Gleam (The Plated Prisoner, #3)

by Raven Kennedy

“You’re sure you’re not drunk?” he says with a teasing grin. Great Divine, when he looks at me like that, when he flashes that subtle, secretive smile, it transforms his entire face.

“Not drunk, but I’d really love to be right about now.” His smile widens, and I find my own lips twitching, corners tilting up like they want to join his for the dance.

“Then you’d be a statue stuck right here on the stairwell, and I don’t think gold’s your color, Commander.” “I disagree. Gold has quickly become my favorite.”

“You’re very floppy.” I rest my head against his firm, muscled chest. “You’re very hard,” I counter. A rich, dark laugh slips from his mouth. “You’ve no idea.”

My face instantly flares as he smirks, the creases of his cheeks lifting the glint of his scales and making him look so damn gorgeous that all I can do is stare.

“You shouldn’t touch me,” I confess, even as my gloved hands curve around his shoulders. “I’m dangerous.”

“My intention is never to use you, Goldfinch.”

One of my ribbons slips from its bow, the golden length looping around his arm, and an entirely too pleased look crosses his face. “Your ribbons seem to like me.”

“Well, they don’t have brains, so…” The richest, deepest laugh I’ve ever heard lumbers through him and wraps around me. I almost lean toward the sound,

“My own good was stuck on a pirate ship, with an aura like a beacon that flared across the Barrens,” he grits out, a thick spun voice meant to tie knots around me. “My own good was cowering before men who were nothing—fucking nothing—in comparison to her.”

“My own good hated me, fought me, argued with me, but I didn’t care, because I watched her slowly come out of her shell, peeling back one layer at a time, and it was stunning.”

“I got one touch. One taste, and if it was an act of selfishness, then you should know, it certainly wasn’t one-sided, Auren.”

I might drown in the depths of his bottomless eyes.

“I’m saying that you are my own good. And for you, I gave you a choice, but you chose him.”

Instead, Rip moves, and I move with him, wind and rain in harmonious tandem.

“Tell a truth for a truth,” he murmurs, voice pebbling my skin. “Or keep a secret for a secret,” I finish.

“Don’t feel obligated to stay with me just because I asked. It’s probably a bad idea, anyway. I have a power hangover, and after that moment on the railing...” I trail off, like my blush has stolen my voice.

I look up, letting snow fall onto my lashes, and when I turn to glance at Rip, I find he’s already looking at me.

“We might be the last two fae in the entire world, and somehow, our paths crossed that night.”

“Fate does funny things.” “It does,” he murmurs, thumb brushing against his bottom lip as he regards me.

His eyes dance. “You mean when you were checking me out.”

“Fine, keep your secrets.” “I do. As I keep yours.”

“You just remembered I’m King Slade Ravinger and not just...this.”

“I’m glad you’re choosing you,” he says quietly, and my lips part, like I want to swallow the rumble of his cadence.

I go completely still as he moves his hand and grips my chin, like he wants to make sure I’m paying attention. I am. “Yes, Goldfinch. Because I’m choosing you, too.”

Just a kiss. One kiss, and I’m wrecked, because I never want this to stop. I never realized that a kiss could be like this.

Ravinger gives me a crooked smile and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear with such gentleness that my throat constricts. “Hopefully that clears things up.”

murmur, “Goodnight...Slade.”

“Since your leg is so sore, perhaps the commander can carry you to the harp. He seems to have some practice at that.”

“Only you would dare tell King Rot to be quiet.”

“I told you to prove it to me, and yet you sat there at that table and you were a king.”

Fury pumps into the air around us, and then, with a voice as dark as the pits of hell, Slade says something that makes my eyes go wide. “Why the fuck is there a bruise on your cheek?”

I stare at him, not in fear, but in recognition as the beast in me rises up and answers to the beast inside him.

“You’re going to find out just how far you can be pushed until you’re tipped over. And when that happens, when you find your edge, just promise me one thing.” My voice comes out like a croak, a single tear dashing down. “What?”

I could practically taste her sunlit aura as it swept against mine.

“Right. Can you get Slade for me?” “Oh, on a first name basis, are we? That’s very informal,” he replies, amusement dancing on the edge of his gravelly tone.

“Look, you spiky stand-in, may I speak to him or not?”

Even with the shadowed light, I can see the amusement in his expression, and I’d be able to appreciate how sizzlingly gorgeous he is if it weren’t for the fact that my face is now flamed with embarrassment.

“But when you did that, you didn’t just open my eyes. You shifted my vision entirely, and now, all I keep seeing is you.”

“I keep blaming you for things so that I can push you away. But you’ve done nothing wrong. Not really. You’ve challenged me and pissed me off and lied, but it’s nothing I didn’t do right back. You’re not the villain in my story.”

“But I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.” “I believe you,”

“What do you want, Auren? Admit to me what you really want.”

I look Slade in the eye and say, “You, Slade. I want you.”

“I’ve wanted you since the moment I laid eyes on you, Goldfinch. I was just waiting for you to catch up.”

“I didn’t answer you right away because I need you to understand something first,” he tells me, that dark, brooding voice of his caressing my ears.

“I want all of you,” he tells me, a newfound hunger in the depths of his green eyes that stirs heat beneath my skin. “Every piece, every memory, every minute, every inch. This isn’t going to be some casual dalliance. This isn’t going to be temporary. I want you soul, mind, and body. I want your trust and your thoughts. I want your past, your present, your future. So make very certain that you want me for the right reasons. Be certain that you’re choosing this, because once you do, there’s no turning back.”

“But I get all of you too. I won’t ever again give myself to someone who doesn’t give himself back to me. So make very certain that you’re choosing this, King Ravinger,” I parrot back to him. “Because once you do, there’s no turning back.”

“I chose you the moment you called me a prick, and your ribbons tried to knock me on my ass.”

“Do you honestly think I’d leave after you just told me you’re in love with me?”

“I admit I feel something for you, but not that, you arrogant ass. Love doesn’t happen this way.”