Page 86 of Underground Prince

“If you’re finished,” he said, patiently waiting for the fresh chortles to subside. “Give up?”

“No way,” I said, scrunching my brows in an effort to get the rest of my face in line. I said the first thing that came into my head. “Clearly it’s Elward, then.”

He tipped his beer to me in cheers.

“Seriously?” I didn't even know I spoke a real name. My instincts were that on point. “I win?”

“No.”

I pointed at his beer. “But you just—”

“What can I say? I enjoy cultivating your cockiness before slipping it from under you.”

I couldn’t blame him. I rather enjoyed doing that myself. “Fine. I give up. What is it.”

“So easily?”

I propped my elbows on the table, making sure my mouth was open, so he could see my tongue as I nestled its tip in one corner. A low hum in his throat was my answer, exactly what I wanted. “I prefer to choose my battles.”

He met my seduction and raised by scrutinizing me, leaving his calculated, come get me smile in its wake. He pressed forward until I could see the glints of gold in his irises and he caught my bottom lip with his teeth, stroking with his tongue, pressing down on the trigger and detonating the lust inside me.

“Burgers!”

The waitress’s chirp had him releasing, but our eyes were open and only for each other.

The plates clattered onto the table, sliding between us, but I couldn’t think to sever this—it had to last forever, because the feeling was too tenuous, too ephemeral, to lose.

“Warren,” Theo said. His hands rested on either side of his loaded plate.

“Warren,” I repeated, rather stupidly. I remained under his spell, and in fact was ready to pack up and move right into it.

“My youngest brother’s name. It would’ve been War, but he felt that was too savage. So he added the D, to be a guardian instead of a soldier. Out of the three of us, he’s the softest.” He frowned. “The most pliable.”

The spell was lifting, a smoky vapor drawing out of me, clearing my vision. “According to your father.”

“Yes.”

“Your family…”

At my opening, he ripped off a chunk out of his burger with his teeth, chewing ferociously with his mouth closed. Those same teeth that caused a sting of pleasure across my lip were now ripping cooked flesh to shreds.

“Your family,” I repeated, determined to continue. “They’re involved in more than game rooms.”

He swallowed, dabbing at his mouth with his napkin. “They are.”

“Are you?” I managed to ask.

Shockingly, he smiled, though it was a practiced one. “Do I sanction what they do? If I dabble in more than poker but less than death, then would you still want me? What’s the middle ground for you, Scarlet?”

“I don’t—”

“Because in this life, there is no in-between. There’s bad, there’s worse, and there’s despicable. Deplorable. There is no kindness.” He pushed his burger to the side.

“I’m not here to try and redeem you, if that’s what you think,” I said. “I’ve told myself to walk away but I can’t.”

“Do it anyway.”

“I see you,” I said. “There’s a piece that you’ve kept, despite what your father’s done, what you’ve decided to become.”

---