Page 88 of Bitten & Burned
Fig scampered past, all claws on teakwood, as if to prove my point.
Anton blinked, grinned, and shook his head before offering the teacup. “I havesome tea for you.”
I turned, smiling at him. “Is this like psychic room service? I was just thinking I wanted some tea.”
I hadn’t really been, but I also hadn’t realized how much I wanted the tea until he brought it, so it felt like the right thing to say.
“You weren’t just thinking that,” he said with a smirk, handing me the cup. I brought it to my lips. Hummed. Warm. Barely sweet. Smooth. Anton’s tea was always perfect.
“I could have been,” I countered.
“But you weren’t,” he said easily. “You were thinking about Quil.”
I glanced over at him before taking another sip of tea. “I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t be?—”
“Don’t worry about him. He’s on the shoreline. Following us.”
“What?” I asked, peering out over the dark water as if I could have seen him on the shore.
“On the shoreline. He’s tracking us. Not because he’s jealous. Because he wants you safe.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
“He told me he was going to do it. Practically dared me to do something about it.”
“Did you?”
Anton shook his head, smiling softly. “How could I? He’s besotted. He’d do it even if I forbade it.”
I sighed heavily.
“Oh, don’t worry about it. It’s where he wants to be. What he wants to do. It’d be cruel to send him back to the manor with Vael, Cassian, and Dmitri.”
“Did he really ask you?”
“Yes. He’s a good hound. Knows how to track. Knows how to guard what’s his.”
That one word thudded in my head, heavy and iron-bound.
“Is that all I am? Something to ‘guard?”
“Of course not. You’re something tohonor. Protection and guarding just come with the territory.”
“It does, huh? The territory of being honored?”
“Honored, cherished, beloved. Come now—this can’t be news to a radiant, accomplished woman such as yourself. You must know you have all of us wrapped around your dainty little finger.”
Cassian’s words came back to me then, the ones he’d said when I was unraveling—the last thing you ever are is ridiculous. Honored. Cherished. Beloved. Maybe I wasn’t so ridiculous after all.
I smirked and sipped my tea again. “Do you practice these in the mirror or… do they just come to you?”
He laughed. “First of all, can’t use a mirror. You should know that. Disappointed that you made that mistake… Second of all, that depends.”
“On what?”
“If they are doing what I intended for them to do, are they?”
“What are your intentions, Anton?”
