dumber. But I don’t get a chance to retort because I’m threatened again.
“I think,” he says in a low rumble, far scarier than when he was yelling, “that you might just need to be secured in this condo.”
“Secured?” I whisper fearfully.
Carrick’s eyes glitter with malice, the red still glowing while the irises dull to a muddy brown. “I think I’d like you in chains down in the library.”
“You can’t do that to me,” I sputter in outrage. “I am not yours to command.”
For a moment, Carrick doesn’t reply—he merely gives a slow shake of his head while looking me dead in the eye. “No… you’re something far more infuriating. You want to act like a woman, trying to play the seductress with me, but do you want to know the reason it doesn’t work?”
A stab of pain lances through my heart because now he’s getting personal.
I don’t want to know.
Please don’t tell me.
“It doesn’t work,” he says darkly with scorn in his expression, “because you’re a fucking child, not a real woman. A spoiled little brat, actually, and I find none of those traits attractive.”
Oh, God.
My eyes immediately well with tears, and I hate myself for the weakness. Does he honestly think that? Was that kiss we shared in the gym all in my imagination?
Does he think so little of me?
In my entire life, I have never felt so small.
A tear slips down my cheek, and I use the moment of silence on his part to jerk out of his hold, twisting violently away from him.
“We’re not done,” he barks.
I whirl on him, dashing the tears off my face. I’ll never let him know how much his words hurt me personally. “You can go to hell, Carrick.”
I even take a step back in closer to him, raising my chin defiantly. “In the last two months, I’ve found out I can see fae and daemons, that I’m part of a prophecy to save the world, lost the only family member I still had left, learned my twin is in the Underworld, watched a good friend die, and fought an incubus for my life, and… oh yeah… my business has burned to the ground. You call me a child, but I call myself a warrior for all I’ve been through. So, take the sanctimonious pile of bullshit coming out of our mouth and stuff it up your ass.”
Carrick blinks in surprise, and I notice the red in his pupils is gone. I start to move past him, intent on barricading myself in my room and moaning over the wounds to my heart.
But one more thought strikes me, so I stop and turn my head his way, wrinkling my nose in distaste. “And as for the seductress comment, frankly, your kiss wasn’t that good, so you don’t ever have to be worried I’ll go back there again.”
Knowing those are phenomenal last words and feeling like I’ve regained the power, I start to march past Carrick.
Only to have that fist once again wrapped up in my shirt as he hauls me back to him. Just as I’m standing face to face, I only have a moment to notice his eyes have gone the color of champagne before both his hands on are me.
Palms to my cheeks, cupping firmly, Carrick crashes his mouth down onto mine.
I gasp in surprise and then in pleasure as his tongue invades my mouth without invitation. This kiss is wholly different than what we shared in the gym, and it makes the one back in Faere look practically grandfatherly.
No, this kiss is all about passion and lust, and, within it, the desire for a meeting of not only the bodies but also the hearts.
My legs go weak from the intensity of what I’m feeling, but Carrick is quick and agile, and, without breaking his mouth from mine, his hands come under my ass, and he lifts me. My legs wrap tightly around his waist as he spins, moving us through the condo, but I have no clue in which direction.
I’m too consumed by the possessiveness of his kiss and how soft his hair feels against my fingers or how wildly my heart is slamming against my breastbone to notice much else.
All I know is that, at this moment, Carrick thinks me neither stupid nor a child, and while he may still be incredibly angry with me, he still wants me the way I want him.
Vaguely, I hear a loud bang, wood splintering, and I think to myself he must have