Page 57 of The Fae Menagerie
"The fae luck coin brought you together. If you tell me where it is, I can send him home and convince your grandmother to let you out."
I shook my head. "I don't know where it is."
"That's too bad." He closed the distance between us again, and for the moment that counted, I forgot this man was not my friend, and that never in my centuries as his prisoner had he ever given me a hug. He drew me in, hand gripped to the base of my neck, and sank his incisors into my jugular above my left collarbone.
Liquid heat filled my veins. Desire washed over me, but not for Aidan. No, the man I wanted was outside my bedroom door, waiting for me with the same magical lust coursing through his veins. How he'd hidden his desire from Aidan was beyond me … unless Aidan couldn't tell how his magic affected us.
"No reaction," Aidan said, "from either of you, and I know you're not ace."
I tried to fake it. I scrabbled at the back of Aidan's head with my claws, trying to draw him in for a kiss, but bile rose in my throat at the thought of pressing my lips to his.
He shoved me away. "Your grandmother will not be pleased."
"You can't tell her."
"I won't have to. When I report my venom didn't work on you, she'll want to see for herself."
The thought of Grandmother in the menagerie, or in my enclosure anywhere near Parker, dampened my libido and replaced it with icy fear.
"I don't report to her for another month," Aidan said. "In the meantime, your best option is to find the coin and return him to the human realm."
"The coin isn't here. You have a better chance of finding it than I do, since you're free to look elsewhere in the menagerie."
"I have." He rolled his gorgeous dark eyes and opened my bedroom door. "One month, Doyle."
I nodded. "Thank you." He could go straight to my grandmother with the information, but he'd chosen to wait.
Aidan vanished, taking my strange reaction to his venom with him.
Parker leaned against the bedroom wall and sighed. Then, he laughed. "I don't think his venom did what he wanted it to do."
"He bit me, too," I admitted.
"He promised he wouldn't!"
I loved the outrage in Parker's tone, but it wasn't fair to Aidan. "I gave consent. He also thought it didn't affect me. He couldn't tell."
"I felt it," Parker said. "But not for him. I lied to him. I'm not exactly ace, but I only want you."
I spread my arms wide, and he came to me, rubbing his cheek against the rough burlap covering my chest and gripping my waist.
"What does it mean?" he asked.
"You don't want to know." A lack of reaction could mean exactly what Parker had said. He was under the asexual umbrella. The bite didn't change that.
He had felt the overwhelming desire, though. He'd wanted me, and I'd wanted him. He'd developed feelings for me over the past few months, and we'd added sex to the mix.
That wasn't all, though. I had to admit we were most likely fated mates. I hadn't given him a mating mark, but they weren't necessary for anthousai.
If I had already bonded my fated mate, my grandmother would murder us both.
Chapter
Twenty-One
PARKER
The honeymoon periodwas officially over. Just when I thought Doyle wanted me to stay with him until the end of my days, he went through the entire enclosure and searched every bookcase, cushion, and pillowcase for the coin. He was nearly in tears after the third time.
