Fae Fiefdom - M. Sinclair Page 0,18

this intensity he was sprouting. “Kirin…you’ve got to let go of me.”

His eyes moved from where he was still looking over my shoulder at the spot Merrick had been standing at, back down to me, those green eyes nearly black. He swallowed and stepped back, running a hand through his hair looking angry and heated at the same time.

I felt cold and wrapped my arms around myself not liking our loss of contact despite knowing that I needed it, desperately.

“Are you okay?” he asked softly, his hand cupping my jaw.

I inhaled and nodded, “Yeah, I have no idea what happened. I probably need to eat lunch.”

Probably the wrong thing to say because his head snapped down to mine as his eyes filled with determination. I squeaked as he intertwined our fingers and led me through the library. I could feel eyes on me and whispers filling the space. Yeah. This was going to get back to my stepmother for sure. I sighed. This day was just getting more complicated and messy as we went along.

“Hey!” I yanked my hand back as we got outside. I didn’t like being dragged around. “What the heck are you doing?” I asked, feeling like maybe I wasn’t the only one who was crazy. That seemed reasonable. Everyone was insane in this weird little town, and I was the normal one. I liked that a lot.

“Food.” He pointed towards the coffee shop across the street, looking stiff and very caveman-ish. See that was the dichotomy of Kirin. Half the time he was as smooth as James Bond and the other half I actually considered as a wild animal in human skin.

I shook my head, giving up on this fight because from the little I knew about Kirin was that he was very determined. I kept my hood up as the rain came down lightly, and the further we got from the library the less tense he became. He stopped in front of the shop and let go of my hand, making me feel a bit annoyed. What? Now he didn’t want to hold my hand?

“What?” I asked looking up at him.

His eyes flickered to the coffee shop, “Nothing, I...”

Oh. I see.

“You don’t want to be seen in there with me,” I filled in, shaking my head and looking towards the doors, trying to not let my heart hurt. Honestly, I would have rather assumed the one night stand meant nothing than realizing he was embarrassed to be seen with me or some shit. “Do me a favor Kirin and just stay out of my business. I understood why you ghosted me, well I accepted it even though it was shitty…but this? This is confusing. I don’t deal with bullshit drama well.”

He let out a small growl of frustration, seeming to consider something, and then, I’m not even joking, stalked off without another word.

I sighed and looked at the coffee shop door. Well, at least I wouldn’t be able to consider it a wasted trip if I went in and got coffee. Plus, I didn’t want to go to my car which was near his, if I could believe the direction he was stomping off into.

The bells rang overhead and I heard the shift in conversation as people noticed me and probably stopped gossiping about Kirin stalking off. Or how we had been holding hands. I mumbled a curse thinking about how upset my stepmother was going to be and walked up to the counter.

“A large mocha please,” I stated clearly to the woman, her smile bright and friendly. Clearly she was new to the town. She handed me a travel cup filled with the delicious mocha heaven in less than two minutes. I turned to walk out of the shop.

I froze as I met a pair of very familiar eyes. Two pairs actually. Was this a joke?

Koa sat at a corner table with Bard, along with three girls around them. Michelle from the cheer squad hadn’t noticed me but was talking to Koa. Ashley was on her phone taking a call and sipping on tea. Then there was Lauren who was on the edge of Bard’s knee because pulling over a chair would have been far too difficult.

Alright, to be fair there weren’t any other chairs and the two other girls were already sharing one, but still. I swallowed feeling jealousy hit me. The only thing that was keeping me together was that Bard wasn’t touching her at all, both hands relaxed on the comfortable