Page 55 of Stolen Threadwitch Bride
“Ah, this must bethe human.”
I whirled, heart leaping to my throat. I hadn’t even heard—
Of course I hadn’t. Fae. Silent and standing before me.
This one was as tall and broad as Ly and almost as handsome, but he was Ly’s opposite in every other way. Long hair the colour of sunlight spilled past his shoulders. His blue eyes, illuminated by a passing light, were the match for any clear, summer sky.
His cool gaze trailed over me from head to toe, unhurried and unashamed. “Lysander has been holding out on me.” A predatory grin showed his teeth.
I swallowed as though that could stop my heart from jumping out of my mouth. He didn’t mean my gift, did he? Surely he couldn’t know about that just from looking at me.
With the same feline grace I’d admired in Ly, he prowled closer, only stopping once he was a foot away.
I wanted to back away, told my feet to do so, but my muscles refused to obey.
“He didn’t tell me you were such a beauty.” He held his hand out to me, palm-up. “And what is this beauty’s name?”
The way he’d looked me up and down and stood too close—my skin crawled and I’d sooner peel it off than touch him. I managed a step back, but my heels scraped something hard. The fountain.
“Now, now,” he cooed, “don’t be afraid.” He closed the fractional distance I’d opened between us. “I only asked your name, little fawn.”
Danger. My nerves shrieked it, my bones screamed it. But like a fawn before the huntsman, there was nothing I could do.
He scented the air, eyes growing hooded. “So exquisite, so fresh and new… andgifted.” Cocking his head, he edged closer still, and I leant away, the backs of my legs against the fountain. “Ah, but I haven’t introduced myself, have I?”
He didn’t need to. I realised who he was a frantic heartbeat before he said it.
“Goren, at your eternal service.” He nodded, holding me pinned with his gaze as much as with his proximity.
Shit. Of course it was Goren. And somehow I was alone with him.
I needed to get inside. Away. Anywhere that wasn’t here.
I bowed my head and ducked to the left, but he wasthere. Fae speed. I was no match for that.
“Such a well behaved little creature. Head down. Knows her place. Quite tame.”
Beyond my sweaty palms and racing heart, something burned through me. Anger? Shame? Maybe both.
Tame. I’d give him fuckingtame!
Was that how it seemed when I kept quiet?
Gods, it was. All those times I avoided attention, that was the picture I’d painted of myself.
I’d been a good girl, meek and submissive so the people of Briarbridge wouldn’t have any reason to be cruel or isolate me further. It was meant to be a defence, but it hadn’t worked, had it? I’d just become what they wanted—a well-behaved little creaturewho sold them her gift and otherwise kept quiet.
Teeth gritted, I trembled with the effort of containing myself—from fleeing or snapping, I had no idea. Anger had made the words burst out of me with Ly, and I think helikedthat spark. But Goren? What might he do if I was anything but a weak, meek human?
“I saw you with mydearSylvanna, who was a vision as ever.” A cruel smile revealed his long canines. “But next to her trim little body, all I could wonder was where Lysander had been hiding you.” He made a low sound in his throat as his blue eyes trailed from my face to my throat, to my breasts, pausing there.
I’d noticed fae women were willowy and slim, but I’d never been so conscious of my curves before. There was no way of backing off any further without ending up in the fountain and something told me he would take that as an invitation.
With atsk, he shook his head. “I’m offended he didn’t bring you to visit me. I could look after you very well indeed, if you’d only let me.”
He shifted, reaching for my hip, and I flinched away as best I could, but there was nowhere to go and—
“Goren.”
