I have to restrain my natural inclination to cover myself because the silky tone of his last words has me feeling vulnerable.
It also has me feeling quite achy between my legs. “I offered to change outfits, and you wouldn’t let me.”
“I like you in that outfit,” he rumbles with clear appreciation in his eyes. “So not your style, but I enjoy watching you step out of your comfort zone. But all of that is beside the point. I told you not to move from that table, and you accepted a dance with Pyke.”
“So it’s okay for you to dance with a half-naked woman who has made it abundantly clear you two have been intimate before and wants to be intimate again, but I can’t have a lousy dance with Pyke?”
Carrick blinks, taking a tiny step back. “You were bothered by Deandra?”
“No,” I immediately blurt out—incredibly fake sounding, so I just decide to own up to it. “I mean… yes.”
“Why?” he demands, eyebrows pulling inward.
My mind whirls with an answer. I can’t admit I might have feelings for him. That would be stupid, because there’s no way in hell he would ever return them, and I would probably be crushed.
Instead, I 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?”