Page 138 of Curse of Darkness
Baylor hands him his sword belt and reaches over his shoulder to grab a fistful of his shirt. “Because I won’t look like this.”
He tugs his shirt off, revealing the enormous swathe of muscle that runs across his ribs and down his abdomen. Baylor’s a warrior, and it shows. Every inch of him is cut lean and tight, and as his shoulders flex, muscle ripples in the silvery light.
Lucere’s gaze slides overeveryinch of him.
“Enjoying the view?” Thiago links with me, though he sounds amused.
“Kind of enjoying the response.”
“We often joke that if he didn’t scowl half as much, the ladies of Ceres would be flinging their undergarments at him when he rode through the city.”
I slide my gaze toward my husband. He insisted upon bringing Baylor for this mission, and now I can’t help wondering if he did it on purpose to push Lucere off-balance. Finn’s gorgeous, but he’s the same kind of charming wastrel who flocks to her at court.
Baylor is something else.
He looks good in court attire, even if he usually disdains it. But when you rub a bit of dirt on him, suddenly heads turn in every direction. And the most amusing part of it is that Baylor has no idea of the ruckus he causes.
“What are youdoing?” Lucere squeaks in horror.
“Don’t want to rip my clothes,” Baylor tells her, tossing his shirt toward her.
She catches it with a shriek of horror and then flings it away as if he just threw a rat at her.
Baylor’s hands drop to his pants, a challenging look in his golden eyes as he stares right through her.
I turn my back on him, because even though the fae aren’t shy about nudity, I really don’t need to see Baylor like this. He’s so enormous that I’m pretty sure the rest of him will be in perfect proportion, and I will never be able to look Thalia in the face the next time she pokes him and teases him about being Evernight’s secret weapon.
Lucere, apparently, has no such compunctions.
A belt hits the ground, and then the meaty sound of leather slaps as he clearly strips off his breeches.
Lucere’s eyes widen and then, as if she simply can’t help herself, her gaze drops and her mouth goes wide.
I was right. Judging by the way her eyes turn into saucers, he’s definitely in proportion.
“She just turned an odd shade of scarlet,” Thiago muses.
“You planned this, didn’t you?”
“Got to keep her off-balance somehow. And I think Baylor’s enjoying getting her back for the ‘dirty, sweaty stable boy’ comment.”
A warm gush of magic washes over us.
Suddenly, a prickle of trepidation trails down my spine. It’s the same feeling you get in the woods when you know something is watching you. Something dangerous.
A low growl echoes through the cavern, something that’s definitely not fae anymore.
“It’s done,” Thiago says.
There’s no longer any sign of Baylor when I turn.
Instead, an enormous silvery creature stretches before locking his golden eyes upon Lucere as if he wants to eat her all up. He gives her a wolfish smile, and there areteetheverywhere.
It’s not a wolf.
It makes wolves look like something that would be lovely to pat.
This thing looks like it just slid straight out of my nightmares.
