King Cave (29 page)

He ran a hand over his face, cursing, but not arguing my point, then asked quietly, “Was it Finn?”

I saw no point in lying now. “Yes.”

His gaze stayed lowered. “Was last night the first time you’ve had sex since us?”

“Yes.”

I quickly left the room as he began tearing it apart.

I got my ass handed to me by dirt boy. “Oh, shut up.” I glared at him as he smirked.

He shrugged. “I didn’t say anything.” Ah, but his grin increased.

I slapped a hand over it. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

Under my hand, I felt his lips curve even more as he mumbled against my skin, the sound muffled, “You’re a sore loser.”

“I never said I wasn’t.” I glared, pointing at him with my other hand. “Now, to the important part. Did you make a bet with the other Kings about who would win?”

His eyes narrowed, and he said again with the muffled voice, “Why?”

“Well, I was thinking that tomorrow you pick the bigger payout, and we make it happen whichever way that is to keep them from betting about us.”

He lifted my hand off his mouth, and laughed outright. He had a dirty handprint on his face now. There was dirt under my fingernails, which I didn’t think would ever come clean from that last ‘little’ explosion. He only shook his head and started walking toward the cave’s entrance.

“Hey!” I griped, yanking on my boots and rushing after him. “It’s a good plan.”

Amber eyes met mine, full of mirth. “They’re my group. My team. Betting is our thing.” He shook his green curls, which were free of debris, very unlike mine. “I won’t ruin that by cheating.”

I felt my lips frown, but I understood, even if it wrecked my plans for revenge. “Speaking of cheating…” My gaze hit the ground, and I scuffed my shoes along the long grass. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure.” I could feel his eyes on me.

“Say you were in an…odd…relationship.”

He snorted. “Most relationships are odd at some point.”

“Alright.” I nodded. “Well, say you’ve just gotten out of a sexual relationship with someone you care for.” My hands waved in front of me in grand motions. “And say you both decided to take a break from each another because it was becoming too…” My hands fluttered all about. “Real.”

King Fergus rested his hand on my shoulder, stopping my progress and making me look directly at him. “Real as in ‘I’m falling in love with you’ real? Or real as in ‘oh shit, I forgot a condom and made babies with you’ real?”

My gaze was chilled at his bluntness. “The latter.”

His lips pressed together, and he seesawed them back and forth. “Okay, what’s next?”

“Well, say you’ve decided to take a break from each other. Does it constitute cheating if you have sex with someone else,” I held up a finger, “which was entirely expected during the break,” my finger twirled, “but you go about flaunting it,” I held up a stopping hand, “which was not expected, to the point it was specifically stated not to do out of respect for the other person’s feelings during a sensitive time for the both of you?”

“I’m honestly a little confused here, trying to keep that straight,” his eyebrows puckered, “but if you’re asking if it’s cheating when you’re on a mutual break, the answer is no, especially if you both discussed it beforehand and knew it would happen.” His head cocked. “But if you’re asking about flaunting the new lovers…”

I snapped at him. “Yes. That’s it. When it was explicitly stated beforehand that it would be disrespectful to do so.”

“Is he flaunting them in front of you?”

I waggled my hand. “Kind of. Using words like an ‘experience’ and saying he slept with four other women since us.” I blinked. “He tore a few things apart when he found out I’d slept with someone.”

King Fergus stared.

“What?” I shuffled on my feet, watching him intently for an answer.

Still, he stared.

“I’m waiting for an answer, dirt boy!”

He blinked. “You are so innocent.” He shook his head, chuckling quietly when I glared at him, despite that I thought my impression was pretty ferocious. “Let me ask you this…Do you want him back?”

That stopped me. “Like, back in my bed?”

His eyebrows rose. “Or wherever you two did it.”

“Oh.” My eyebrows slowly came together. “I don’t know. He kind of,” I rubbed at my chest, “hurt me, sleeping with those other women.”

