Page 154 of Ashborne: Defiance

“They made my childhood miserable, and I refuse to let them make my adult life the same.”

“Seems like you don’t really need help with that,” Gil said dryly.

“Prick,” I muttered. But Gil was smiling, because that’s what Gil did. It didn’t last though.

His gaze grew serious and he leaned closer, poking at my chest with one finger. “You going to argue? Because from over here it’s pretty clear, you’re different with her. Did something happen while you two were traveling?”

“No! Why does everyone think I can’t keep my dick in my pants for a fucking week?”

Gil gave me a look and I cursed.

“She’s a noble. She’s innocent. And creepy. And annoying.”

He shook his head. “I’ve seen you annoyed, and you’re always suspicious. But I haven’t seen you lose your shit like this in a long time.”

“Well, then, you haven’t paid attention. The last crop of Flamebornes shit themselves every time I walked past.”

“That’s because you’re creepy,” he jibed.

I rolled my eyes, but I could breathe a little easier when Gil was teasing. I didn’t like his scrutiny. So, I shrugged like I was playing along and turned away to pick up my things from the corner where I’d dropped them when I was too much of a child to walk out while they were there.

“Look, I’ll talk to her,” I said as I checked that the buckles on my satchel were secure. “I’ll make sure she knows I wouldn’t stand in her way. But trust me, I never told her that I would.”

Gil watched me, his lips pursed. “You really didn’t touch her?”

“I really didn’t.” But the hair on the back of my neck stood up at the low, careful tone in his voice. I looked at him to measure him. “Why?”

He shrugged. “I just thought, you know, if you had a thing for her—”

“I definitely don’t. There’s no thing here. In fact, the idea makes me a little bit sick.” Grace stared at me, eyes hooded, chest heaving. Everything within me hungered for her. Needed her. A desert-dry thirst swelled in my chest, and she was cool, clear water—

“You sure?”

I blinked, dragged out of the memory, and swallowed hard. “I’m sure,” I said hoarsely.

“Okay, so, you don’t mind if someone else… you know?”

I frowned. “What?”

“Well, I planned to talk to Ronen about the whole issue. Bren’s bonded to Donavyn. And if what he’s saying is true about the queen, and all these women are starting to show up as prospects, it’s only a matter of time, right? They can’t say hands off all the women when the ranks are full of them. I was going to suggest to Ronen that we maybe don’t need the stringent boundaries with Grace that we set with Bren. But I wouldn’t want to do that if you were—”

“I’m not.” Don’t do it. Don’t you fucking say—

“Then I’ll ask Ronen. I don’t know about you, but I think that noble innocence combined with the ballsy spirit is hotter than fuck. She’s the kind it would be fun to get messy.”

I was at his toes in a blink, nose to nose. He didn’t take a backward step. “She is our sister. And she’s a noble. Innocent—even more than Bren was. You don’t touch her,” I growled.

But he just shrugged. “That’s not your call—I mean, if you don’t care about her personally.”

“Of course, I care—and where the hell is this coming from? You were the one on all of us the first few weeks with Bren, telling us to keep eyes in our heads and hands to ourselves—”

“Bren needed help. I think Grace needs taming—”

I wasn’t aware of grabbing him, hadn’t thought about it, wasn’t conscious of anything except the deep, burning desire to shove a fist through his teeth.

“What’s wrong, Vos?” Gil said quietly. “You don’t trust me to be gentle?”

“No one trusts you to be gentle—”