“It’s okay, you can explain to Grim why I have road rash on my cheek,” I tease. Quicker than I expected, he grabs my shoulder and spins me. I nearly topple over because my jeans are still around my ankles. He catches me easily before examining my face.
“Shit,” he curses, and brushes this thumb along my cheekbone.
I swat his hand away. “I was just teasing.”
“You do have a red spot.” His eyebrows pinch in the middle.
“Calm down—it will be gone in like five minutes. I’m not going to tattle on you.”
“I don’t give a shit if you tell him. I just didn’t mean to be so rough.”
I roll my eyes at his statement. “In case you were wondering, I fucking loved itandyou, so stop.”
Gunnar’s shoulders slump. I just witnessed his little man swoon. It’s adorable. Recovering quickly, he gets a small smirk. “You only love me for my cock.”
I know he’s teasing, but I correct him anyway. It’s getting easier to share my feelings with them, even if I feel all weird and shy about it afterwards. “No, not just your cock. If I cut it off tomorrow, I would still keep you around.”
Gunnar half scowls, half winces, and grabs his dick and bends a little to shove it back in his pants. “Stop talking about cutting off dicks. I’m gonna get nightmares.”
I giggle and stoop to grab my jeans. Of course that would be the moment someone tries to come into the bathroom. The door smacks my bare ass, and I go flying forward. In an effort to stop my fall, I end up punching Gunnar right in the dick.
“Oooaf.” Gunnar groans.
When I look over my shoulder, there’s a woman standing in the open door with her head tilted to the side as if she’s trying to understand what she’s seeing. After righting myself, I drag my pants up my legs and shimmy to get them over my hips. “Bathroom’s all yours.” I wave her toward the stalls and grab Gunnar’s arm. He’s still cupping his crotch.
“Come on, Kitten, I’ll have to kiss it better later. We don’t have time for another quickie.” It takes me a second to find my bearings so I can head back to the ballroom, but the noise is a dead giveaway, telling me that I’m on the right trail.
When the doors open, I’m greeted with total anarchy. I raise my arms up high. “Now this is a party!”
Chapter 15
Tables are turned over and people are fighting, fucking, and just about everything in between. Torin is sitting on his throne with blood on his chin and hands, but he looks bored as hell as he watches the melee in front of him.
I find Calix near the dais. His eyes are a little feverish as he scans the room, his fingers twitching like he wants to get in on the action. I wave my hand in the air to get his attention. When he doesn’t notice, I place my fingers in my mouth and let out a loud whistle. Every person stops, and all heads in the room turn in my direction. “Carry on,” I encourage, as I tow Gunnar along behind me. He’s still grousing about how he’ll never be able to have children and such, but I ignore him and head over to Calix.
His nostrils flare and he tips his head back in the air, scenting it. His eyes darken when he peers at me, I’m sure his keen senses give him a pretty clear idea of where Gunnar and I have been. When he swipes his bottom lip with his tongue, wetting it, I blow him a kiss. That tongue should come with a warning label.
“So what did we miss?” I ask when we reach him.
Calix grabs my jaw and turns my face to the side. I tilt my head a little, trying to hide the red mark that may or may not still be there.
“What happened here?” Calix questions. His voice is low and calm, but something about it feels forced.
“What?” I reach up and place my hand against my cheek.
“If you don’t know what it is, how do you know where it is?” Calix moves his eyes from mine and stares over my shoulder.
“That’s nothing; you should see my ass. I got spanked by a door,” I quip, trying to ease the building tension.
Calix looks down at me again. “Did someone hit you?”
“Stars, no.” I switch from covering my cheek to holding the wrist of his hand that’s still cradling my jaw. I don’t want to rub that Gunnar and I just had a quickie in his face, but I won’t lie to him either. I step a little closer, and he lowers his head to hear me as I whisper. “I was up against the wall… and there was, well… friction.” I widen my eyes a little. “I’m fine, I promise. Nothing to worry about.”
Calix moves lightning fast and wraps his arm around my lower back, pulling me closer. “I don’t like him marking up your skin.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me, just like I know you wouldn’t either, and I’d kill anyone else who tried—with a hacksaw, or a dull butter knife, ya know, to make them really regret it.”
Calix snorts and wraps me in a hug. “Only after I broke every bone in their body.” I nuzzle my cheek against him and take in his scent. He smells like home.