He watched my hand’s movement, snorting as he turned and started walking again. “If you want him back the answer is simple.”

I ran to catch up. “I said I don’t know if I do or not.”

“Well, if you decide you do,” his grin was malicious, “don’t hide the fact you’re sleeping with other partners.” Amber eyes full of knowledge met mine. “If he wants you, too, he’ll be back once he can’t take seeing it anymore.” He raised his arms. “Or, you could go the responsible route and actually talk with him about it.”

“Hmm.”
Yeah, no.
“Our conversational skills have been lacking recently.”

He chuckled. “Well, actions do speak louder than words.”

“Not sure if that applies here.”

“Believe me,” he nodded, still grinning, “in this situation, it does.”

Well, it took me a whopping two weeks — and many stiff brush-offs and arguments — after calling a hiatus with Ezra to want him back in my bed. Finn just wasn’t cutting it, even if he was excellent in the sack, and no other man really caught my eye. To flat out want Ezra back. I was woman enough to admit that it was pretty fucking pathetic, but there it was: I wanted him something fierce.

Even more pathetically, I had no clue how to put King Fergus’s advice into action. Or more precisely, I didn’t feel right doing it. It just seemed…childish. Not to mention, I didn’t really think it would work. But after Ezra came back that morning smelling of roses again, I used the entire day contemplating the pros and cons of flaunting a partner in front of him.

During that day’s meeting with Elder Camden, Elder Harcourt, the other Elders, and the Kings, I thought about having Finn show up at our room, even as I half listened to them talk about the botched mission for Philip Masterson. The asshole had apparently evaded them and gone into hiding with a few other United States officials as the rumors of war began to escalate. The Elders arguing for peace deduced that the Com leaders of the world weren’t under a spell but hating us only out of fear and out of the bitty fact that we had lied to them — unknowingly — when the first treaty had been signed.

Through dinner, I debated asking Felix back to my bed. But I quickly vetoed that since he and I had struck a decent relationship of boss and protector. In the end, when I had decided King Fergus’s advice just sucked, it came down to dancing that night at the bar where many had come to celebrate King Nelson’s birthday.

Ezra and I weren’t speaking to each other, which was half a blessing since it meant we weren’t fighting — most Mysticals had gone back to watching us, waiting for a sparring match to occur. No, tonight he was firmly ignoring me, and I was trying my hardest to ignore him as we all drank a birthday toast to King Nelson, who was busy trying to make sure his mate, already two sheets to the wind, didn’t drink all of the alcohol in a whiskey bottle.

The place was packed full of kiss asses, so I didn’t notice when Elder Merrick slid behind me. His arm circled my waist as he pressed his lips lightly to the side of my neck. I jolted in surprise but laughed at his antics, never one to miss an opportunity when Ezra was near and still boggling my mind.

“Would you like to dance?” He nibbled at my throat again.

I tossed my drink back, more than ready to get out of Ezra’s evasive sight. “Why not?”

He grinned, pulling me from the King’s table. “It’s about time you quit telling me no.”

“You caught me on a good night.” I pointed against his chest, which was just too muscular for his own good. “You know, a little ugly within the Mys could go a long way.”

He laughed, pulling me to the edge of the dance floor, which had been constructed after Ezra and I had started a brawl that had resulted in a clean slate of space to work with. “Lily Ruckler, you’re something else.”

I bowed. “Why, thank you.”

“Now, dance with me,” he growled low, grinning like the devil. He pulled me flush against him. My eyebrows rose at the action, but I went with it, feeling just tipsy enough to enjoy myself. Lord almighty, the man could dance, making the act more sexual than two people on a crowded dance floor had a right to be. I chuckled as he lifted my leg over his hip, dipping me backward to place a line of hot kisses down the center of my chest, only just missing what cleavage I had.

“You’re dirty.” I grinned when he lifted me. “Watch out or my wolf might wake.”

