Page 17 of MidKnight
“Collect what?”
He leaned forward and whispered, “Something that isn’t acceptable to say in public.” His eyes glittered.
My breath caught and my nipples tightened. Connor looked so naughty that I had to press my thighs together to ease the ache.
He’d never teased me like this before. Not this explicitly. Everything we’d done was covert. Stolen kisses, stolen moments. Even after he’d been officially announced as one of my knights, we’d had to maintain a sense of propriety in public. We’d tested boundaries, as teenagers do. But not like he was doing now. Not like the suggestive way his tongue traced his upper lip. Nothing remotely close to the way he rubbed his lips together as he leaned toward me and whispered, “What I have in mind is gonna taste even more delicious than dessert.”
I was sure he felt the pulse of desire that surged up my spine and made me light-headed. His cat-ate-the-cream grin assured me he did.
Of course, he took advantage of my distraction to slam my hand into the table.
“Rematch!” I cried.
He gave a nonchalant shrug and held his hand up, waiting for me to straighten my own.
I narrowed my eyes as I clasped palms with him.
“Go,” he murmured.
I pushed. I did. But his sarding hand didn’t move an inch. He’d gotten stronger in four years.
I cheated. I put my other hand on the back of his and pulled. I put both hands on the same side and pushed, but I couldn’t even get him halfway down. “What the hell?” I’d never lost this badly before. I’d lost, sure. But he’d at least had the good grace to pretend I was strong enough to make it a struggle.
When I stood up to push on his arm he laughed and let his arm flop backward onto the table.
“You let me win,” I sat back in my seat and folded my arms over my chest, pouting.
“Yup,” Connor leaned back. “Now you know something about me you never knew. Your turn.”
My jaw dropped. “You used toletme win?” Fury and admiration rose in me at once. I’d never suspected.
“All the time.”
He was so sweet and so patronizing at the same time. I wasn’t certain which of my emotions would win out against him, the anger or the respect. I narrowed my eyes. “At what?” We’d played countless games growing up.
He shook his head, “Your turn.”
I glared at him. “I don’t like that a bit, Connor Doyle … Hale, I mean. Connor Hale.”
His eyes darkened, pupils dilating. Both of us stared intensely at one another. It was the first time I’d said his married name aloud. He’d always belonged to me. We’d always belonged to each other. But hearing it … I blinked, before I started to get emotional in front of the servants.
“I hate mosquitoes,” I admitted, changing the subject.
He laughed, “Who doesn’t?”
“You don’t understand. If I could make them cease to exist, I would. Every night,every night, they bit me. And I’d scratch in my sleep. I’d wake up with welts the size of your fist.”
Connor leaned toward me and asked in a low voice, “What were you doing out late at night?”
I faked a laugh, “Well, there aren’t a lot of inns in the wilds of Cheryn and Macedon. I spent a lot of nights sleeping under the stars. That turned out to be much less romantic than the poets pretend.”
A servant walked within earshot, so I added a little more for that man’s benefit. “I mean, when you’redragon-huntingyou don’t get cozy castles every day.” I hadn’t been dragon hunting. I’d been wizard hunting, for a cure for my powers. Of course, the mention of dragons made me think of Avia.
Connor’s lips thinned. He leaned closer and brushed my hair back as he whispered, “First of all, we’ll find her.” He knew what I was thinking without me having to say a single word. “Second of all, you’re an idiot for ever leaving and not telling me everything. Every one of those mosquito bites was your own fault. Third, I’ll kill every mosquito I can from now on, in your honor.”
I laughed. “You’re so brave.”
“You know it.”
