
“Are you going to tell me what it is?” she asked. Her eyes drifted somewhere over my shoulder. It was infuriating.
“In due time.”
As soon as I figured out what it was, myself.
CHAPTER 22
Ginger
“And our winners of the Miss and Mister Moonvale competition are… Ginger! And—I’m sorry, what is your name again?”
The stranger hesitated for a moment before glancing at me and saying, “You can call me Shade.”
Tommins tilted his head for just a moment. “And Shade. Your winners!”
Shade. There was something almosttoofitting about that. I rolled it around in my mind, mulling it over.
I decided that I hated it. It was a terrible, stupid name.