His lips tilted. “That could be interesting.” His hands ran down my sides and gripped my hips, his fingers long enough that he was skimming a hold on my ass. “I’ve never had an alpha wolf in my bed before.”

My grin grew, and I leaned up, whispering at his ear, barely heard over the beat of the music, “Just stay away from the birds.”

He choked, coughing and laughing hard. He shook his head at me, and then bent, placing his lips against my ear. “Have you ever heard a more inappropriate sound when you’re supposed to be sexually aroused?”

I chuckled, moving with him to the music. “Like fucking prey in the end.”

“I went and had duck afterward, I craved it so bad,” he chuckled, dipping me again. He held me there, staring down at me. Right as I scented Ezra close by, his lips landed on mine. The way he had me positioned, I couldn’t exactly break free of him unless I wanted to fall on my head, so I held on tight as he firmly kissed my lips, careful not to slip his tongue inside my mouth, which I didn’t miss, but he damn near took my breath away. It wasn’t a bad kiss, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it made me think of him a little differently — much less as a teacher, and a bit more as a possible lover, but…he still wasn’t Ezra.

Gradually, as the beat changed to the next song, he lifted me, his mouth not leaving mine until I was fully upright. I heard a few catcalls around us, and I blinked open my eyes to raise questioning eyebrows at him. His grin was pure mischief, reminding me very much of the animal he had inside him. I scented the air, and realized Ezra’s scent was no longer close. My head cocked. “What game are you playing?”

That grin didn’t change. “The only one worth a damn.”

“Elder Merrick, you’re a strange one.” I thumped his chest, stepping back from him as the Shifters began to descend on us, wanting to be close to the alphas. “I can’t quite figure you out.”

He followed me, quickly evading the Shifters’ clinging hands. “It’s part of my mystery.”

“Hmm.” I eyed him as we left the dance floor. “And most women fall over themselves for it, don’t they?”

He chuckled, nodding. “You caught me.”

My eyes ran over his face. “No, I don’t think I have.” I paused, my grin slow. “Yet.” I kissed his cheek, and moved through the crowd, grabbing my glass from King Nelson’s table and barely keeping from rolling my eyes when King Kincaid gave me that smile meaning,
seriously nice pick
. The man was going to drive me up the wall.

After weaving my way through the crowd, I ducked behind the bar when the bartender looked the other way, and snuck through the back door, heading for their supply closet. That one time Finn and I had been in there, I had seen a collection of wines that were dusty with age, the bottles so old they had discolored, which meant…I was going to nab one and fill my glass tall with it. And hoard it the rest of the evening while everyone else drank regular beer.

Sneaking on quiet feet, I crept in a hunched position below the bar level, since the place where the hard liquor was stored was only open shelving, seeing plainly into the back room, and then slipped into the store closet, shutting the door swiftly behind me. It blocked some of the noise of the bar, but it was still pretty loud back here. I moved into the depths of the long, thin room, going straight for the section I had seen.

Humming quietly to myself, singing along to the music with my god-awful voice, I perused the different wines, sneezing a few times as dust blew up at me when I set one down too hard. Having finally decided, using the age of the bottle since the labels were no longer readable, I plucked the oldest looking one from the back and turned to leave. And squeaked, utterly startled, and shot straight up into the air, the bottle falling from my hand to crash open all over the floor. Red wine, appearing almost like blood, splashed all over my legs, pooling at my feet where I had landed from my Shifter-induced jump.

I rubbed my nose, dislodging any dust, and his scent invaded my senses. “What the hell?”

Ezra stood inside the supply closet, his back against the door, the hood of his robe up and creating a shadow across the top half of his face, but his green eyes were slightly glowing, peering out of the darkness straight at me. His hands were behind his back and his ankles crossed, so nothing about his position was really frightening, but he had snuck in here without me even hearing the difference in the noise levels or scenting him or making a sound himself. That, in itself, freaked me a bit. Well, not to mention his eyes, which weren’t blinking.