“Owe you?”
“For saving you today. Twice.”
I gape at him. “I…”
“And for the favor of flying back up to return the egg to mamma griffin, thereby risking my ass for your folly.”
“It wasn’t folly.” I recover from my daze. “It was strategy.”
He waves an elegant, filthy hand. “End result is the same.”
“I already said, no deal.”
“Are you sure? Do you really want to risk a griffin’s wrath?” His expression hardens. “I could ask you to give me that haunted book.”
“No.”
“Sooner or later I will take it,Ellin.”
“Roane…”
“Or I could ask you for a kiss.” He blinks. “A kiss…”
“Stop teasing me.”
Another blink, and his cheekbones flush. “Why? It’s fun. Didn’t you ask me if I do anything for fun?” He licks his lips. “How about this: I could ask you to polish my blade.”
“Seriously?”
His grin returns. His eyes seem to change hue, from pale gray to midnight blue. “And other things.”
“I’m not some innocent girl from a village, you know.” I put my hands on my hips. “I know all the euphemisms.”
“Do you, now?”
“Do you really need to trick me into touching you?”
“You’re right,” he says, his voice dropping to a growl, “I don’t need parlor tricks. You want to touch me.”
“I don’t,” I breathe.
“You want me to touch you, too.”
I shake my head. “Never.”
“Are you so sure?” he asks.
He’s so close, gazing down at me. His mouth looks so soft. The only soft part about him. Lush and tempting. The man is a walking temptation, with those sharp cheekbones and hard jaw, the thick brows over those crystalline eyes, the long hair clinging to his temples and falling over his broad shoulders. His strength, his presence, the heat emanating from his tall body, the power he wields, it all comes together in a heady sum.
A valiant warrior, sacrificing his life to slay the monsters or imprison them. I never knew I had a weakness for the type, yet here we are.
He’s so sexy I can’t think straight.
Which is the only explanation I have for placing my hands on his chest, my breath shallow, and rise on tiptoe. My gaze drops from his mesmerizing eyes back to his firm lips.
I want them. On my mouth, on my skin. Everywhere.
Gods, I’ve never been so attracted to a man this way before. Figures I’d go and fall for a grumpy jerk of a fae who’s guardinga nightmare library. He’s the bane of my existence and yet right now, it feels like he’s the best thing that ever happened to me.
