She scoffed and practically ran up the next set of stairs toward the royal quarters. “You left me alone all afternoon and night in an unfamiliar place, so don’t talk to me about shutting someone out.” The venom in her voice took him aback.
“I needed time to think.”
At the top of the stairs, she looked both ways several times.
“This way.” He guided her toward their room.
“You don’t run when I upset you,” she seethed, opening their door. He wanted to point out that she literally ran from him just now, but decided against it. “Leaving me alone was bad, but running to Ora was unforgivable. I’m leaving.”
She stomped toward the dressing room with him on her heels, and when he stepped through the door and saw her trunks open, he saw red.
Did she already pack her things?
A quick survey of the room showed her clothing hung neatly across from his, squashing his fears. He grabbed her around the waist and hauled her against him. “You’re not going anywhere.”
He never saw the elbow coming until it jabbed him in thegut. If she hadn’t threatened to leave him, her feistiness would have turned him on.
“Let me go right now,” she shouted, trying to wiggle out of his hold. “You said if I decided to leave, I could leave.”
He fought to differentiate his emotions from hers as everything spiraled out of control. “Wewill leave. If you leave, I leave, so if you’re trying to leaveme, that won’t work.”
With a huff, she stopped struggling. “Let me go, please.” Defeat colored her words, and it hit harder than her elbow.
After releasing her, he spun her around and held her in place by the shoulders. “Please, tell me what’s wrong. If me leaving yesterday upset you this much, I will never leave your side again.”
“Stop that.” She swatted at his hands. “Yes, I’m angry you left, but you left because I upset you.” A tear ran down her cheek. “I can’t control how you react, but I also can’t fix anything if you’re not here. I was careless with my words, and I’m sorry.” She blew out a long breath. “I’m asking for a little grace. I thought you were someone else for years.”
If this was her idea of fixing things, she was terrible at it, because all he wanted to do was break Finn’s neck.
“But it wasyouI wanted,” she whispered through her tears. “Yourletters; he was only a face. I don’t care about him. I care about the man who wrote to me for years, whose loyalty never wavered, the man who I considered sneaking through the barrier to search every kingdom for, consequences be damned.”
He could feel her honesty laced with sadness, but her words made his protectiveness flare up. Had she tried to sneak into the fae kingdoms, she could have died by a number of things.
“Imagine my surprise when I came to tell you those things and found you with another woman.” Daggers would cut less than her eyes. “I can handle your silence, but not you running to someone else.”
Quick as lightning, she yanked dresses from their hangersand dropped them into an open trunk with him staring in stunned silence.
He removed the dresses from the trunk and dumped them on the floor. “You’re accusing me of running to another woman?”
She freed another dress from its hanger, but he slammed the trunk shut before she could throw it in.
“I went in search of you to apologize and invite you hunting because I know you love it.” Tears lined her eyes again, and her cute chin wobbled. “I heard you laughing with Ora in your study. While I fretted over where you were, what you were thinking, and if you were okay all night, you were having a great time with yourbest friend.”
He frowned. “Finn is my best friend.”
Her eyes flashed as she took a step toward him. “She touched your arm like a lover, a familiarity we can’t have in public, andyou let her.”
He digested her words and stabbed a hand through his hair, deciding which part to tackle first, but her eyes were wild.
“I left my home and my kingdom for you! Youasshole!”
“Stop accusing me of bedding other women,” he said in a low voice, trying not to yell. “I have never touched another woman, nor will I ever. I asked you if Ora bothered you, and you said no.”
“I shouldn’t have to ask you not to let other women touch you when you murdered an innocent man for fucking me before we even met!” She waved her hands wildly. “Should I have lied and said I was fine? No. That was childish of me, and I know I was wrong, but you can’t hold me to a standard you don’t practice yourself.”
She was right. If a man touched her arm in such a manner, he would no longer have a hand. Rennick removed his shirt, tossing it to the ground. “Where did she touch me?”
Amelia faltered, a bit of her anger giving way to confusion. “What?”
