Page 41 of Slaying the Shifter Prince
Its closeness to the edge lifted goosebumps across my flesh.
Perhaps it was the fact I had to lean forward and accept the food from him, making me complicit in my own helplessness. Maybe it was that being fed was… intimate somehow. I was sure my parents must’ve fed me when I was very small, though I didn’t remember them. But no one had ever placed food in my mouth.
The rest of the table had gone back to eating, with knives and forks scraping across plates and the low murmur of conversation. But I could feel the periphery of their attention upon us.
I could practically hear them wonder,Will this be the thing that breaks her?
Lips pressed together, I eyed the prince.
He watched my mouth, the corner of his rising. “You know, my sweet human rebel, I could use charm to make you do this.”
I was glad for my tight jaw right now, because it stopped me smiling in triumph at the fact he still hadn’t realised I was gifted.
“Or anything, in fact,” he went on, voice a low purr. “I could make you fuck me if I wanted. I could make you bend over this table and beg me. But I don’t want to resort to such obvious tactics. Besides…” His canines flashed in a wicked grin. “I think you might enjoy that too much. No, the beauty of this is that you’re totally in control while you do as I command.”
The unease that had trickled through me was now a gushing waterfall. I twitched, brow pulling into a tight frown.
Fuck.
I’d thought I was winning by obeying so thoroughly. Before, my disobedience had pleased him, and he seemed to want me to fight against his orders, so I’d done the opposite.
What I hadn’t counted on was that my compliancealsopleased him.
Fuck.
But… no. I’d seen him irritated by my vicious obedience. That twitch of his jaw.
I searched his glittering gaze, trying to find some hint of truth in its golden depths.
There was no truth. Only challenge.
He wafted the herb-flecked potato before me, one eyebrow arching.
Oh shit. He wasn’t justnotstupid: he was cunning. He’d created a situation where, whatever I did, he could enjoy it. Either I was disobedient and he got to punish me more harshly. Or I was obedient and therefore a creature under his control.
If I hadn’t been so full of roiling rage, blasting through me like storm winds, I might’ve admired the way he’d played this game.
“Eat.” His tail squeezed around my wrists. “You’ll do it anyway. If I have to charm you, I’ll make you do it with a smile on your face. You do it yourself, and you can scowl all you like.”
Fine. I snapped the potato from his fingers. My lower lip ran along the pad of his thumb as I took it, and his eyebrows shot up.
Not a studied expression. Not triumph or smugness. Not cruelty or a dare.
Surprise. Maybe even a hint of something close to unease.
Perhaps there still was a way I could win. Challenging and daring him right back.
I tested my theory and licked his finger as though eager to get every scrap of flavour.
His breath stilled. His pupils grew round and wide.
You even ruin sex.
Oh dear. My poor prickish prince.
Because, yes, he was the most handsome man I’d ever seen, and my body responded to him in ways it shouldn’t.
But his body was responding to me, too.
