Who is she calling human girl?
“Alaric makes his own decisions,” I shoot back, tearing myself away from her. “He’s chosen me. You and your perky tits will have to get over it.”
But my voice trembles. I’m still disarmed by her beauty. How will Alaric ever see me when she’s a bonfire of golden light burning with an otherworldly glow? I fade into the shadows beside her.
“Alaricwillbe mine,” she says with an easy smile, as though their love story has already been written.
I glare at Perdita, all trussed up in that beautiful dress, so certain that she belongs with the complicated man I’ve got to know over the last two weeks. I think of my intention. I will allow myself to be happy.
What will make me happiest right now?
I toss my wine over her head.
“Eeeee!” Perdita grabs her hair. “What’s the witch done to me?”
Alaric and Callista leap to their feet. Callista rushes to Perdita’s aid, calling for Reginald to assist. Alaric lifts an eyebrow at me, and a smirk tugs at thecorner of his lips.
I don’t want to see him smirking at me when he’sbetrothedto someone else.
I feel like I’m surrounded by piles of my mother’s things, like the walls and my feelings and beautiful women and Alaric’s secrets loom over me, ready to topple down at any moment and bury me alive.
I can’t breathe. I need to get away.
“If you’ll excuse me.” I set down my empty glass. “I’ve got work to do. My business partner needs the accounts.”
For once, I’m grateful for Faye’s thoughtlessness.
“I’ll escort you.” Alaric offers his arm.
“Stay with your mother,” I manage to choke out as I back towards the door. “You have a lot to catch up on. I’m perfectly capable of making it to my room by myself.”
Alaric smiles that dazzling half-smile at me, and the stone that’s lodged itself in my throat rolls around a little. “I’m in no doubt about your stair-climbing and castle-navigating abilities, Winnie. I’m concerned about what Perdita might do to you from the shadows.”
“She’s no match for me and my trusty knife.”
Alaric glances over his shoulder as Reginald flies into the room to help Perdita. “I must kiss you goodbye.”
My cheeks heat. I flash back to the amazing, toe-curling kiss we shared at the pub, and all the kisses that came after it.
I can’t dothatin front of his mother.
Especially not when I don’t know what we are anymore.
Alaric misunderstands my shock as consent. He moves in, his thighs brushing mine, one hand curling around my arm. “They are watching. It will convince them that we are serious.”
“Alaric—”
I don’t want you to kiss me to convince your mother we’re engaged.
I want you to kiss me because you want?—
My thoughts are cut off by the sweep of his lips over mine, the coolness of his skin, the possessive way he grips my arm, holding me in place as he tastes me.
It feels just like the way he kissed me lastnight, as if I’m being swept along by a riptide, pulling me out to sea. But this isn’t real. He’s putting on a show.
None of it is real.
Maybe I don’t care. He has me so reckless and untethered that I want to make a mess of my life, just to see what will happen. And if making a mess feels likethis, like being swept up in the arms of a wild god, then …
