From behind his back, the man produces a single flower, stem and all, and presents it to her. She claps and cheers like it’s the realm’s most normal occurrence, then she cups his cheeks.
Rose, out of nowhere, starts walking forward. Lambrit is quick to hold on to her arm, but she never takes her eyes off the little girl as she lays her fingers to her lips.
“What’s wrong, babe?”
Babe…aww.
“T-that little girl has power. Under the Goddess of Affection. I sense it.”
“What?” Creed whisper-shouts as his eyes blaze white. “Impossible.”
I release Kyzen’s hand and tuck it into the crook of Creed’s elbow when he keeps glancing over there. He’s five seconds away from stomping through their yard and that won’t do anything but scare the hell out of them.
“We need to talk with them. Find out how this is possible,” Amick says.
“Maybe…just the two of us should,” Lambrit says and I whip my head toward him.
“What?”
“If Rose senses the Goddess of Affection in her, she’ll be the best to connect with her. Plus, our group as a whole is a tad intimidating.”
Yeah, maybe a little.
“Figure out everything you can,” Amick says and I bite my cheek to stop myself from saying hell no.
I literally pinch the absolute fuck out of Creed when Lambrit nods, laces his fingers with Rose, and they walk through the tree line keeping us hidden from the family. My grip grows even tighter as Lambrit holds his hand out when the god notices them.
A shiver races down my spine when Creed leans down to my ear.
“Keep digging your nails in me, and I’m going to mark you back.”
His low, heated words are no form of threat but a dark, damning promise that I want to tell him he better keep.
“Promises, promises,” I breathe.
His eyes flare and air gets trapped in my lungs as he positions his face right down to mine.
“I fight a battle every day not to throw you over my shoulder, take you to my room, and fuck you until you can’t walk for a week because of that smart mouth of yours. Don’t push me, my endling.”
Oh, dear Valories.
He lays his lips to mine for a breath of a second.
I stumble into him, trying to make him come back. He doesn’t, but when I open my eyes, there’s a small smug tilt to his lips.
“I’m very pleased to know you’re as affected as I am.”
Asshole. Hell yeah, I’m affected. It takes everything in me not to climb him like a tree right now.
I breathe through the lust rushing through my blood and try my hardest to pay attention to what’s going on. It’s incredibly difficult to do when Kyzen makes it known he witnessed every second of what just happened.
He bites his bottom lip as his eyes devour me from head to toe.
Gods, these men.
Minutes pass as we sit anxiously waiting for Rose and Lambrit to return.
When they finally start walking back toward us, my stomach drops at the look of concern written across both their faces.
