“You wanted to speak with me?” the Prince asked.
“I do.” The voice was closer, and then I sensed that he sat at the booth. “I was surprised when I saw you on the security camera. You’ve been…backfor two years now and not once have you come here.”
“So, is this how you greet all newcomers?” Caden’s hand drifted off my rear. That was a good thing—a great thing. At first.Because now his hand was on my bare thigh and his long fingers had slipped under the hem of my dress. My eyes widened. What was he doing?
“Only newcomers like you.”
“I feel special,” Caden replied.
“You should.” There was a pause and then Neal asked, “So, what brought you here after all this time?”
Wanting to see who Caden was talking to, I managed to move an inch, and it was the wrong move because it put me more solidly in his lap. The Prince’s hand stilled and tensed, holding me still.
Was he…?
Holy smokes, there was no mistaking the thick, hard ridge straining against my inner thigh.
I did not know what to think about that, but my body… Oh God,mybody was way on board with whathisbody was doing, and that was wrong, just as wrong as me liking it when he smacked my ass.
“Did you know there were some missing younglings from the Summer Court?” The Prince’s thumb began to move again, in a slow, idle slide across my inner thigh.
“I did not, but that is unfortunate to hear,” Neal replied. “Do you think they have been here?”
“Possibly. I ran into one of the missing younglings last night. There was something odd about him.”
“How so?” Neal sounded bored.
“His eyes were… wrong. So black I couldn’t even see a pupil.”
“Well, that does sound bizarre.”
“Does it?” Caden asked carefully. “You know what’s even more bizarre is that there’s apparently a substance that can rob a fae of their free will and the substance apparently has a neat little side effect.”
“Changes their eye color, I assume?”
I felt Caden nod.
“That is interesting, but I don’t see how it has anything to do with my place.”
“Do you know what that substance could be?”
There was a pause and then Neal said, “I have never heard of any substance that could have that kind of impact on a fae.”
Now that was definitely a lie.
“I have a question for you,” Neal said. “Heard through the grapevine that several of my… associates ran into an issue at Flux last weekend.”
“They did,” he answered, and I tensed. “And you should have better associates.”
Wait. If Neal was somehow connected to Tobias, then wouldn’t he be connected to Alyssa? I curled my fingers around the neckline of Caden’s shirt.
“So, you’re the reason why Tobias is no longer among us?” Neal asked, and I was a little surprised that this fae would speak so freely in front of me. He had no idea who I was.
Then again, based on my current position, he probably wasn’t worried about what I’d say or do. He probably thought I was glamoured.
“I am,” the Prince replied.
He’d just lied.
