Capture the Crown (Gargoyle Queen #1) -Jennifer Estep Page 0,34
each other in the meantime. I didn’t voice my thought, but Leonidas’s eyes narrowed again, as though he was thinking something similar.
I held back a sigh. It was going to be a long, long night.
Chapter Seven
I offered to help Leonidas into the bathroom, but he growled that he was fine on his own. The prince heaved himself up and off the settee and took a step forward. One of his knees came dangerously close to buckling, but he managed to catch himself. Still, by the time he slowly righted his body, he was sweating again, and his face was gray with pain.
“Your stubbornness is going to be the death of you someday,” I drawled.
Leonidas glowered at me, but he staggered into the bathroom and shut the door. An audible click sounded, but him throwing the lock didn’t concern me. There was only a small window in the bathroom, but I doubted he had the strength to break the glass, much less climb out of the frame.
Squeak. A faucet turned, and water started running in the sink. Since he seemed to be behaving, I moved around the cottage, disposing of his ruined tunic, the bloody bowl of water, and the other used supplies. I also rolled the wheelbarrow back outside.
Fifteen minutes later, the bathroom door opened, and Leonidas stepped back out into the living room, his stride a little steadier than before. He was still wearing his black leggings, along with his boots, and he had slung a damp towel around his neck. Water glistened like silver rain in his onyx-black hair, while a few drops clung to his bare muscled chest. Mesmerized, I watched one rivulet glide down the center of his breastbone, going lower . . . and lower . . . and lower . . .
“See something that interests you?” Leonidas asked, a mocking note in his voice.
My gaze snapped up to his. An unwanted blush scalded my cheeks, and I had to clear the dryness out of my throat. “Nothing particularly impressive.”
Amusement danced in his eyes, and his lips curved up into a smug smirk, melting some of his icy reserve. Leonidas Morricone knew exactly how attractive he was. No doubt everyone from palace servants to merchants’ bored wives to noble ladies searching for a suitably rich husband had thrown themselves at him.
Leonidas stepped closer, looming over me, and his gaze raked down my body. I held my ground and let him look his fill.
“See something that interests you?” I tossed his own words back at him.
“Very much so.”
His admission surprised me, as did the heat suddenly glimmering in his eyes, and his deep voice curled around me like an invisible string of energy, even though neither one of us was using our magic.
If he had been anyone else, I might have moved forward, tangled my fingers in his hair, pressed my lips to his, and seen what happened next. I took all the proper herbs and precautions, and I’d had a few discreet affairs while undercover on missions. But I’d never found someone so strangely, hypnotically appealing as Leonidas.
Still, despite our seemingly mutual attraction, I couldn’t trust him not to betray me the second he climbed out of my bed—if not sooner. Even if he hadn’t been my childhood enemy, Leonidas was still a Mortan. There was charmingly star-crossed, and then there was bloody impossible, and any sort of Ripley-Morricone dalliance fell squarely into that latter category.
“Well, I suppose we’ll both just have to be disappointed,” I drawled.
“Pity,” he murmured, although he kept staring at me as though I were a sweet cake he wanted to gobble up.
I dropped my gaze to his shoulder, which was the only part of him I should be examining. He’d removed the bandage, and the ugly, angry pink stain of the stab wound had faded considerably. I made a mental note to thank Helene the next time I saw her. The cucumber-ginger healing ointment had worked even better than promised, and it had saved the prince’s life.
I grabbed the jar of ointment from a nearby table and approached Leonidas. “Let me put some more of this on your wound.”
He plucked the jar from my hand. “I can do it.”
Then he did a most curious thing. Instead of turning around and heading into the bathroom face-first like a normal person, he eased backward, keeping his gaze on me.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t be an idiot. I went to far too much trouble to save you just to kill you now.”