Page 3 of Evil Eyed
I wasn’t sure what had transpired between them earlier, but I’d seen Aidan stare glumly at the gargoyle statue on my shelf and drink himself into oblivion too many times to count. Not just in this incarnation, either.
Her voice quivered with dread. “Am I a changeling? Oh god. What if... Am I likehim?”
The man who’d tortured her for five long years, a changeling fae who’d used me own gold to bind me from lifting a finger to help her.
I pulled her into my arms and all four treasures crowded around us. “Never,” I said firmly. “You’re light and love, Riann. Not darkness and hunger.”
She clutched fists of my hair, hiding her face against me. “But I am hungry. All the time.”
I wasn’t sure what she meant until an image filled my mind. All of us loving her. Keane shattering her with his orgasmic hands and mouth. Her ass bright red from Aidan’s spanking. She stared up at me as I fucked her mouth, while Ivarr and Doran each took a turn fucking her. Again and again and again.
Ivarr let out a low groan. “Fucking hell, Riann. Take pity on a man and give a little notice before you broadcast something like that. I almost nutted on Aidan. He’d take my head for sure.”
“Nah,” Aidan growled. “Not as long as I get a turn too. Though I think she’d enjoy it much more than me.”
“See what I mean?” She whispered. “That’s not normal.”
I tipped her face up so she could see the truth dancing in my eyes. “I assure you that’s entirely normal for us.”
Her gaze flickered over to her friend, her cheeks reddening.
“Especiallyfor us,” Doran added. “We’re bound by magic, aye, and I’ve loved other treasurekeepers, sure. But nothing like how I feel for you, Riann. This is unlike anything I’ve ever known.”
“Which only makes me feel worse!” She leaned away from me, burying her face in her hands. “What if I’ve trapped you, like I was trapped by Jonathan? If I’ve been feeding on you this whole time? Aidan…” She jerked her head up, her eyes desperate and dark. “You never wanted to be a part of this. You avoided me as long as possible until I reeled you in. I tricked you. I coerced you.”
Aidan snorted. Chuckled. Which deepened into full-belly amusement the likes of which I hadn’t even known the man was capable. I’d have wagered half of all me gold on the Summer Isle before I’d ever guess the man could laugh like that.
Her eyes narrowed and she pushed up out of the chair, brushing past me to stand before Aidan. Glaring at him with arms crossed over her chest, she waited silently for his mirth to quiet. “I’m serious. You never wanted to be with me.”
He reached out and ever so tenderly tucked a loose strand of her hair back behind her ear. “You couldn’t be more wrong, Riann. I always wanted to be with you, and if you had to coerce me to get me here, then so be it. Coerce me all the way to death and beyond.”
2
This was a nightmare. How Aidan could laugh at the possibility that I’d forced him into some kind of changeling exchange…
“You’re no changeling.” Doran’s voice rumbled like boulders tumbling down a mountainside. “I’m sure of it.”
“You were sure that I was mortal until the tattoo wiped off my arm,” I threw back. “How can we know for sure? Cut my head off and see if I get up again?”
Vivi let out a pained gasp that made my heart squeeze painfully. She’d been my only friend my whole life. If I lost her…
“Don’t even joke about such a thing,” she retorted. “We already almost lost you to the changeling.”
I stepped closer, holding out my hands to her. She slipped her hands into mine, squeezing firmly. “Did you ever see anything in me that made you think that I wasn’t… right?”
Her head tipped slightly as she thought about the many years of our friendship. I appreciated that she didn’t give me an immediate knee-jerk“of course not,”answer. I wanted the truth. Even if it hurt.
“Other than when you were married to Jonathan, the only thing that comes to mind is how your parents treated you. I never could understand it.”
“Were you adopted?” Doran asked.
I shook my head. “Not to my knowledge. I’m pretty sure they would have told me, too. We weren’t ever close. They divorced while I was in high school and went their separate ways.”
Not close was an understatement. I’d never felt like I belonged anywhere. Like I was wanted. Loved. I didn’t have a home. My family had been Vivi, not the parents who were supposed to raise me. I hadn’t even known that parents did things like kiss your forehead at night and tuck you in until I’d seen Vivi’s mom do that one night at a sleepover.
“I couldn’t understand how they could just move off and leave you.”
I shrugged. “It was a relief, honestly.”
