The Summer King Bundle 3 Stories - Jennifer L. Armentrout Page 0,60

looking for, but I was hanging out near the bar, hoping I would see something suspicious. So far, I hadn’t even seen a single fae. However, I’d gotten two guys’ phone numbers. Two guys who didn’t think I was plain and old.

I took another drink, but it did nothing to ease the burn in my chest. Hours later, I still had no idea what I had really been seeing at Caden’s place, but whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

And that had nothing to do with the stupid, stupid ache in the center of my chest.

He’d lied about who he’d killed at Flux, but there was a tiny logical part of my brain that told me he could be using Alyssa to get to Aric. It was a tiny part, though, because at this point, I could be wrong about that.

Caden obviously lied about killing Alyssa and she would’ve had to have seen him that night. He could’ve lied about a lot of things. Like what he was doing looking for Aric. The whole not feeding thing… or having sex, because it sure looked like something was going on there between them.

I flinched. Again. I took another drink. Again.

Scanning the bar, I brushed a strand of long, dark hair over my shoulder. I’d gone home before I came here. Slipping on a long, brown wig, and a sexier, tighter black dress that was shoulder-less.

Ren and Ivy would be back in the next day or so, and I was going to tell them everything—well, I was going to leave out the whole me feeding Caden thing and the full-bodied orgasm, but I had to tell someone about the Prince, because if he was somehow playing for the other team while playing me for shits and giggles, we were screwed.

But that didn’t make sense either, whispered that logical voice in my head. He’d killed fae. He’d saved my life. He couldn’t be working with the Winter—

A steely, warm arm circled around my waist from behind, drawing me back against a hard chest and stomach. I tensed, preparing to slam my elbow into the stomach of a very inappropriately forward dude.

“What are you doing here?”

Recognizing Caden’s voice, I froze sans shoving my elbow into his midsection even though I really wanted to even more now. “Let me go.”

His arm tightened. “You didn’t answer my question, sunshine.”

“Don’t call me that,” I snapped as I tried to pull free and failed. “And you really need to let me go.”

His sigh shuddered through me as he reached around me with his other hand and plucked the drink out of my fingers.

“Hey!”

He placed that on a table beside us and then his hand landed on my sternum, just below my breasts, stopping me before I twisted around to him. “You don’t understand what you saw at my place.”

“Gee. Really?” I looked around the packed floor, quickly realizing that no one was going to come to my aid. To the casual observer, it looked like he was embracing me. “And how did you find me here?”

The hand below my breasts flattened.

“What in the hell does that mean?” I demanded.

“A byproduct of saving your life. I can easily find you anywhere.”

My mouth dropped open. “Are you freaking serious?”

Caden didn’t respond, and he didn’t need to, because it made sense, how he popped up where I was and how he said he’d know if I went back to The Court.

“Jesus,” I muttered. “That’s creepy.”

He chuckled, and that annoyed me even more.

“It’s not funny. And it’s something you should’ve probably given me a heads up on.”

“I didn’t because I figured you’d have this response.”

I placed my hand on the arm that circled my waist. “You need to let go of me.”

“And you need to explain to me why you’re here.”

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen now.”

“You need to understand what you saw at my place. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“That much was obvious.”

He made a noise that sounded an awful lot like a growl. “I was using her for information on Aric.”

“Really? Because I’m pretty sure she’s supposed to be dead.”

“What?” He pressed his head to the side of mine, and his warm breath danced along my cheek, sending a shiver down my spine. “You need to elaborate on that statement.”

“Do I really need to?”

“Yes.” His thumb moved along my ribs and then the underswell of my breast. “You do.”

My throat dried as my idiotic, lonely body reacted to the slight touch. A different kind of ache settled in my chest. “She was