He looked from Finn to her, his serious demeanor never wavering. “And what?”
Averting her eyes, she mumbled, “I slept in only my undergarments on top of the blankets sometimes for you.” She covered her face again.
The air around them thickened with tension, and when she peeked around her hands, she saw every vein in Rennick’s neck straining against his skin as he turned ever so slowly toward Finn.
Finn cursed for the hundredth time and backed up. “I never looked at her like that, Ren.”
His words didn’t deter the giant angry fae, and Amelia dashed forward, instinctively wrapping her arms around her mate’s middle.
He stopped, though his body still vibrated with anger. “Youwould defend him?” His tone sent chills skittering across her skin.
“It’s not his fault.” She sounded more confident than she felt. “He couldn’t control what I wore. Be thankful I didn’t sleep naked, because I considered it.”
“You’re making it worse,” Finn warned her, still backing away.
Rennick’s eyes finally moved to hers, his features transforming into something akin to lust. “You wanted to sleep naked for me, little mate?”
She was all too aware of his bare chest pressed against hers, heating her blood to molten lava. “Yes.”
He freed his arms from her hold and grabbed her face gently. “You will.”
Finn breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank fuck.”
Amelia walked silently beside Rennick, trying and failing to come to terms with the situation.
After putting Finn’s face to Nick’s letters for years, it was difficult to convince her brain thatRennickwas Nick, not Finn. When you thought something for so long, you couldn’t change it overnight, no matter what your brain knew to be true.
She’d fucked herself to images of Finn countless times, and her desire for Nick was tied to Finn’s face. Embarrassment would apparently be her closest companion today.
Rennick stopped abruptly and gently raised her face to look at him. “What’s wrong?” he murmured. His eyes searched hers, worry lines etched across his beautiful features.
I want to crawl into a hole indefinitely.“Where are you taking me?” she asked, in lieu of an answer.
He dropped her chin and tilted his own to the north. “Home.”
She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “My home is that way.”
He looked past her and furrowed his brow. “Your home is with me now. We’re going to my palace in the Mountain Kingdom.”
Questions pelted her brain like hail.“You’re from the Mountain Kingdom? Why didn’t you tell me you were that close?” The ride from Friya to the Mountain Kingdom border wasn’t far. To think he’d been that close all along…wait. “You live in a palace? Are you a nobleman?” Did noblemen live in palaces? She didn’t know, but a worse thought occurred to her, and she backpedaled. “Are you a royal?”
Rennick ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up more. “I couldn’t risk telling you anything. There are people who would hurt you because of me.”
Amelia stood motionless as her brain slowly caught up to what he’d said and realized she didn’t know him at all. She’d been a fool to think she did.
“I’m not going to the Mountain Kingdom.” Yesterday she would have gone to the edge of Eden with him, but that was when she thought she knew him. She’d pictured the wrong man and thought he was a warrior who protected his kingdom like other men throughout their world. Not… whatever he was. “You didn’t answer my question. Are you a royal?”
Rennick angled his head to the side. “I am the king, and the climate there is no different than here, if that is what you’re worried about.”
The king?A human mated to a fae king was laughable at best. The fact he thought the weather was her issue showed how little he knew her.
“I don’t want to uproot my life here.” The lie tasted foul on her tongue, but she needed time to think before being thrust into whatever new life awaited her. “I have friends.”Sort of.“And Eddy.”Who she couldn’t find.“And I don’t know you.”
“You know part of me,” he said matter-of-factly before his voice dropped dangerously low. “Who is Eddy?”
Her eyes narrowed. “My fox. The one you send sweaters for. Unless that wasn’t you either.” She glared at Finn, pissed at him as well. They’d tricked her, and what was worse, she’d let them.
There wasn’t enough information in his letters to form anything definitive, and the facts never lined up. How many times had she asked herself how he could bring her things but never talk to her?Godsdammit. She was a fool.
