Page 33 of Surfaces
Valdez’s fingers tightened, but his smile never left his face as he leered down at me. “I’m wounded, Avia. You don’t trust me.”
“You’re a pirate.”
“Was.” His fingers dragged along my hip, finding the ridge of bone there and tracing it with his thumb over my skirt. Even though I was covered, his fingers tickled the scales that made a small line down the outsides of my legs, creating a deliciously wanton sensation in my low belly. His touch nearly erased all my thoughts, scattered them like plankton sprinkled along a wave.
“Oh really?” I asked, trying not to let him see just how he affected me.
“Yes.”
“And how’d you find that out? Who at the mayor’s dinner knows Mr. Rover there?”
“I didn’t go to the dinner.”
“No?” I asked, though I already knew as much.
His fingers gripped tighter pulling me even closer, causing my right nipple to rub against the silky fabric of his shirt. It betrayed me by beading up and I knew he could feel it against him when his grin grew wider and I caught the floral scent associated with his own attraction.
“Stop distracting me,” I hissed at him.
“You’re the one distracting me,” he retorted.
I tried to push him away but it was impossible, he was too strong. Felipe swam closer, spear angled, but I waved him off because I wanted Valdez to answer me more than I wanted him to release me. In fact, a tiny part of me, the part that had been planning naughty things all morning for my visit with Mateo, didn’t want Valdez to release me at all. Especially not after I gulped some more of that potent floral scent of his. It made my eyes grow hooded even as I tried to scowl up at him.
“Stop flooding the water with hormones.”
“That’s like asking you to stop being gorgeous.”
I reached out to squeeze his bicep in frustration but ended up admiring how sculpted he was underneath his shirt. Maybe something less pure. I didn’t remove my hand. “Tell me you didn’t hire that fool to steal from me in order to make yourself look good.”
“I didn’t hire that fool,” Valdez returned easily.
“I can have a mage use a truth serum on you.”
“Good. Do so.”
There was a long moment as we faced off and I tried to measure whether or not I believed him. But he held steady, so either he was a magnificent liar (a trait that could still be useful in a palace, so long as it wasn’t used against me) or he was telling the truth. I didn’t have any proof of my accusation. So as I stared up at his hazel-green eyes and watch his pupils blow out with attraction the longer he held me against him, I decided that I couldn’t condemn him yet.
“Okay then. Tell me what you were doing last night instead of attending the dinner function you were supposed to.”
“I was out gathering information on who might have attacked,” Valdez’s face grew dark and wrathful, and suddenly, I could see the fierce and dangerous pirate. While the sight made my mouth dry out, it made my lady parts do quite the opposite.
“Mayor Deacon has city guards for that. And I have my own.”
“I can go places that pufferfish like those can’t.”
“Really?”
“Really.” He let his hand encase my hip, his fingers quite close to my inner thigh.
“And?” I prompted breathily, very aware of our audience as I reached down and gently slid his hand backward so that it wasn’t completely indecent. Of course, that put his palm on my ass because he was a giant. I tried to shove that hand upward to my waist but he tightened his grip and wouldn’t let me move it further. I could have protested, but part of me loved the way Valdezwasn’tgentle with me because I was a queen.
He made me feel like a tavern wench … no, not some woman of the night … he was more like that handsy wool merchant back in Evaness who hadn’t been able to stop touching his wife. Every time I’d gone to their shop, his hand had been at her waist, holding her hand, even dipping and kissing her raunchily in public—his affection so strong he couldn’t help but reach out and touch her. And woe to any other man that looked at her, because the merchant was possessive.
Though there was a seductive undertone, a teasing to each one of Valdez’s touches, he reminded me of the wool merchant, a man whose need spilled over into action. There was something so appealing about that; a man who couldn’t help himself around me and didn’t care what other people thought… It was the exact opposite of life in a castle court where restraint was everywhere, second-guessing rampant.
“And what happened last night?” I repeated myself, certain Valdez had lost the thread of the conversation from the heated look he was giving me.
“It must have been a lone fish shifter,” he shook his head as if trying to clear it. “That’s my best guess. Most people in the reef are packed in, it’s hard to keep secrets in a place like this. Someone would have heard something and the rumor mill would have started churning. But all anyone could talk about last night, no matter which tavern I went to, was who had attacked the arena. And all they had were theories.”
