Page 4 of Outcast
“I like when you show your claws, Kitten. You should do it more.” His voice practically rumbled at the low tones in which he spoke, all while rubbing his thumb along my jaw lightly.
With that confusing statement, he dropped my chin and stepped back from me. Before I had a chance to comprehend what it meant, he continued on as if the odd exchange never occurred.
“Jameson requests your presence at the meeting. Said that we need someone to fetch us refreshments and appetizers until dinner is ready. Itisa day of celebration after all.”
Was that a hint of sarcasm I detected?
Apparently I was on a roll with my snarky responses as I said, “I must hurry then, because whatever his highness says, goes,” while dropping into a fake curtsy.
His lips turned up, spreading into the most dazzling smile I’d ever seen, and my breath caught in response. He shoved the longer pieces of his dark hair that had fallen onto his forehead off to the side, and I wondered—not for the first time—at how the odd white patch in the front of his hair matched Milo’s.
“Do you need accompanying to the shower, Kira? We can’t have you gracing his highness in an undignified manner, now can we?” The smirk occupying his face somehow heightened the flustered feeling that Milo had inspired in me earlier.
Was he flirting with me?
The look on his face spoke of hunger, and I couldn’t figure out his abrupt change in demeanor with all the joking and flirting with me. Seth usually kept quiet around me. Never bullying me, but also never stepping in to stop it. A silent bystander.
Why was he showing interest in me now? I didn’t trust this.
Tilting my chin up in what I hoped looked like a dignified manner, I responded with fake confidence. “I don’t need you or anyone else to accompany me anywhere. I’ve had to protect myself the majority of my life here.”
His warm hand once again found my face, spurring the butterflies in my stomach to erupt once more and my lips to part.
“Why don’t you give someone the chance to protect you? Sure, it might be a first, but you know the great thing about firsts?” He traced his finger along my jaw as he waited for a response.
My lips closed and parted again, but no words came from them as I fumbled for words. My brain reeled from this odd interaction.
He leaned in close to me, his minty breath fanning across my lips with his whispered words. “Good or bad, your firsts are always memorable.”
Heat simmered between my legs, an ache traveling through my entire body from the need this man created in a matter of seconds.
As quickly as he moved in, Seth drifted away, my cheek now cold without the warmth of his touch. He strode toward the showers and called over his shoulder, “Are you coming, Kitten? You have some Daimona blood on your face.”
I chided myself internally for this infernal attraction to him.
Pull it together Kira. He can’t be trusted...
With a huff, I shut my cottage door behind me and trailed after him, glaring daggers at the large and exquisitely muscled back visible beneath the tight fit of his black t-shirt.
We made the quick walk in utter silence, and when he paused at the doorway, I ignored him and walked past into the open expanse of the bathing room.
“Make it quick, Kitten, or I’m coming in after you.”
I flipped him the bird, not quite trusting myself to speak but needing to rebel in some small form.
Now that I had opened the floodgate on speaking up for myself, I felt like I didn’t even know who I was. But shockingly, a small part of me reveled in it.
A self-satisfied smirk crossed my face as I turned one of the showerheads on and set my kit into the cut-out shelf in the wall. The water heated up quickly, enveloping the space with steam as I took my hair out of its bun, shaking it out as I stepped into the stream.
The tension in my back from my hunched position all morning began to loosen almost immediately as the hot water hit my skin. A small groan slipped from me as my muscles relaxed, and I tilted my head back into the water, letting it soak through my hair.
“Are you thinking of me, Kitten?”
My head snapped up as Seth’s voice broke my serene moment of bliss.
“If I was thinking of you, Seth, you would hear a lot of profanities,” I quipped back, satisfied with my witty responses today.
His deep laugh sounded, throwing me off. Here I was trying to insult him, and he acted like I didn’t phase him in the slightest.
