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The sitting room where the worst of it had all happened was in complete disarray, as if a herd of pissed-off rhinos had run through and trashed it.
“Nevertheless, I will be at the end of the hall. Just a few yards or so away.”
He was backing out of the room, the leather of his uniform creaking as he did so before I turned on him.
“Wait. Why will you be at the end of the hall?”
A lock of his dark hair fell into his face as a smirk of triumph flashed across his full lips. “I’m Captain of the Guard, Cricket. I guard. It’s pretty simple. I’d have thought you’d have figured out from the name what my position was.”
Was . . . was that snark being pitched back at me? I shouldn’t have liked that. I definitely shouldn’t have liked the way that devilish grin stole inside of me and lit a dark ember within me that melted my bones. “Oh, it did. I just didn’t think—”
“You think too much.”
His quick response was husky, thick, and rich.
“I just didn’t think you’d guard an empty room,” I whispered as the air seemed especially thin.
“I’m not.”
“Then, what are you guarding?”
When had he drifted so close to me? When had I drifted so close to him?
“You.”
His breath was warm on my cheek, followed by the gentle stroke of his soft leather gloves.
The urge to lean into it was almost irresistible.
“Afraid I’ll light the bed on fire?”
“Oh, I’m sure if you were in that bed or any bed, you’d light it on fire, Cricket. But, no . . .”
“Then, why?”
He leaned down, his scent wrapping around my head and dashing all thought from me. “You know why,” he whispered, hot against my ear.
Two rabbits took up residence in my chest and beat against my ribs, kicking the air from my lungs and stealing any semblance of peace from me.
The calloused tip of his bare finger pushed my long hair behind my pointed ears, and I swayed. Lightning rushed through me, sparking in my blood and coruscating a dangerous, delicate path to settle in a crackling, popping ball at my core. My toes curled, and a galaxy shimmered behind my closed eyes.
And then he was gone. Leaving me standing in a shattered room, with my shattered consciousness, holding vigil for when he returned.
Chapter 19
Ishuddered, the knife of adrenaline carving itself over my nerves. I stared for far too long at the empty doorway, silently begging him to come back.
I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to rage at him for making me feel the way I did. I wanted to beat at his chest for every quiver of my knees. I wanted to bite at him for the way my heart was thundering in my rib cage. I wanted to fall into this sensation with him and blame him for the bad decisions I wanted to make with him.
I only began moving when the phantom sound of boots down the left hallway of the apartments chased thoughts of The Raven from me.
The room wasn’t going to clean itself, and I doubted I’d get a reprieve on account of The Raven being a distracting, handsome, infuriating, lickable, fuckable bastard.
It took me hours to clean the main sitting room. I had to hunt for where things should have gone. Not even the dust that had collected in some of the corners was helpful in locating the former resting place of a book, a tipped vase, a single discarded slipper, some sort of bell, and far too many dishes and platters and goblets encrusted with who knows what.
I had finally worked up the nerve to push the door to his bed chamber open and step in, when I could no longer find an excuse not to. I expected the King to leap out at any moment. I expected him to be lurking in every shadow, hunting me. But he was nowhere to be found, and the bedroom was as barren as the rest of his apartments.
I was collecting the last of his filthy clothing, which reeked of sweat and cologne of some sort that smelled like pencil shavings and oranges, when the ghoul himself finally appeared.
