Page 37 of The Unseelie Wish
“Without torture?”
“Define tortu?—”
Picking up a dinner roll she hurled it at him. He laughed, deflecting it with his arm.
“Fine, fine. No torture.” Lifting his wine goblet, he spun it around in his fingers. “I like a challenge, anyway.”
“How are you going to convince me, then?”
“Don’t know! Not yet.” He hummed. “I have to think it through. I could bribe you, but I feel we’ve already played that game to its completion. I could romance you, but you’re far too…sore with me right now, to let that stand.”
She rolled her eyes at his innuendo. “Izael.”
“Just—tell me this. Do you enjoy my company? I know you enjoy my body. But what about the rest?” With the gentle touch of his fingers against her jaw, he turned her to look at him. There was a sudden sincerity in those teal eyes. A sudden…pain.
The truth of it was, yeah—she did. She enjoyed being around him a lot. When they were just exploring or having a good time, she couldn’t remember laughing or smiling like she did around him. Not for years.
Maybe not in her entire life.
But it wasn’t that simple. There was too much riding on her. And she only had three days now to either figure out what she wished for or convince herself she didn’t wish for anything at all. Which would mean never seeing him again.
And that, she knew she didn’t want.
She could give him that. Shutting her eyes, she let out a breath. “I don’t want to say goodbye to you. I thought I could, but?—”
The sound of his chair sliding back was her only warning as he moved to kiss her, leaning his weight on the arms of her own chair. When they parted, he rested his forehead against hers. “You will have everything you could ever dream of. Every horizon will be open to you. Every world you wish to see, every bauble, every jewel—I will lay it at your feet. I love you, my Alex, and I will stop at nothing until I have your love in return.”
“But at what cost? I can’t…I can’t let myself become a weapon. That’s why I ran away from you.”
“And the torture.”
With a half-laugh, she fought a faint smile but lost. “Yeah. And the torture.”
Those sea-green, faintly glowing teal eyes bored into her as he watched her. He went to speak when another voice cut him off.
“Duke.”
Izael straightened as if struck by lightning. His expression twisted into one of annoyance and then immediately flashed to a grinning, goading, and false happiness. “Uncle Anfar! What a wonderful surprise.” He whirled to greet the newcomer.
Alex had only seen him once before—the strange, drowned sailor-looking fae. He had long, dark hair that hung wet and loose around his sharp features. His eyes were pure black from lid to lid, and when he talked, she saw his teeth were all pointed like a shark’s. He wore the clothes of an old-fashioned, seventeenth-century sea captain who had been dead at the bottom of the ocean. Whatever had been nice then was rotted and frayed.
“Valroy wishes to speak to you immediately.” Anfar’s head turned slightly in Alex’s direction. “I will keep an eye on your…guest.”
Alex swallowed the lump in her throat.
“I am in the middle of dining with my human.” Izael’s fingers twitched, but his feigned friendly tone never wavered. “I am sure the king wouldn’t mind waiting an hour until?—”
“Now, Duke.” Anfar’s tone left no room to budge.
Izael whirled to face her, a smile still etched onto his features. “I will be right back, dear.” Reaching down, he hooked the loop in the front of her iron collar. “Don’t go anywhere.”
Glowering up at him, she went to give him a piece of her mind, but he was already gone.
Leaving her.
With Anfar.
She didn’t want to stare, but she couldn’t help it. The man—creature—was intense. Her jaw ticked. “Um.” Gesturing at the table, she did the best she could. “Want some food?”