A Discovery of Secrets and Fate (Chronicles of the Stone Veil #2) - Sawyer Bennett Page 0,101

lift my chin. “I find her to be crass. She irritates me.”

Carrick studies me thoughtfully for a moment. His voice is a bit gentler. “Deandra and I have been together in the past. It was casual and an awfully long time ago.”

I give a saccharine smile. “Clearly, she wants to keep it going.”

“I still don’t understand why that should bother you,” Carrick says, and I feel like he’s purposely trying to goad me into something.

Not going there.

“Not sure I understand why you were bothered that I danced with Pyke,” I reply, throwing the ball back in his court.

Carrick’s eyes flash brilliantly gold for a moment, then I see that red sheen within his pupils. His hand comes to the front of my throat, and just like he had done once before with me, he backs me across the room and into a wall.

Except this time, my head doesn’t knock against it but merely comes to a gentle rest.

Just like before, he cages me in by placing his palms beside my head and dips his face oh so close to mine.

And just like before, my heart feels like it’s going to burst out of my chest, and I’m filled with both terror and excitement.

“Maybe,” Carrick murmurs, but there’s a biting edge to it. “Just maybe, I didn’t like him touching you.”

“Why?” I manage a whisper.

Carrick’s head dips lower, tilts to the side, and his lips hover right over mine so that when he speaks, I feel his breath. He stares at me, eyes hard and resolute before they drop to my mouth. “Maybe I’m just feeling proprietary.”

I’d jerk my head back from him if the wall weren’t trapping me, so my tone is more than scathing enough to get I don’t like his wording. “You mean… like you own me?”

There’s just a flash of amused smile before Carrick brushes his lips over mine. It’s soft, so subtle, and yet the absolute best kiss I’ve ever had in my life. But then his lips are gone, leaving behind a faint tingle. My skin prickles when I feel his mouth grazing across my jaw, light as a feather.

My eyes flutter shut as I savor the feel of him touching me in a way that is far beyond the boundaries we have set. My heart pounds, my blood races, and I feel like my legs won’t support me, so I press my hands into the wall and dig my heels down into the rug. He’s barely touching me, yet I ache with such deep need I’m afraid I’ll be devastated if it’s not filled.

Carrick reaches my ear where I feel his warm breath, then the butterfly touch of his lips as he murmurs, “You’re not the type of woman who could ever be owned, Finley.”

I only realize Carrick has moved away when I feel the coolness on my skin without the heat of his body so near me. When I open my eyes, I find him halfway across the room, heading toward the door.

“By the way,” Carrick says over his shoulder, his voice devoid of emotion as if he didn’t just kiss me. “Pyke is dangerous. He’s one of the better ones, but he is Light Fae royalty.”

“And fae hate humans,” I mutter, having heard it incessantly.

An irrational need to cry hits me—that Carrick could one minute cause such deep emotion and desire within me, and the next order me about as if I am indeed owned by him.

“He wants you,” Carrick says, and the ominous tone causes me to jerk. “Try to never be alone with him.”

“Why?” I ask, my heart beating a little faster as I push away from the wall. “He wouldn’t force me, would he?”

Carrick shakes his head, expression somber. “He wouldn’t need to.”

I scoff, shaking my head. “I can’t be so easily swayed.”

“You could with Light Fae magic. It’s powerful, and you might be able to break it with your feather, but you might not. I don’t want you finding out the answer to that, so don’t be alone with him.”

“But you two are friends,” I point out, still not willing to believe Pyke would try to use magic to make me have sex with him. “He said you go a long way back and have had adventures together.”

“That’s true,” Carrick replies, taking a few steps back toward me. His hand comes up and I hadn’t realized it until this moment, but I love when he wraps it around the back of my neck like he does in this