She continues with her exaggerated pout as she steps into the closet and emerges a moment later in a white off-the-shoulder dress, a hint of dark lace peeking out the top of the sweetheart neckline.
I don’t need to be told it’s white. That’s a color I know on sight. It has to be something she brought with her because I never would have had a white dress made for her. My reaction to seeing my wife in that color isprimal and instant. The cut of it is so Divine-damned sexy that a cold sweat breaks out on my skin.
She’s fucking with me—pushing my buttons in the maddening way she enjoys so much. She knows it’s hunt night, so she wore a white dress like prey.
“Harlow.”
“Yes, my wolf?” she says, ignoring the lethal edge to my voice as she closes the distance between us.
“Don’t test me today.”
She walks her fingers up my chest. “Then don’t make the testing so fun.”
I grab her wrist and nip at her finger, and she laughs. “Go to the library or the gallery. Just say you’ll stay inside.”
She rolls her eyes and sighs. “I’ll stay in the house until dinner is over, but I make no promises about after.”
It’s the best I can hope for, given her love of antagonizing me. I pray she learned her lesson after her last adventure ended in her almost dying or worse at the hands of a Breeder.
She grabs a book from her nightstand and settles into the chair by the fire to read.
Gaven isn’t waiting in the hall at his usual post when I leave the bedroom, but that’s not entirely unusual. I know that Harlow sends him to snoop around the house when she knows I’m distracted.
Fortunately, I don’t have to search very long. I find him standing on the back patio, looking down the hill at a couple of guards sparring.
“Do you miss it?” I ask. “I haven’t seen you train since you’ve been here.”
He doesn’t turn to look at me. “I get by fine on my own.”
“If you change your mind, I’d be happy to go a round or two with you, old man.”
He turns to scowl at me, and I hold up my hands in surrender.
“I’m serious,” I say. “The offer stands. We’re going to be spending a lot of time together. I know you’re determined not to like me, but as a matter of practicality, you’re helping to protect my wife?—”
“You’re helping to protect my charge,” he counters.
I sigh. “What I mean is we have a similar goal, and it’s in her best interest if we both stay sharp.”
He crosses his arms. “Fine.”
“In the meantime, I have a wedding gift for Harlow I was hoping you could help me with.”
Gaven’s eyebrows shoot up. “Astonishing that you have interacted with her this much and still think you’re going to be able to buy her a gift she likes.”
“Oh, I know she will. It’s a custom set of blades. Can I show you?”
Gaven glances up at the house.
“She’s just reading,” I reassure him. “She won’t try to sneak out until dark. This will only take a few minutes.”
He waves a hand and palms the dagger at his hip, an anxious habit of his. “Lead the way.”
I start down the gravel path toward the armory at an easy pace with his steady footsteps close behind me. If I rush too much, it will set him off.
Instead of going into the armory, I veer off behind it.
Gaven hesitates a step. “They’re not in the armory?”
