Page 64 of Throne of Ice and Blood
I suppress a snarl. This would be so much easier if I had my magic. But I keep at it anyway.
While expertly hiding my rage at his rudeness, I run my tongue along my lip for a second and then make a show of raking my gaze over his body. “Nothing. That’s why I’m attracted to strong men who like to take control.”
That startles him enough that he jerks back a little and blinks at me.
I don’t give him even a second to recover. I need to make him feel both confused and turned on so that he won’t figure out what I’m really doing when I steer the conversation back to the topic of where he was stationed before he was given this honored position. In particular, if he has ever patrolled the east side of the mountain.
So I keep a flirty expression on my face as I take a half step closer and put a hand on his arm and play on his sense ofsuperiority and his disdain for fae. “A strong man who can put me in my place. Someone who can dominate?—”
The door is yanked open.
And before I can so much as close my mouth, let alone take my hand off the guard, Draven stalks back out into the corridor.
He freezes two steps out on the floor, and his eyes lock on the hand I still have on the guard’s arm. For a moment, the only sound is the faint click of the door as it swings shut behind him again. Then his expression darkens, and he drags his gaze up to the guard’s face.
I yank my hand back at the same time as the guard blurts out, “Commander.”
“What the hell is going on here?” Draven demands, flicking eyes that have darkened with threats between us.
“We were just having a conversation,” I reply before the guard can say something stupid.
Unfortunately, he does that anyway.
“I didn’t touch her,” he presses out, his eyes wide with fear and pleading. “She’s the one who was trying to flirt with me.”
Lightning flashes in Draven’s eyes, and he slowly turns to me. “Oh?” But before I can even reply, he snaps his gaze back to the guard and declares, “Jesper, you’re on cleaning duty in your clan’s barracks for the next five months.”
Tilting my head back, I barely manage to stifle a frustrated groan. Now he’s definitely never going to talk to me. And he’s also going to warn all of his friends to never talk to me.
“It’s not his fault,” I begin, trying to mitigate the damage, as I tilt my head back down. “He didn’t?—”
A yelp escapes my mouth, cutting off my sentence, as I’m suddenly hoisted into the air. I suck in a sharp breath to clear my head, but the scene around me still isn’t making any bloody sense.
Because Draven has just picked me up and thrown me over his shoulder.
I let out a huff as my stomach connects with his hard shoulder plate.
He just wraps an arm around the back of my thighs and starts walking.
Wiggling, I try to find purchase on the armor across his back, but my palms keep slipping. So I squeeze my hand into a fist and slam it into his back instead. It just makes pain pulse through my hand.
“What did I tell you about trying to break my armor with your hands?” Draven demands. “You’ll just shatter your bones.”
“Put me down,” I growl back at him as he rounds the corner into an empty hallway. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“What does it look like?”
“Did you seriously just throw me over your shoulder and carry me away because I wastalkingto another guy?” I slam my fist against his back again and kick my legs at his stomach. “What kind of jealous territorial bullshit is this?”
“First of all, you weren’t talking to him. You wereflirtingwith him. And secondly, I’m not jealous.”
I scoff. “Right.”
My stomach lurches as he suddenly stops and lifts me off his shoulder. I blink as my feet hit the floor again. But I don’t even have time to gather my wits before Draven’s face is right in front of mine. Fire burns in his eyes as he stares me down.
“I’m not jealous,” he repeats. And before I can retort, he presses on. “And I thought we had a deal. Act like my submissive little slave in public and fight me all you like in private.”
“I am.”
