He was silent, but the fire in his gaze took on a darker edge.
“Go,” she said again. “Unless you prefer me to call for my guards to come and take you out of here.”
His scoff was brittle, incredulous. Sharp with bewilderment. “No, Your Grace. I wouldn’t want you to go to the trouble. I’ll show myself out.”
Cursing under his breath, he grabbed his discarded tunic and stalked away from her.
CHAPTER 30
What the hell just happened?
Darion walked away from Selene in a state of confusion and frustration.
And yeah, he was plenty pissed off too--all of it self-directed.
She was ready to freshen up and take on whatever vague royal duties she claimed were so immediately pressing, and he had been sent to the exit with his dick in his hand.
It didn’t help his mood that he was still hard for her, still aching to get back inside her heat even after her cold dismissal.
What happened between them had been incredible sex. Neither one of them could argue that. But apparently for Selene, that’s as far as it went.
He didn’t want to believe that.
Hell, hecouldn’tbelieve it.
He saw the emotion in her face. He felt it in the way she clung to him, the way she stared into his eyes while they moved in tempo together. For a moment while he’d been inside her, he’d felt as if the rest of the world had stopped all its madness and there were only the two of them.
Not a Breed warrior and an Atlantean queen. Not enemies pitched against each other over the possession of some otherworldly crystals. Not a man bound to the night and a woman who burned so hot she could have been made of sunbeams.
Just Selene and him.
For a moment, he’d been able to imagine spending the rest of his life in her light-drenched realm, if only for the chance to feel her naked beneath him.
The urge to turn around and force her to admit her lie was nearly overwhelming.
He cooled his heels.
Because maybe he needed the reminder that they were, in fact, still adversaries. She had her world and he had his, where his brothers-in-arms were steeped in combat with Opus Nostrum and his parents were suffering the shared horror of Bloodlust.
Darion had come to Selene’s realm on a mission, and that mission was only half fulfilled with Jordana’s release.
He had no wish to deprive Selene and her people of their crystal’s protection, but he would be a fool not to consider all of his options and plan accordingly in case he needed to.
Selene had made that fact clear enough just now.
As he stalked through the living area of her quarters, his gaze locked on the small titanium box he’d spied the last time he was there. The container had been specially crafted to carry a crystal safely and virtually undetected.
Darion didn’t know where the realm’s crystal was located. He hadn’t even attempted to look, he’d been so distracted by the Atlanteans’ lovely, hot-as-sin queen. And even if he had found it, since he wasn’t Atlantean, he wouldn’t be able to touch the crystal without lethal ramifications.
Ramifications that would be neutralized if he had that titanium box.
Selene’s sharp insistence that she never steps foot in the east tower began to ring in his ears.
Except for the few guards she posted outside his cell, no one ventured up to that empty ruin.
Darion paused, hissing a curse under his breath. He was too skilled in combat and strategy to ignore a valuable tactical advantage when it was sitting right under his nose.
He wrapped the box in his tunic, then flashed from the royal chambers to the tomblike east tower to stow the box somewhere for safekeeping.
