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“No one asked you to do any of that!” I barked again. “You acted like… like a jealous mate!”
His eyes bugged at the suggestion, and I wondered if I’d gone too far, but I was just as incensed as him.
“How about a little bit of gratitude?” he growled. “I saw how that fae had his hands all over you, and I heard you telling him to leave you alone.”
“I would have been fine. I’ve gotten out of worse.” I scoffed loudly. “If you’d just let it play out, none of this would have happened!”
Jace snorted. “Bullshit! For whatever dates you think you’ve been on, you haven’t been up against the likes of the company I keep. I doubt very much you would have made it out of that unscathed if I hadn’t intervened when I did. I saw where it was going.”
He had a point there, but I refused to let him see it. “That doesn’t give you the right to go and… and do whatever the hell it was you just did. What was that? I don’t even understand what you were thinking.”
“I was thinking that…” He drew in a breath and stared at me with such intensity, my heart stopped for a second.
Was he jealous?
The inane question hit me from nowhere. No, he just didn’t want to tell Saint that something happened to me on my first day there.
“I was thinking that your brother entrusted me with your care, and on day one, something almost happened to you.”
Ah. There it was. I’d been right.
I rolled my eyes. “Again, I’m not your charity babysitting case.”
“No. You’re a guest in my house, under my care. I can’t let anything happen…” He swallowed thickly, as if the thought affected him in more ways than one.
“This is such crap,” I growled, folding my arms. “You say I’m not a prisoner, but I am being watched. Constantly. It’s the same thing.”
He studied me silently for a moment. Slowly, he sank into one of the accent chairs in his sitting room.
“Sit down.”
“No.” I was far too jazzed to relax.
“Just humor me,” he insisted. “Please.”
My eyebrows shot up at his plaintive tone, and in spite of my inherent desire to fight, I found myself sinking onto one of the beige chairs to face him.
“Do you want a drink?”
“Really, Jace?” I grouched. “What is this?”
He shrugged. “I think I have a solution to keep you completely safe.”
“Here it comes.” I folded my arms again as I sat back against the chair. Inadvertently, Jace’s eyes trailed toward my cleavage, spilling over the line of my low-cut dress, but I didn’t bother pulling back. He tore his gaze away.
“Here what comes?” he demanded. “I’m trying to help you, Elix.”
“By locking me away?” I sneered. I should have seen it coming. The party had just been a lead-up, a ploy to show me how inept I was at taking care of myself. The only feasible resolution could be locking me away. I’d lost. I was going to be the king’s captive until I was married off.
Then I’d be my husband’s captive.
Saint was right. It was time I grew up and accepted the way of the world. This was just the way things were done. My abilities prevented me from providing for myself in an already male-dominated society. I had to lie down and take it.
Jace stared at me blankly. “Who said anything about locking you away?”
I wanted to slap his handsome face for toying with me when I felt like crying, but I held my emotions in check. “Don’t be coy. I know that’s where this is all headed.”
He shook his head and leaned forward. “Not at all. In fact, what I’m about to propose will offer you ultimate freedom. That’s why I’m suggesting it. But it’s a little bit… out there. Are you open to it?”
