Page 50 of Where Broken Wings Fly

“If anyone sees me in this shit, my reputation is ruined.”

“You’re the one that laid down. Suck it up.”

Still grumbling, his cinnamon-soaked eyes slide over to me. I hold my breath as he seizes a strand of my hair and tucks it behind my ear, looking puzzled by his own reaction. I’m terrified to breathe in case the spell breaks.

“I came to ask you to come for dinner tomorrow. In our cabin.”

“Dinner?” I repeat, dumbfounded.

“Both of you.”

“In your cabin? Dinner?”

“Am I speaking French or something?” he rasps.

“I’m just surprised that you want to let us girls into your bachelor pad. Does this mean you’ll pick up the dirty flannel shirts from your bathroom floor?”

“What?” Killian’s mouth falls open in outrage. “Who told you that? I do not leave my shirts on the floor.”

“Nobody.”

“It was Ryder, wasn’t it?”

“I’m saying nothing,” I reply lightly.

“That asshole. I’m gonna run him over with my truck. He’s the one who leaves dirty socks everywhere. Even in our damn cabin, and he doesn’t live there.”

“I’m sure Lola would have something to say about you murdering Ryder in broad daylight. Who will run the garage?”

Killian snorts. “Literally anyone else.”

Clambering back onto his boot-covered feet, Killian looks down at me, his shadow blotting out the sunlight and submerging me in darkness. The look he trains me with sets a fire in my belly that I don’t understand.

“Dinner tomorrow, seven o’clock. No buts.” His eyes dart to Arianna, then back to me. “Wear the daisy crown if you want, princess.”

“Yay!” Arianna exclaims. “I want to eat in the giant’s cabin.”

She’s far too attached to this overbearing asshole for my liking. He knows it too, her declaration making his eyes crinkle in that satisfied, smug way that accompanies his rare smiles.

“I’ll pick up my washing,” he adds. “Don’t be late.”

I’m sure the sound of my laughter follows him all the way home.

CHAPTER 11

ZACH

FLAWS - BASTILLE

“Let me get this straight.”

“Again, Zach?” Killian moans.

I take a swig of beer. “I’m just curious how this situation came about. You are infamously the most unsociable person I’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting, cuz.”

Killian’s scowl would set whole fields of crops alight. “You know, I’m sure Lola would understand if I murdered you after Ryder and buried your body in the allotment.”

“Me and Ryder in one day, huh?”

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