“Oh, gods, I’m so sorry.” Alexei grabbed a napkin and tried to pat the champagne away, though his face grew red when he realized that his hand was close to Kiara’s almost-exposed breasts.
“It’s fine.” Kiara waved her hand, and the champagne cleared away, leaving her dress clean. “Common cleaning illusion. No one will notice.”
Alexei shrunk in his seat. Kiara acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but the griffin himself was red with embarrassment.
Delmare literally snarled as Stefan stuck a noodle in his mouth and let it dangle off the other end. “Hey. Irena. I take one end of the noodle, you take the other, and we’ll eat until we see where this leads?” he mumbled.
“If you touch me, I’m going to hit you,” Delmare snapped, though a blush had started to creep over her cheeks. She was eyeing the other end of the noodle like she was actually considering his request.
“Please do. Hard,” he pleaded. Delmare only held back because Emma kicked her under the table.
This was a mess. As our plates were cleared away, I immediately stood up. As entertaining as this was, Emma and I needed to get away from the circus.
“Would you like to dance, my lady?” I bowed to her before extending a hand.
Emma took it lightly and rose to her feet. “I’d love to.”
As we proceeded toward the dance floor, the music started up into a light waltz. Emma grinned as she said, “Let’s show all these asshats who the next King and Queen of the Arcanea are.”
Chapter Twenty
Emma
Iwas inmyelement now. I could dance better than any fucker at this party. Time to show everyone up.
As we crossed to the dance floor, Ethan put a hand on my hip. I placed my free hand on his shoulder and noticed how strong it felt. I ran my fingers over the muscles there, enjoying the feel of his broad stance. I wanted to run my hand in other places… down his chest, and his arms, and the front of his pants, but I denied myself the pleasure. Reputation was everything around here, and I couldn’t be seen feeling up Ethan in the middle of a ball, even though we were proclaimed to be mated.
Ethan looked every part a prince. I’d never seen a man look so attractive as he did in his court uniform. His eyes gleamed, and his mouth was set in a slight smirk that was… for lack of a better term… really fucking hot.
He was incredibly handsome. It was almost enough to make me fall for him.
Almost.
It was nice having a dance partner who actually knew how todancefor a change. Most of the other goons back home couldn’t do much of anything besides fist-pump. As Ethan swept me around the dance floor, I resisted the urge to press my body against his.
I wanted to take in all of him. I didn’t care about his missing leg. I just wanted to seehim.
I hadn’t overlooked the fact that he’d chosen to serve Luka, the Thief God. Luka was the god of peasants. Ethan did have a commitment to serve the people. It was honorable. It stirred something in me I didn’t know was there before.
Things were different between us now. Ever since he’d asked me to be his partner for the Contest, we’d gone fromjust friendstosomething more.
Yes. Everything had changed.
“You have the nicest dress at the party,” Ethan whispered in my ear. His lips brushed against my neck as he said it, and I shivered. Right now, all I could think about was how badly I wanted Ethan to rip this dress off.
My heart ached when I remembered the Phantom. But that couldn’t be helped. I’d chosen to let him go. I was Ethan’s now.
And dammit if I didn’t want him to fuck me on this dance floor in front of all these snobs.
“IhopeI have the nicest dress,” I managed to joke. “It certainly wasn’t cheap.”
“Of course not. You deserve only the best.” Ethan spun me around before he put his hand on the small of my back and drew me closer.
I gulped. Uh-oh. This was getting a little intense.
“You remind me of an ice princess,” Ethan whispered. “Like a queen out of a fairy tale.”
He was really laying on the flattery. Bonus points for him trying to stir up the romance when he knew I’d given up my one chance at true love for him.
