Rynn and Amber, the redheaded Fire-Something-Seeds, enter first. Their horses are loaded high with supplies from the village – mostly flour, by the looks of it. Sabers like to eat, and bread seems to be high on their diet at the moment. They’re followed by three new women, Sabers with sweat-streaked horses who scan the domain, hands to hilts, before they spot Pax and relax a little. All five of them walk over to greet him.
Greet by dismounting and kneeling, evidence of gossip at its best. At least I impressed someone. Either that or my kissing looked so bad they’re desperate to keep away from me.
“I thought they needed Roarke to get in?” I mutter.
“He adjusted the wards,” Killian says.
“So anyone can walk in here?” That sounds stupid. Why would he weaken the protections?
“No, Rynn has a key,” he says.
“Key?” I press.
“Magic.”
I nod, okay, fair call. A magical door-of-sorts can be made to require a magical key. That makes sense.
“Can we trust Rynn?” I ask.
He shrugs. “Just not with frogs. If you’re a frog, you’ll be tortured.”
“Why?”
“Everyone has a guilty pleasure.”
“But frogs?”
He just shrugs again. That’s all I’m going to get. Rynn has frog murdering tendencies, but I like frogs.
I might say something else, but Roarke and Teegan emerge from the back of the little path and steal my ability to think.
They’re wet, both of them. Not completely been swimming wet, but just parts of their body wet. Her shirt and his sleeves. Matching body parts – because there’s no way she just went and laid down in a puddle while he walked over somewhere else and happened to put his arms in a different puddle up to his elbows.
Stuff like that just doesn’t happen.
Killian steps sharply in front of me, leaning down and inhaling deeply. “Green.”
“What? Killian, you’re in my way.”
“You smell green.”
“How can a person smell green? A person can smell like shit, but they can’t look like shit.”
He makes a ‘you do’ noise, and I pull my gaze away from Teegan marching towards Pax as Roarke ambles towards me.
That’s when I realize what I just said, and that it made no sense, and instead of hitting him, I run my hands over my sleep-messed hair. Damn Roarke for not giving me that band back.
“They don’t care,” Killian says.
Teegan probably does. Teegan looks perfect.
But I don’t care about Teegan. I care about Roarke – too much.
My AllureSeed hops the stream, chin slightly lowered, moving with a deadly, calculating stride into my bubble. His dark eyes lift to meet mine in that second and damn near set my soul on fire. My AllureSeed.
Hot as chuckin’ bralls. Like maybe, me plus him and dying right now would be such a blissful alternative to saving the world.
Heat prickles over my skin, and suddenly, it’s terribly easy to picture Roarke naked. Full butt naked. I’m already naked, who cares if we end up on the ground, in the mud.
Yes, please. My insides coil, ready to pounce on him. Wanting him.
Needing him.
He covers the distance toward us with those delicious eyes still holding mine and a little seductive smile hanging on the corner of his lips.
I swallow hard and grip Killian’s arm for support. Killian’s response is a sharp rumble as he turns his back to Roarke, taking me with him. Seth looks across at us, slowing the practice arcs he was rolling his spear through and looking curiously from one brother to the next.
My eyes go wide, trying to convey ‘help’ or even ‘save me.’ Or really anything that will let me face Roarke again. I dig my heels in, twist at the hips, and try to push away. But my back is pinned to Killian’s front, with the big guy’s arm cutting straight across my chest, almost carrying me across to Seth, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
“Rein it in, Allure,” Killian growls.
Instantly, the heat pulls back. I know I should be feeling relieved. Maybe even normal. But what I feel is cold and empty.
I was enjoying that – so much!
It takes me a few breaths to get brain cells back together and analyze what just happened. I guess that’s the point of Roarke’s power. People want it, they respond to it. Being around him makes people want him.
That’s just not normally me, though, and not normally this hard.
Killian nods, just once, and relaxes his arm.
“She’s never latched on that hard before,” Roarke says, stepping into my view.
I swallow to wet my throat and tilt my head back against Killian’s chest. He doesn’t move or push me away, just stands and takes my weight as common sense sneaks back in.
He smiles down at me, then suddenly steps to the left. I slip and land with a hard thump on the soft ground as fresh mud seeps into the ass of my pants.
Seth chuckin’ cackles with laughter.
Killian huff-laughs, crouching down beside me. “Was his idea,” he says, stabbing his finger towards Seth.
Seth, who was supposed to be saving me and instead teamed up with Killian.
I pin my glare on Seth. “I thought you were on my team?”
“We’re all on the same team,” Killian grunts.
“And I thought we didn’t listen to him.” This time I glare at Killian and point towards Seth.
Point with my left hand and sift the fingers of my right through the mud.
Not thick-puddle consistency, just soft-soil consistency, which makes it easy for me to get a nice handful. Killian’s gaze clips the corner of my playful smile in the same second that I lunge.
Which gives him just enough time to look angry, but not enough to make me reconsider my crappy choice.
Because leaping to my feet, grabbing the waistband of the Seed of Darkness’ pants, and dumping a handful of mud into his braies is not a good idea.
Ever.
I turn to
