words.
He walked out in black jeans that hugged the muscles of his thighs. He still wore the black tank top, stretched over his pectorals like the damn things were going to rip the fabric. A black leather jacket and black boots finished the look. He dripped with a bad boy energy I should have stopped being attracted to when I was sixteen, but there he was, a grown-up version of my every teenage fantasy.
It was too hot for the leather jacket, but when the fae who worked in the boutique got something in their head, it didn’t matter. They probably spelled it to keep him comfortable while he wore it, keeping him warm or cooling him down. The pants I got from them on occasion had similar spells.
I let out a slow breath, trying to rein in the attraction. I had been attracted to men with the same intensity before. Sometimes a man was just the gods’ gift to anyone with eyes. Raphael was like that. The aching fangs were a new addition to my reaction.
Well, at least biology picked a looker.
I wanted to laugh until I cried as Raphael walked to the car and folded himself into the backseat.
“They said they would send the rest to your place,” he said, looking at Cassius. He didn’t say anything to me. I wanted him to. I wanted him to ask me if I liked it or something. I don’t know why, but not being talked to by the immensely attractive man in the back seat really fucking bothered me.
Here I go. The regression into being a fourteen-year-old girl because a pretty boy is around. Just what I needed this week.
“Looks good,” I said nonchalantly, trying to make it sound as casual as I could.
“Thanks,” he replied, but it didn’t really sound like he cared about what I thought.
Cassius pulled out of the parking lot and started the long drive to my house. Crossing my arms, I tried not to think about Raphael in the backseat, completely uninterested in me. In the time since I met him, he had given exactly zero signs he cared about any of my opinions at all.
He tried to shoot me. He barely talks to me about anything except to learn what the hell is going on around him. He didn’t care if I thought he looked good.
Oh yeah, Adhar, you think this is going to be easy? Just bite him? Funny.
I sure as hell would never bite a guy who was completely uninterested, and I barely knew. And that was if I even intended on ever biting anyone. Nagas mated for life. Once the choice of mate was made, if there was more than one option, that mate had to die before a naga could mate with another. If I did it without thinking, I could easily end up with a guy who fucking hated me, and there would be nothing either of us could do about it except kill each other.
Hmm. No thanks.
I stayed lost in thought, not looking up from the dashboard until we were pulling onto my dirt drive. Cassius mumbled a curse.
“What?” I demanded.
“Why can’t you live near civilization? Or at least get the driveway paved?”
“Ah. Yeah, I thought you were just bitching,” I said, nodding sagely. “You always bitch when you don’t have the creature comforts of a long, paved drive and might get a rock kicked up and scratch the paint.”
“You love your cars,” he said with a bite. “You don’t worry about this?”
“I can easily get the little shit fixed. I don’t like when someone shoots at my car. Big difference,” I said, trying to sound like I was the reasonable one.
Cassius snorted, shaking his head.
When my house came into view, I wanted to cry.
“Holy shit,” Raphael said from the back. I felt the car shift as he moved to get a better look through the front seats. “Sorry about the BMW.”
“Yeah, the witch had already set it on fire, so…” I shrugged.
Cassius coughed, hopefully out of shock. I thumped his shoulder a few times, sighing.
“Yeah, Sinclair had a witch and fae with him. I told you that. The witch set the BMW on fire. The fae put a lot of bullets into the Aston Martin.”
“Did the BMW roll down the damn mountain?” he asked, pointing as he pulled to a stop.
“No, I threw it at the fae when he came after me,” Raphael explained.
“Well…” Cassius cut the engine and gestured at my poor house. “Let’s go see what