gave him a weak smile. “You must think me so pathetic.”
A nerve jumped next to his eye. At least, he had the decency not to agree with me. As I raised the spear gun again, he said, “But I’m not setting you up with any of them.”
That dragged my arm and mood right back down. “Why not?”
The tinged skin at his temple fluttered fiercely. “Do you still hate my guts, Amara?”
I cocked an eyebrow up. “What do my feelings for you have to do with dating your friends?”
“Everything.” His arms fell from their knot, and he took a step forward. “So? Do you?”
Realization dawned on me. If the tables were turned, I would also worry about setting my friends up with someone who disliked me, because that would put a serious strain on the friendship. “I don’t hate you, Remo, and I’m not saying that to have access to your fr—”
His palms settled on either side of my face, which had my mouth and heart screeching to a stop. A look of such deep concentration marred his features that if he’d been any other man, I might’ve assumed he was contemplating kissing me, but he was Remo. Gregor’s heir was much more likely to snap my neck than to sully his mouth with mine.
I watched him watch me, thinking it might be wise to step back. When had I ever been wise, though? “I know I’ll resuscitate if you kill me, but it’ll put a real damper on our tenuous friendship.”
The furrows on his forehead smoothed, and his mouth twitched around a low, slow chuckle. “Killing you isn’t my intent, Trifecta.”
“Then why are you holding my face so close, Farrow?”
His hold softened. “Because I was thinking about kissing you.”
My quiet heart streaked back into movement, blasting against my ribs.
“But I was hesitating, because I wasn’t sure if you’d appreciate it.”
I swallowed, but it did nothing to moisten my dry throat. “I’d prefer it to death.”
His lips twitched again, and he was so close that the slight realignment disrupted the air thickening between us. “I’m not sure how to take that.”
My mind frantically scrambled to make sense of what was happening. Did I want him to kiss me? Did I want to kiss him?
His pupils shrank then bloomed. “Mind putting that spear gun away?”
My heart ratcheted up some more, stealing all the blood from my brain, which was terribly impractical, since without blood, there could be no rationality, and this situation demanded a modicum of level-headedness.
Expelling a tatty breath, I squeezed the handle of my portal-snaring tool to liquefy it. “How terrible a kisser are you?”
“I’m not even going to try to guess why you’re asking that question . . .” I felt the curve of his smile against my lips even though our mouths weren’t touching.
“You’re obviously worried I might use the gun to put an end to our kiss.”
The corners of his lips tipped higher. “I was actually worried the kiss would render you so limp your grip would loosen and your very heavy and very pointy weapon would end up lodged in my foot.”
“Ha.” I tried to roll my eyes, but the hefty mix of anticipation and adrenaline coursing through me prevented all tendons from shifting. “You should really learn to manage a girl’s expectations.”
His eyes flashed with amusement, and then with something else . . . something that made my pulse leap off the deep end. I darted my tongue out of my mouth and moistened my lips, my mind going blissfully blanker. His pupils danced, but no longer in amusement. Slowly, he tipped his head to the side and brushed his mouth over mine.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Tingles raced over my lips, radiated into my cheeks, before scurrying into my chin and down my neck.
“What a tease you are,” I croaked.
Confidence dripped over him like my magic glue back at the inn, seeping into all the little cracks of his ego, raising an insufferably sexy smile that sparked another tingle, this time low in my belly.
The tips of his fingers edged into my hair, and he pressed me closer. “Good things come to those who wait, Trifecta.”
“Trifecta . . . Any chance a kiss could earn me a better nickname?”
A ruddy lock of hair fell into his eyes, obscuring their vividness. “It’s never been a disparagement.”
“It always sounded like one.”
He tipped my head up a little farther. “Trust me. It wasn’t.”
Did I trust him?
I thought about the wolves, the sling, our night spent in a dank basement with my