Fae Fiefdom - M. Sinclair Page 0,9

His artfully styled, black hair messy and a sharp contrast against his pale skin.

Dark tattoos littered that alabaster skin of his arms. His pushed up Henley and jeans made him look all that much more dangerous. My eyes fell on a scar that he had running through his left brow and I had the inappropriate urge to kiss it.

Oh, god. I had officially lost it.

“Who the hell are you?” I demanded softly, my voice squeaking at the end.

Instead of answering at first, he just stared at me. He had crouched down in front of me and his eyes were searching my face looking an odd mixture of concern and pissed off.

“Oliver Grimald,” he stated just as quietly, his head tilting in a predatory movement.

I felt my center tighten, and my skin broke out into shivers, the pain mostly forgotten. Crap this guy was sexy.

He lifted a hand and cupped my jaw gently, a dark look passing over his bright eyes before he pulled back.

I inhaled sharply, able to fucking breathe again. “Why are you in my room?” I demanded, feeling far more out of breath than I should have been.

Why was I getting turned on by this ass? He could be a serial killer.

Why wasn’t I screaming?

Had I lost my sense of self-preservation? Hell, had I ever had any? I couldn’t remember a time when it had actually been tested.

“I work here,” he explained, but I didn’t feel like that was the full truth.

I didn’t think he was lying, but there was something off about his tone. It wouldn’t surprise me if we had estate workers I didn’t know about. As if my body snapped out of it, I whimpered, my skin pulsating with pain as I pulled off my sock to reveal very red skin and dark painted nails. There was nothing quite like the pain of boiling hot water on your skin.

“Don’t touch me,” I growled quietly as he reached forward to grasp my ankle, “get out before I scream for my mother.”

“Stepmother,” he clarified, making my jaw clench.

“Get out,” I commanded in a hard voice that surprised even me, “I should have you fired for this.” That was if he worked here. I feel like I would have noticed this unusually handsome bastard.

Although, sometimes it felt like the place changed on me, looping in and out of reality. Bending like the shadows. Or. And this is completely possible, I was imagining all of this. It was a theme throughout most of my life. The fight between was Ophelia going fucking crazy or was the shit around her actually happening.

His lips twitched slightly, breaking his intense demeanor. “But you won’t. Now let me look at your foot, Ophelia. You don’t want it to blister.” God, I loved my name on his lips. I didn’t even care how he knew it. He was in my room, after all. Maybe he was a stalker. I wasn’t positive if I would be upset about him stalking me.

“Absolutely not,” I tried drawing my foot back further, but he kept a hold of my delicate ankle once in his reach. I whimpered as he examined the red, probably soon to be blistered skin as he mentioned.

His rough fingers felt good on my skin, and my head felt dizzy as he smoothed a thumb over my ankle bone and the other danced across my sore skin.

“Can I fix it, princess?” He arched a brow as I scowled at the nickname. I nodded, wondering how he was going to do that. Then he took me by surprise and pressed his fingers harder into the red area.

I winced expecting pain but instead, a soft warmth surrounded my foot and the pain disappeared. Sweet Christ that felt better. My body sagged in relief as the tension rolled off me and down into the floor like rivulets of water.

“How?” I demanded, not bothering to tug my foot back as he continued to run his thumb over it. Swallowed nervously because the man was looking at my foot still, but his body was tense as if ready for something. I had no idea what.

“Magic,” he whispered, almost in thought.

I scoffed, causing him to arch a dark brow at me. Then he was standing up, his hand offered to me as I joined him. My eyes moved to the mug but found it no longer broken but steaming with fresh tea and my phone ringing once more.

“You should pick that up,” he whispered against my ear, making me shiver.

I was