Page 33 of Forgotten Monsters
“Not for the better,” I croak, my jaw clenched so hard, it hurts.
“Were you always this impatient?”
“When did you stop being smart?
Our gaze locks. Red freckles shine in his amber eyes, and the wave of emotions really, really…turns me on. I want to crush my mouth to his until his face shows something besides arrogance. I want a glimpse of the Cole from the war tent, the one that looked like he was about to throw me to the ground and make me his again.
Ineedhim.
I inch forward slowly, the way you would approach frightened prey, without breaking the spell. He digs his nails into the armrest of the chair, nostrils flaring as though he’s fighting with himself.
I take advantage of his indecision to close the gap between us and straddle him, one hand laying flat on his chest, the other slipping up to his neck to caress his short curls. “We can fight all day, but what’s the use? I missed you—and I was only gone a few weeks. I can’t imagine what it was like for you.”
The kiss is tentative at first. Fae wine lingers on his tongue, and the spicy scent of his cologne melts my insides. He encircles my waist, the warm planes of his chest tightly pressed against me. I sigh out a relieved breath. This isbetter.
We rediscover each other with each languid stroke, until Cole jerks to his feet, taking me along with him, my thighs wrapped around his midriff. My ass hits the table before he devours my neck, his lips both hard and soft on my pulse point.
The new shape of his arms is sinfully hot—if not a bit intimidating.
He squeezes the soft flesh of my thighs, spreading them open. His scars gleam under the torches’ light. I want to memorize them and ease into this new version of him, whereas Cole is clearly aiming forfast and rough. I could have gotten on board with that if he’d looked at me, but a sense of doom hovers in my belly.
His eyes are screwed shut, and it’s messy. I need reassurance that he’s opening up, not merely fucking me out of his mind.
“Cole, look at me,” I breathe against his chest.
He abruptly pulls away, gripping his hair. “You’re still so…young.”
There’s so much hate in the word, it sparks a fire storm in my chest.
“You’re too old for me now? Too worldly for an eighteen-year-old?” A hot line of anger lances up my spine. If it wasn’t for the scars and the frost in his amber eyes, he’d look exactly the same, too. I lift my chin up. “What’s a decade to you?”
“Everything,” he snarls. “I might be immortal, but I was nineteen then. A child. I had no idea what I was doing.”
I slide my butt past the ledge of the table to stand.
Cole paces the room back and forth. “Losing you once showed me what a weakness love is.”
“So losing me twice is the answer?” I press hard on my forehead, trying to follow his damn logic, and fail. There must be something he isn’t telling me, something gnawing at him for him to act so…volatile.
His gaze snaps to mine, and his whole body shakes with rage as though my question is the ultimate sacrilege. “I’m notlosingyou again. You’ll stay right here, so I can keep an eye on you.”
My brows furrow. “Here, as in Faerie?”
“Here, as in my rooms.” He heads toward the exit, and for every step, my heart pounds harder.
A mass of stone sinks in my belly, and my head starts to shake in denial. I need to go home and compare notes with Allie, figure this shit out before I explode into an endless ball of tears. This whole time dilation situation is an absolute nightmare.
“I can’t just stay here while you accept my existence. Allie is waiting for me back in Dark Falls!” I shout at Cole’s retreating back.
“I waited eleven years. Your sister can wait a little longer.” The door closes behind him, and the sound echoes inside my cells.
13
THE BLOND FAE
The King’s apartments in which Coleimprisonedme include a bedroom, bathroom, dining room, office, and library. After his tantrum, I tried to follow him, but a spell prevented me from opening the doors. In the absence of the right ingredients and gear to thwart the powerful Fae magic that seals these rooms, my attempts to dispel the barrier were fruitless, and I haven’t been desperate enough to try and break the windows, yet.
I read every letter on Cole’s desk to catch up with the politics of Faerie and fell asleep on his bed at the crack of dawn. The next afternoon, I arranged all the documents I could find into three piles. The bad-news-about-Unseelie pile, the intra-realm-unrest in another, and the shit-is-hitting-the-fan-with-Earth documents.
