Page 37 of Born for Lace

Out of the corner of my eye, I notice movement on the steps. Over Lagos’ shoulder, three girls I have seen around The Bite descend, their gazes coy as they linger on the massive Xin De male.

“But I want to thank you anyway.” I smile at him because he’s quite beautiful, in an annoyingly brutish way. “We’re not the same. I should just accept your perspective?—”

“Save me the sensitivities, Lace Gi?—”

“Dahlia!” I spit out as the three girls stop a few metres away from the massive, brutish man everyone seems obsessed with. Removing their clothes, stripping down to nothing at all, they eye him as they move into the water. Long naked legs disappear into the cool cove bath.

He is still looking at me, a slight grin in the corner of one lip. “Dahlia,” he says my name, and I almost lose my balance. “A little flower.”

“That I’m sure you’d love to step on. Look, I will stay out of your way from now on. I didn’t mean to see… What I saw. You and the, erm…”Oh, why is my tongue not working? “If I see you, I will walk the other way. If I need something, I will go to Tomar.”

His brows knot in harder as his eyes assess me before he shakes his head with a gruff sigh. “Listen.”

Shocked, I square my shoulders as he suddenly strides toward me. Grounding my heels, I refuse to shuffle backward this time. His huge form, a powerful machine now sauntering toward me in only ripped black jeans, open at the top. In the opening, a dark-brown patch of hair makes me feel weird things...

My mouth dries up. My eyes widen when he stops, so close. Too close.

Breathe.

“Tomar said you have been trying to get things for yourself. Why?” I crane my neck to look up into his black gaze, noticing the tiniest slither of grey banding each large pupil.

“It is my fault the Hub is gon?—”

“Have we not been providing for you both? You and the infant?” A deep voice like melted steel, and I barely hear the words.

My mouth doesn’t work. “What?”

“Tomar wants the burden of this infant, so it is mine by default. And you’re his guardian. I’ll keep you both alive. Outside of that, you don’t need more. I’m not here to pamper you. If you need anything urgently, you come to us.” His jaw pulses, and I wonder if he’s uncomfortable. He talks like razor blades line his throat, every word expelling with pain. “I’ll try to get it for you. Do you need anything urgently, Dahlia?”

“Urgently?” I tuck my lower lip between my teeth, chewing. Then say, “Youwant to protect Spero?”And me;my mind screams those two words, but I don’t question them in case he didn’t mean them. “The baby you said to kill?”

He sighs roughly, a sound similar to the long, low growl of a beast. “If The Trade finds him, you will wish I had killed him quickly, but it’s not up to me.”

“So you don’twantto kill him?”

“Why would Iwantto kill a baby?” He reaches out a big hand and cradles the back of my head. His touch is warm, and I try not to melt into it. That scent, safety, shelter—it’s him. “You come to us. You need something, you come to us.”

“No.” Shaking my head, I try to understand. “But… you told Sweets to keep me out of your business. And now you want me to come to you?”

His brows draw in over a dark stare, making me shuffle. “No. I told Sweets to keep youawayfrom my business.”

Huh?“Is there a difference?”

He steps closer, until my jaw falls open as my head cranes back. A lording form in front of me, formidable, yet it pulls at me. “Yes. There is a difference, Lace Girl Dahlia.”

I can’t stop myself. Can’t keep the words in when he is this close. Can’t deny my body or the way it shifts, gravitates toward him. I want to know. “Do you dislike me because I’m a silly Trade girl or because I got in the way?”

“I don’t dislike you.I don’t think about you at all.”His words cut deep, but they betray the energy pouring from him and beating against me.

The dominance in his tone curls my toes into the stone. He goes on, “You’re young, fragile, Common, and you will abandon that Xin De infant when you realise the danger that follows him.”

He doesn’t trust me.

I hold his gaze. “I won’t abandon him. I promise.”

His already black eyes darken. “If you do, and the Trade finds him, death at my hands would have been a mercy for him. Understand?”

“I won’t abandon him!”

---