Fortune Favors the Cruel - Kel Carpenter Page 0,58

hit the floor.

And his dark, midnight gaze … it burned.

The smallest of smiles sat on her lips as she pivoted and walked up the other side of the table. Vaughn jumped to his feet and pulled out the chair beside him. “She-wolf Quinn, sit by me,” he said very seriously.

“Alright,” she said, taking the open seat. Vaughn settled in on her left as Draeven took his seat on her right. No one helped him, though one of the warriors who’d escorted her did pull the chair out for Lorraine.

“I’m glad to see you joining us, Quinn,” Thorne said. His booming voice drew her attention, his red eyes unsettling. Quinn reached out, snatching the giant leg off the bird in the center of the table and grabbing a handful of crimson berries she hoped weren’t poisoned.

“I’m a vassal of his Lord Fierté,” she said. “Where else would I be? Hm?” She lifted a delicate silver brow before digging into the meat. She groaned with how deliciously juicy it was, not like the slave’s portions she’d eaten most of this last decade that kept her painfully thin. They’d smoked the meat to bring out its natural flavors, seasoning it to perfection. Quinn took another large bite, then another—only stopping when she’d demolished the entire thing and picked the bone clean. She licked the juices from her fingers and paused, feeling eyes on her. Lorraine cleared her throat but remained passively scolding instead of vocally berating her.

“She-wolf Quinn has good appetite,” Vaughn said, nodding in appreciation. She didn’t miss the way his eyes trailed from her slick fingers to her mouth.

“You have no idea,” Draeven quipped. Quinn turned to glare at him.

“Black baac,” she cursed and rolled her eyes at his insinuations.

“Have you seen how much you eat?” he asked, his fork hitting his tray with a clang.

“Do you have to be such an ass?” she growled.

“Do you?” he shot back, picking at his own piece of meat. Quinn narrowed her eyes, sending an inky dark tendril slithering up from her skin and down her arm toward him.

Draeven’s eyes widened a fraction before he jumped up, hitting his chair so hard it slid back into the one three feet behind him.

“Quinn,” Lazarus snapped. She froze, redirected the tendrils back to her, lifting her right hand where it wrapped around her. Comforting. Consoling. “What did we talk about?” he asked, a not-so-subtle reminder that she was supposed to be on her best behavior.

She turned, and her crystalline eyes were ice cold as she regarded him.

Or, more specifically, regarded the pale hand caressing his forearm.

She didn’t understand why the sight of it bothered her. She knew that wasn’t quite right … she understood. She just didn’t like what it meant. Lazarus never let anyone touch him, not of their own accord. Not Draeven. Not Lorraine. Not even her.

Oh, he could touch and push and pull all he wanted, but kept his distance when it suited him. He stayed as far away from her as he could, at every possible chance, but here—now—he let this girl who was nothing … who was no one, touch him.

She knew there was a word for this slicing sensation through her chest and the heat that pounded in her blood, like he was there, even now, touching her without her permission.

But she didn’t want it. She didn’t want to feel it. She didn’t want to give him any more than he already took.

And so, she shut it down. Closed it out and turned to the cold.

That was one embrace that she would always welcome, along with the clarity it bought her.

A hand reached to touch her, and she moved. Reacting on instinct, her upper half twisted, and her fingers came up, gripping the wrist of the offender in a vice.

Fear bloomed, like the most pleasant of flowers, its black tendrils stroking her senses.

She tilted her head and inhaled deeply.

Ahhh. This. This is what I need to take the edge away…

“She-wolf Quinn?” a voice asked, soft, gentle, and completely masculine. It didn’t share that darkness with her that she wanted—needed. But it would do. For now, it would do.

She blinked. “Yes, Vaughn?”

“You okay?” he asked, and the expression in his eyes was nothing short of heartwarming. She didn’t want to be warm though. She didn’t want to feel this night, because then that emotion would sneak back up on her and into her heart. It would rip through all those barriers she kept, because she cared for nothing and no one