Page 131 of Gemini Queen
“I believe it, okay? You’re my fated mate. You are.” I lean my forehead against his broad chest and whisper into his lapel, “Thank you for forgiving me, baby. But we’re still going to talk more later. We need it.” I lift my head and give both of them a stern look. “All freaking five of us.”
“Deal,” Neo says for both of them, smiling down at me. “Now open your present.”
I’ve almost forgotten the little box I’m still holding. But I love presents and I don’t get many of them, so I pop the lid with a happy sense of anticipation.
Coiled neatly in a nest of snowy tissue is a studded leather choker, suede-soft and dyed teal. And it’s so frigging perfect for me that hot tears rush into my eyes and blur my world.
“It’s not new,” Neo says apologetically. “I bought it off Racetrack. But she hardly ever wore it, so I thought…”
“It’s perfect, Neo. It’s literally perfect.” I rise on tiptoe and wind my arms around his neck like I’ve been aching to do all day. His big hands wrap around my waist in that possessive way I can’t get enough of, and which I’ve missed desperately. I close my eyes and pull in a deep breath of his sage-and-juniper soap. “Thank you so much.”
Sweet Jesus. I think I’m in love.
I’m in love with my fated mate.
He leans in and kisses me, a slow careful press of his warm full lips, a kiss that tastes cool and minty. Shivers rush over my bare skin and make my nipples tight. I part my lips a little and our tongues touch, a lick of fire in the drafty hallway, and we both moan.
The first flicker of mating heat uncoils like a sleeping dragon, low in my belly, and opens a slitted eye.
Holy shit. Just this kiss is making me sweat.
And I have to admit the bonfire is definitely being stoked by the hot weight of Vasili’s smoldering stare tracking my every move. I open my eyes to look over Neo’s shoulder and meet his silvery gaze.
And the raw heat burning in those feral eyes makes him positively predatory. Yeah, he likes what he’s seeing.
He likes it a lot.
Come on, Goblin King,I whisper in his head.You can be part of this. I dare you.
“Hmmmm.” He slinks up behind Neo and my heart starts racing. His sultry stare never leaving mine, he leans in and whispers in Neo’s ear, “We’re going to be late, First Boy.”
His lips might actually brush the edge of Neo’s ear, because my mate shivers in my arms and bites back a little moan.
“Nice.” I break the kiss with a sigh and dab a smudge of my pink lipstick off Neo’s mouth with my thumb. “Hold that thought for me, okay? And help me with this choker?”
“Sure thing.” Neo rakes back his tumbled hair and fastens the choker gently around my neck. “Looks beautiful on you, babe. I’ll be the luckiest guy at the dance tonight.”
Then he offers me his arm. I slip mine through his with a soft smile. He makes me feel so special. Exactly the way every girl should feel on prom night.
Vasili pivots, speechless for once, and precedes us down the hall, lean hips swaying in his heeled boots. I’ve noticed he’s carrying a little box too, but he didn’t offer it to me, and I’m definitely not expecting anything else since he already got me the dress… somehow… despite the weather. A dress I actually like and would thank him for, if he’d stop being a brat for five minutes.
“You’re welcome,” he says without turning. And it almost sounds like he’s smiling.
He slinks right past the staircase, straight to Ronin’s closed door, and knocks.
Happy little butterflies start wheeling in my tummy, because I know what any overture from Vasili will mean to Ronin right now. And I can’t help noticing the Goblin King sounds less imperious and more… supplicating, I guess… when he knocks this time.
Slowly Ronin opens the door. I swallow hard, because he’s looking like sex on a stick in the leather pants and boots he wore in Singapore, paired with a black tuxedo jacket and a sleek button-down that I instantly want to peel off him with my teeth. He’s showing plenty of ink and all that gorgeous blue-black hair is pouring loose down his back.
And he’s packing. Those twin knives sheathed in his boots are definitelynotformal attire. Which makes me think the top-ranked fighter at Icarus senses danger brewing.
But the raw expression haunting his face when his amber eyes lock on Vasili makes me ache.
Heat or no heat, Ronin needs comfort in the worst way.
“I’m a bastard and I don’t deserve you,” Vasili says simply, his voice low and raw. “But there’s no conceivable way I can possibly do this…anyof this… without you. And I don’t want to, Ronin. I don’t want to.” He pulls in an unsteady breath. “Will you come with us tonight?”
I stare at Vasili’s sparkly shoulders and stiff back in complete fucking shock. If I didn’t know better, I’d think that was an actual apology.
