Page 76 of Wolf Caged
I was sure that scent was to blame for the hot shivers that wracked me and filled me with confidence as my steps went from timid to bold strides that carried me through the parting crowd. Head turned to track me but it didn’t scare me. Rather than shrinking away, I only grew more confident, my eyes never straying from Kaeleron’s.
When I neared him, he slowly swept his hand over the empty spot beside him on the black velvet of the chaise longue heoccupied. A strange choice for a feast, but there were regular dining chairs near the tables that were slowly being filled with dishes of food and carafes of wine. Perhaps this was where he waited in comfort while the feast was being prepared.
He stroked the velvet again, his eyes never leaving mine, and I felt that touch like a caress down my body, his shadows teasing me with an echo of it.
“Sit, little lamb,” he purred.
I glanced at the fae who watched me, suddenly aware of all the eyes on me as whatever spell Kaeleron or that scent had woven on me broke.
“Do not mind them.” He stroked the seat beside him again and I shivered as his shadows mimicked him, gliding down my spine. “They simply want what they cannot have.”
“Finally, some company for you. Must have been getting pretty lonely being the only one wanting what they can’t have,” I pushed out, trying to act casual even as my nerves ate away at my confidence now and I couldn’t get my mind off that altar near the bonfire.
He chuckled, the warm sound rasping in my ears, heating my blood and making me ache to have him do that close to my ear, so I could feel the warmth of his breath on my neck.
On my nape.
I slammed the lid on that desire.
And gestured to the slab at the other end of the glade.
“Is that for me? Am I wearing the colour of blood for a reason? Wouldn’t want to stain a nice dress when you sacrificed me.”
He laughed now, the sound shocking me together with how his face lit up with it, and then a split second later it shut off and he locked his gaze onto me, deadly serious again.
“If I were to lay you out on that altar, Saphira, it would be so I could devour you.”
I swallowed hard and clenched my fists, trying to stop my hands from trembling as his words pushed that image into my mind, a vision of him nestled between my shaking bare thighs, giving me a pleasure I had never experienced before.
“Wicked little wolf,” he husked and pulled on his shadows, tugging me towards him. “You like the thought of it, do you not?”
“No, I do not.” I plopped down onto the seat beside him, my posture rigid as I tucked my hands between my thighs.
My first mistake.
His gaze tracked where they had gone, darkening by degrees, and the tip of his tongue poked out to sweep along his lower lip in a far too erotic caress.
“Clearly, you hit the wine early tonight.” I glowered at him, maintaining a frosty wall between us that felt as if it would crumble at any moment.
Kaeleron lounged against the raised side of the chaise, a vision of wickedness in black, with his tunic unbuttoned enough to reveal the start of his chest and a hint of glorious hard muscles. His eyes never left me as he signalled for someone, a female who hurried from the shadows to crouch beside him.
“Serve my little lamb. She thirsts.”
I glared at him, not missing his innuendo. “I thirst for wine, not you. Anything to make you more tolerable.”
He chuckled, his face lighting up with it.
“By the gods, have you drunk a barrel already?” I wasn’t sure how much alcohol it took to get a fae drunk, but he had to be close to the limit of his tolerance.
“I am not drunk, little lamb.”
I snatched the goblet the female offered me and took a great gulp, needing a little liquid courage if I was going to get through this evening of being watched by so many people and teased by this incorrigible fae king who had just discovered how to laugh and was intent on tormenting me with the delicious timbre of it.
And choked on the drink as my eyes watered and my throat burned.
“And this is not wine,” I wheezed, my head already feeling lighter, my thoughts a little fuzzier.
My second mistake.
