Pausing by a thick tree with low-hanging branches, I watched his eyebrows raise as he expected an answer.
‘I’m ninety-nine,’ my words echoed between us as I hoped the cold wind could douse my thirst to teach him how to treat a lady.
‘Seriously?’ The bothersome peacock stood ridiculously straight, making me feel far too small. ‘I assumed you’d be over two hundred with how you reacted to my age. And how you carry yourself…’
One, two, three. Don’t kill Ava’s friend.
‘Do you assume much in your life?’ I asked, allowing the distaste I felt to show on my very expressive face.
He inched closer, close enough his breath tickled my forehead. ‘Do you feel this tension between us? Is it sexual? ’ he purred before hiding his hands in his jean pockets for reasons I would rather not know.
Without looking down, I warned him, ‘If I sense you within a foot from me again, I will blast you with shadows.’
Swish, swish, swish—his foot kept dislocating the dried leaves as he stared deep into my eyes. ‘In some kinky dark fae pleasurable way?’
Raising my hands to my face to massage my aching temples, I knew this needed to end. My patience was waning. ‘Okayyy, stop it. I will stop calling you a boy, and you stop this tyranny.’
Michael laughed. ‘And the win goes to—’
I couldn’t help myself…
A small blast of darkness escaped my palm, punching him in the stomach.
‘Okay, let’s call it a tie,’ he said, like he hadn’t just provoked a war.
Chapter Nineteen
Alec
The vanilla-haired temptress did everything she could to cause me distress and annoy the fuck out of me. Like a useless youngling, I let her get under my skin every damn time. It was so obvious what she was doing that I could almost laugh if I wasn’t feeling so murderous every time she fucked somebody else.
She was mine.
Darkness boiled me from the inside out, hungry for something to tear apart, and tried to reach for the idiots that dared to touch what didn’t belong to them. The only solace I found in this fucked-up situation was the fact both encounters seemingly disappointed her. She looked displeased both times the guys brought her back. Next time I saw them I might just show them the consequences of their actions.
The only bed the halfling belonged in was mine, and she would learn that soon enough. With me, she wouldn’t grimace in dissatisfaction; she would be too tired and spent.
She would moan my name like I carved it into her soul.
Jumping back to the estate, I landed in the dining room craving a shot of whisky. It was pitch-black outside, and since no light was on, so was the room. I never noticed father sitting at the table before he huffed in a greeting.
‘You okay?’ I asked, walking to the bar in the corner.
No whisky. My latest frustrations cost me in liquor. Brandy had to do.
Father glowered with his brows excessively pinched and downed his drink in one go. ‘When is the witch leaving?’
Oh, oh. ‘What now?’
‘Did you know that she tried to seduce me the other day?’ he accused, looking disgusted and smug.
The fuck? She went after my father? That was a low blow even for her. ‘Really?’
‘Seriously. But apparently she doesn’t discriminate since she is currently fucking the girl I brought home an hour ago. 'I left for a bottle of wine and like a fucking vulture, she snatched her from right in front of me.’
The situation was so absurd I couldn’t help but laugh, lightly first and then raucously enough to make him seethe at me. ‘Willow stole your girl?’
That was a new level of chaos, even for her.
