Page 19 of Ruthless Scoundrel
“That makes me feel warm fuzzies, princess. The answer is still no.”
Reina closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. She stays that way for many moments as I wrap my hand. Her skin glows a stark, royal blue as her eyes snap open.
“She did this on purpose,” she utters.
“Did what on purpose?” I entertain with the question.
Her breaths are coming in shallow pants now, and the blue pulsing beneath her skin grows brighter. “She made me fuckinghelpless!” She kicks the water, punctuating each word as heat radiates off her body in waves.
“My right cheekbone disagrees,” I say, touching the still-tender spot she hit with surprising accuracy for such an unlikely weapon.
“You’re so…” She puffs up her chest as she considers her words. It’s unbelievably adorable how she tries to make herself look bigger to me, like an octopus warding off a competitor by inflating.
My lip twitches. “So what?”
“So…” She sucks in a deep breath, her skin glowing such a bright blue she competes with the luminescent algae.
I grin. “Where’s that eloquent Fynish now, princess?”
She glares at me, the fire under her skin radiating brilliantly in the enclosed space. The water reflects her light against the ceiling and turns the cave walls into rippling oceans of blue light.
It’s incredible.
Suddenly, Reina yelps in pain and drops to her hands and knees.
I scowl. “Stop with the theatrics before you explode.”
“I can’t,” she whines as steam lifts from her clothes. An ashy blossom ripples out in a circle on her cheek, making her wince.
Fuck.
She’s burning herself from the inside…
Chapter six
Reina
My throat aches but I can’t speak. I’m boiling alive.
I distantly notice Jasper reach into his pants as he advances on me. “Lift your hands!”
So hot!
“Reina!”
I fall to the side and water hisses around me. Jasper growls in pain.
Clink-clink.
Like a landslide, my power rushes out in a torrential scream. Blue fire licks my tongue and lips as I howl at the cave ceiling. It punches through the rock, incinerating it into ash. My magic spirals off into the sky, and embers whirl around us in a storm of my agony until it’s finally done.
Relief rolls through me, so deep and pure it makes my body tremble. I suck down gulps of air as I stare at the stars through the molten hole I blasted above us.
“You may not know how to swim, princess,” Jasper says beside me. “But you arenothelpless.”
I chuckle once in my haze of euphoria. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”
“Nor should you be doing it again. That little display is going to have someone looking this way. Soon.”
