“His peevishness is understandable. I almost feel guilty now for ruining his evening plans.”
“No need. I tasked him with rearranging the pantry staples by name. Alphabetizing soothes his savage soul.” And that right there was the reason she was the reigning queen of inventive horseshit. They didn’t pass that crown to just anyone.
They arrived at the hulking edifice of Tul’dea’s premiere hotel, The Crystal Lodge. Inside, they bypassed the establishment’s famous glass fountain and the retail promenade of ritzy shops and headed directly for the lodge’s anchor restaurant.
As expected, the Glasstisserie was filled to capacity. Grateful for Thane’s foresight in booking an advanced reservation, Avily followed the tuxedoed attendant to a table situated in the center of the room. She allowed Thane to help her from her coat.
Gaze sweeping her appreciatively, he held out her chair for her. “No wonder Bill was giving me the evil eye. I would have been reduced to murderous thoughts too if I’d been in his shoes.”
Unrolling her napkin, she stifled a weary exhale. “He’ll get over it.” Everything would be right as rain with Jerrick when they went over his game plan for tomorrow. It was all he freakin’ cared about. That and getting his way. She hadn’t snapped to his wishes and heeled like an obedient pup tonight. It chapped his ass, no doubt. Well, he better get used to it. Because she was done with her own nonsense.
The server approached, and Thane slid Avily a considering glance. “What do you say we splurge on a bottle of their finest champagne?”
She nodded. “I think that’s an excellent plan.”
Hell, why not? It’d be the ideal way of toasting the dismissal of Jerrick from her heart once and for all.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Jerrick clicked on the visio and threw the remote aside before stalking into the kitchen. He rifled through the cooler. Nothing appealed to him, but he yanked out the ingredients for a sandwich anyway. No doubt his measly meal didn’t compare to the lobster and caviar Thane was impressing Avi with. The motherfucking scheming bastard.
He returned to his station on the sofa and attacked his beef sandwich, imaging it was Thane’s jugular he was tearing into.
A busty female on the screen leaned into her companion with a sultry smile, her fingers trailing seductively along his arm. “Does it bother you I’m a virgin?”
He choked on his mouthful of sandwich. Squinting, he eyed the actress. “If you’re a virgin, I’m the fucking King of Helias.” Least this stupid show could have done was find an actress who vaguely resembled innocent and virginal.
And what the hell does that look like, you idiot? You didn’t even know Avi was a virgin. The reminder setting uncomfortably on his chest, he tore another bite from his sandwich and chewed with considerably less vigor than he had a moment ago.
The woman on the screen licked her partner’s ear. “I’m sick of waiting for him to come to his senses. If he won’t take my cherry, you’ll be more than happy to, right?”
A dry, mangled chunk of bread lodged midway down his windpipe along with another choke. What the fuck? Feeling like he’d been dropped into an alternate universe, he reached for the remote and turned up the volume.
“Mavi, he’s a fool to let you slip through his fingers.”
The actress’s lips quivered. “I only wish Alerick possessed half the balls you do, Shane. You’d never let me go out to dinner with another man and sit there like a dope, eating your sandwich while the love of your life gives herself to another.”
Jerrick watched the couple on the visio attack each other’s mouths, his stomach roiling and threatening to refuse its contents. He was watching his world unravel in a badly scripted drama.
And he couldn’t do a fucking thing about it.
He awoke with a jolt, his abrupt, jerking fall back to consciousness prompting a pitch of greasy queasiness in his stomach.
Or maybe the odd, disturbing dream was responsible for the certainty he was seconds away from heaving his guts up. Running the back of his hand over his mouth, he struggled to get a grip on the residual panic refusing to dissipate along with the dream. His conscience was playing tricks on him, that’s all. Avi wasn’t planning to have sex with Thane. No way. His tension began to relinquish its tyrannical rule over his gut.
Like a ghostly tormentor, his dream whispered through his mind with devilish clarity. If he won’t take my cherry, you’ll be more than happy to, right?
The churning in his belly recommenced. Her virginity was a precious gift. She wouldn’t give it to some slicked-up character with a smarmy accent and overpriced shoes.
Would she?
His forehead sweating bullets, he stared at the blank visio screen.
He’d fucked everything up. Big time. She’d wanted sweet words of devotion from him when she’d stood at the top of the stairs, ripping his heart out as she’d prepared to spend the night with another. And he’d given her nothing but hollow words and selfish guilt.
He should have never let her walk away from him, even if it’d required tying her to the damn sofa. Or better yet the bed. Because bottom line, that’s where she belonged—beneath him, not Thane.
The dazzling truth of it clanged through his conscious, stirring the primal alpha residing deep within him.
Avi was his woman. His. No one else’s. The thought of another sinking inside her, stealing that precious gift that rightfully belonged to him, ate at his insides. Yes, it was foolhardy to court these torturous thoughts, but his mind repelled any offering of reason or sense.
He whipped his gaze to the beckoning stairway. Thank the devil he’d overheard Thane spill the location of their dinner plans.
Because he wasn’t waiting one more fucking second to claim his cherished prize.
He hauled his ass down the stairs at a furious clip and dashed out into the insane rush on the sidewalks. Tuning out the barking vendors and moving press of people surrounding him, he barreled down the narrow strip of cement bordering the street. Normally it would have been a suicide mission taking that route, but with traffic at a standstill, his chances of getting flattened into an oil slick were marginally slim.
He hoped.
Various cat calls and shouts of “Crazy motherfucker!” pelting his ears, he kept his focus pinned on the distant purple and blue spotlights scaling the exterior of the Crystal Lodge. By the time he catapulted through the hotel’s lobby doors, his legs shook and there was a good chance he was seconds from expiring from a heart attack.
Lungs bellowing, he loped down the promenade and into the entrance of Glasstisserie. The attendant attempted to halt Jerrick’s progress by asking the name of his party, but he shoved past the man as if he hadn’t heard him.
He entered the main dining hall. A few of the patrons slid him curious glances that he disregarded while he desperately searched for Avi. He spotted her cozied at a candlelit table with Thane. The nauseating intimacy of the scene sucker-punching him in the solar plexus, he lurched toward them. Avi glanced up, her eyes going wide in tandem with the reddening of her face. The hue was a perfect complement to the color of her dress.
The fire in her eyes verified she wasn’t thrilled by his presence, and the odds of him receiving her knee in his groin were ten to one. Despite those worrisome numbers, he closed the distance between them. She glared up at him. “You have a hell of a lot of nerve stalking me here.”
Disregarding her well-placed outrage, he pulled her to her feet. He slid his hands into her damnable loose and flirty hair and jerked her toward him, crushing her lips beneath his. He swallowed her shocked gasp and devoured her greedily. A continuous reel of her name played through his mind. She was his. Now and forever. He’d rip apart anyone who tried to take her from him.