to loom over me. His lip rose, and he shook his head. “Fuck this.” He whipped around, heading for the door. I knew I lost my leverage, my clout over him oozing out like air from a popped balloon.
“Wait.” I started to climb off the bed. “Warwick, stop.” I stepped down and my leg gave out, sending me crashing to the floor with a thud, my tailbone smacking the floor.
“Jesus.” He flipped back to me, crouching down and grabbing my arms. “You realize you were shot in the leg, right? Try not walking on it for at least five minutes.” He heaved me back on the bed, scolding me like a toddler.
“What?” I opened my eyes up wide. “I was shot?” I did a dramatic double-take, looking down at my bandaged leg. “Oh, my gods! When did this happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”
He grunted, rising to his full height. “You are hilarious,” he said, unsmiling.
Taking the palinka, I sucked more down, in real need of numbing the aches stabbing me like a voodoo doll. Knowing I lost the first round, I sighed, letting out my frustration. “Okay, how about we start easier.”
“Like?”
“You.” I motioned up to him. “I’ve heard about you since I can remember. What’s true? What is false? Are you fae? Human?”
“You ask a lot of questions.”
“Can you answer any of them?”
“Yes.” He tilted his head. “And no.”
Collapsing my face into my palms, aggravation gurgled from my throat.
“What? I answered your question.”
“Yes and no? How is that answering it?”
“I’m human…” He reached for the bottle tucked between my thighs.
“What?” My mouth dropped open. “You’re human?”
“And fae.” He smirked, tipping the bottle into his mouth, his eyes glinting with mischief. “I’m one of those degrading mixed breeds. Someone tainting the purity of both races.” The derision crawled thickly over each word. “Part of the group that doesn’t fit in anywhere.”
Half-breeds were only accepted in the Savage Lands. Pure humans lived in Leopold, the elite looking down on those who would mix with the enemy, finding it vile and gross to be friendly to a fae, let alone bed one. The fae side felt the same about mixing with humans.
“But why weren’t you in a blue uniform? How come no one could figure out what you are?”
“Because I don’t belong there either,” he muttered before consuming half the bottle.
“What?”
“At one time, I was a half-breed.” He wiped at his mouth.
“One time?”
He shrugged, moving away from me, his fingers going to his wet pants, peeling them down his body, making my pulse skyrocket. His bare, perfectly sculpted, firm ass was so round I wanted to bite into it like a juicy apple.
“What are you doing?” Unable to tear my gaze away from his lower half on display, my heart pounded in my ears. The night in the shower together, I had been so distraught, I didn’t fully take in his physique. Damn, this man…
He peered over his shoulder as if he could sense my craving, catching me ogling his rear, roasting my cheeks into a deep char.
“They’re chafing because someone got them wet.” He lifted an eyebrow. Everything he did seemed to be doused in sex and danger, tapping into this deep feral need.
He stripped off his shirt, his muscular back flexing and twitching under his skin. A bandage covered one arm where he’d been shot, his tattoos and scars demanding my attention.
Fuuucck.
Turning away, I took in clipped breaths, trying to act as if he didn’t affect me, that his body didn’t make mine respond with raw need. My act was more for myself than him. His smirk told me he saw right through me.
“What did you mean?” I cleared my throat, my gaze sliding and darting back to him as he took a minuscule threadbare towel off the dresser, wrapped it around his waist, then moved to the window. He flung his pants and shirt near the open frames to dry, then dropped down into the chair, propping his feet up on the bed, bottle in hand.
“You probably know more about me than I do.” He settled into the wingback.
He was not going to make this easy for me.
“One of the rumors is you died then came back to life.”
His mouth pinched together, his finger rubbing the lip of the bottle.
“True or not true?”
“Is there a third option?”
I rotated to face him, confused by his non-answer. “No.”
He adjusted, glancing out the window.
“True.”
My eyes bugged, ready for him to respond the opposite way.