AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Really?” She bunched her hands up and pressed them over her mouth. “Thank you so much. What… what do I owe you?”
I rolled my eyes and gestured to the door. “Like I said. You couldn’t afford me. Consider this my good deed of the year… maybe of the decade, even. Perhaps I’ll suffer less in my next life for it.”
We exited the room and made our way towards the steps.
And then I remembered Neia.
Shit.
CHAPTERTHREE
NEIA
Fucking Sai.
I was going to kill him.
I took another swallow of beer from my mug, and the tangy bitterness of the local brew fizzed in my stomach. In the back corner of the common house we sat in, a growing crowd had pressed in as the show dispersed.
Sai had taken a singer to bed.
After he’d robbed the crowd.
He was an idiot.
Elisa tucked her hand under the table and draped it over my thigh. The gentleness of her clover-green eyes rested steadily on me, and I groaned. “He is trying to kill me, I swear.”
“He’s not,” she whispered.
“What the fuck is he thinking, seriously?”
Her auburn eyebrows jumped up, and she used her free hand to lift her glass and take a swallow of overpriced wine. If it had been anyone else, I would have denied the indulgence. Our coffers already ran too low with the ridiculous human money. It was Elisa, though. She gave me a gentle smile from behind the chipped rim, and my stomach warmed.
I tangled my fingers with hers and squeezed. But then I pulled back. The last thing we needed was to draw attention, and I didn’t know how that backwoods human town in Landre would react to us being together.
A group in the opposite corner cheered, and drinks in their hands sloshed onto the plank floor. I could be wrapped up in Elisa’s arms right that moment if we’d followed the fucking plan, garnered some money, and left town before the show ended. In the cool air of our tent, I could press my lips to the hollow of her throat, feel the strength of her muscled legs around me, and breathe in the floral sweetness of her.
But no. I got to spend the evening with a bunch of drunk humans instead. Fucking lovely, Sai.
“You’re going to give yourself a headache,” Elisa said before taking another taste of her wine.
“How are you not angry with him?”
“We’ve been on the road for weeks. He hasn’t had companionship in quite a while. You and I”—she gave me another smile that heated me to my toes—“have been luckier.”
Another pulse of desire beat through me. What she said was true. Sai hadn’t complained about it either. In fact, he hadn’t kept companionship—sexual or otherwise—in months if not more. Any other night, I might encourage him. He needed intimacy, of a physical nature if not someone to connect with on a deeper level. I huffed which rippled the pale liquid in my mug. As if he’d ever open up enough to trust someone. We’d seen too much in the last years with our work. I was his closest confidante, and he kept a string of secrets coiled within himself from me even. It was the biggest point of contention in our relationship.
My mood soured again. I was Sai’s friend, but I was also his colleague, and we had a job on currently that could ruin us. It was certainly the stupidest task we’d ever taken. And we’d robbed a sea kraken once in the middle of a typhoon, so I didn’t think that lightly.
However, stealing a zevar from Prince Lennox in the most guarded building on the continent—the formidable Seelie Fae Palace—was bold even for us. We could pull it off if we remained focused. Which brought us back around to Elisa and I sitting in some saints forsaken pub waiting for the very much unfocused Sai.
“We’re garnering attention,” Elisa whispered before taking another swallow of wine that bobbed the freckled skin of her neck.
“It’s because you’re beautiful.”
She shifted so the lamplight silhouetted her curves and warmed her skin to a golden hue. What I said was true. It constantly amazed me that this woman gave me more than a passing glance, that she’d become my heart.
“No, it’s because you’re glowering.”
