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ChapterTwelve
“If the killer follows her pattern of murdering men who have possessed the jewels, then I’ll be an irresistible draw.”Perry tensed for the argument that was bound to be coming.He wasn’t thrilled about the idea of playing bait.Plus, it would require convincing the royals to let him out of this roomandasking Vori if he could borrow one of the amethysts.
“What?”Her outraged princess voice echoed off the cave walls.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense.”He turned to list the bullet points he’d brainstormed for this new plan, but his neatly organized thoughts flew from his head.She was half-naked and in human form.All that creamy skin that had been every fantasy on the screen was here on display.
His goblin bride was gorgeous.
And not his.Not really.
He looked away.She wasn’t his to covet.Or to stare at.
“You can’t avoid this by ignoring me,” she said.“And we are not using you as bait.”
Looking like that, she could use him any way she wanted.“It’s my choice.Not yours.You can’t call princess rank on this.”
The glow from the magical stones and mineral veins in the walls acted like an enormous royal mood ring.Judging by the sudden red-gold spike, his princess was pissed.
“That is not an option.”She bit off each word.
Yep, pissed.Ignoring her might be the only way he could focus.He wanted to kiss her until they both forgot why they were here and the screaming end date to their relationship.
“Perry.”
Uh-oh.She sounded close.She tapped his shoulder, and he gave up.With a slow inhale, he dared a glance.He shouldn’t have.She wore that gauzy number he’d handed her.
The deep V plunged between her breasts to her navel, and the skirt parted in side slits so high on her thighs that it left little to the imagination.
“You arenotoffering yourself up to the killer,” she said.Her haughty demand would’ve made more of an impression if he wasn’t staring at the pink flush on her cheeks to keep from staring farther south.
“I’m already on the killer’s hit list.”See, he’d managed a valid response to the actual discussion they were supposed to be having.Thank the powers he’d never faced Vori in a courtroom.He would’ve lost every argument.
“No.You’ve already taken more than enough risk in simply coming here.”
“I’m expendable.One of my enemies will eventually catch up to me.”
“I won’t let them.”
“Let this go.I’m not worth the fight.”
“You are to me.”
For a heartbeat, he believed her.He wanted it so badly.Redemption for the violence he’d committed.But he was no better than the murderer they needed to stop.Some crimes couldn’t be forgiven.He’d almost killed the Donovan witch sisters.He didn’t deserve love.It didn’t stop him from craving the possibility of pretending whatever fake relationship that he and his goblin princess had was real.If only for a moment.
The edge of her dress had twisted by her collarbone—that one small scrap of fabric the only imperfection in the short-circuiting perfection that was Vori.She undid him and all his tight-laced overthinking.Not one thread at a time but with a grenade guaranteed to wipe his brain of all but her.
He reached for that twist—keeping his touch tentative and light.When she didn’t move away from him, hope sparked and set him on fire.Did she feel it too?
A hard knock at the door—a pounding so violent it rattled the frame—had him snatching back his hand as if burned by the heat that’d been blazing between them.He pushed past her to the door, unwilling to let just anyone see her in that outfit.
“Manners,” a female voice outside snapped.
A goblin guard in a crimson uniform stood next to the door but seemed to be shrinking away from a much smaller woman dressed in a plain brown dress worn thin and tattered at the edges.Regardless of the differences in size and apparent rank, the petite human was in charge.Or was she human?She had the radiance that all the face cream commercials on television promised but couldn’t deliver, even as she frowned fiercely at the warrior until the goblin stepped away.
The woman’s gaze snapped to his forehead.“Prince Consort.”She bowed, balancing a tray piled high with food as she did.
The show of respect when he’d done nothing to earn it floored him.How was he supposed to respond?
