Page 125 of Wolf Caged
That patience frayed as Saphira continued.
“Why don’t you work for the Preux… whatever… now? Did he poach you?”
Riordan laughed, so easily, as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “Not exactly. I was… ah… kicked out of the Preux Chevaliers.”
A less observant person might miss the way the vampire spun that ring on his finger, or how that brightness in his eyes and that easy smile dimmed a little as he admitted that.
“Oh. Were you abadboy?” Saphira smiled teasingly.
I could not hold back the low growl that rumbled up my throat or stop the tips of my fingers turning inky as I dug emerging claws into the map before me.
“I fucked around and found out.” Riordan’s tone was all business, not a trace of warmth or amusement in it.
Wise male. He was in danger of fucking around and finding out again, and I would not be as kind as his last commander had been. There would be no banishment. Only death.
“Western reaches,” I grumbled and held my left hand out towards Riordan. “Last year and this year.”
“Apparently, stealing your commander’s woman from him is a career-ending mistake.” Riordan shrugged as he went to one of the bookcases set into the black stone walls and gathered several leather binders.
Saphira looked a lot less enamoured with him, her pale eyebrows knitting as her gaze tracked him as he crossed the room to me. “Who’d have thought seducing someone else’s lover would be a terrible idea? Are all men ruled by their dick?”
Riordan’s eyes widened as he took that dagger to the chest.
I chuckled under my breath as I took the binders from him and set them down on the edge of the map, my gaze fixed on the area around Wraith Wood and the markers positioned there.
Saphira hurled one at me too. “What are you laughing at? I distinctly recall you sporting a hard-on for the whole of Beltane just because I was sitting beside you.”
“Not just because you were sitting beside me,” I purred as I lifted my gaze to lock with hers. “Because you were sittingonme.”
She huffed, her eyes widening slightly as she folded her arms.
“And who made me sit on you?” She shook her head. “You know what. You don’t get to talk until you’re on your knees, grovelling for my forgiveness for branding me like I’m a cow.”
I smiled wickedly, gaze narrowing on her. “If you want me on my knees before you, you know our deal, little lamb. You only need to beg.”
Colour climbed her cheeks but then her eyes became nothing more than thin slits. “That is not going to happen.”
I gave her a sly look as my grin stretched wider, and she glared at me, her lips thinning as she silently dared me to mention what had happened between us.
I would not.
Because some darkly possessive part of me did not want anyone else to know. I wanted to keep her all to myself.
“Aaaand now the air in here makes sense,” Riordan said, and we both hit him with a glare. He held his hands up. “If you need the room, I am more than happy to exit it and leave you two alone to… uh… work things out.”
“There will be no working things out,” she muttered and turned her cheek to me, fixing her attention back on the vampire as she haughtily tipped her chin up.
“Until I beg forgiveness, apparently,” I muttered right back at her. “Which is not going to happen.”
She huffed again. “You’re dead to me.”
I chuckled at that, because we both knew it was a lie. She might be mad at me, but I had not missed the secret glances she stole whenever she thought I was not paying attention, lingering looks that had spoken of yearning more than once. She still wanted me, desired me as much as ever, and in time, she would surrender to me again.
Although she seemed rather intent on shutting me out and pretending I did not exist.
“How is it you can walk in this world without burning to ash? Does the light not affect you here, like it doesn’t in Hell?” Saphira angled her head, her focus fixed solely on the vampire, but I knew she was aware of me, of how my mood had been darkening drop by drop from the moment she had begun talking with Riordan.
Flirtingwith him.
