Page 24 of Protected By the Elf Prince

Landon nodded and he took a sip of his drink, gaze flicking over me before he asked, “Do you want a drink?”

Hope bloomed. At least he wasn’t demanding I go away.

Smiling, I nodded. “I would. As long as it is not coffee.” I screwed up my nose, which Landon grinned at.

“What do you prefer to drink?” he asked.

“Tea. However, I doubt they would have that here, so I shall once more partake in what you are drinking.”

His lips twitched. “And if you don’t like it?”

“I will suffer like I did trying coffee.”

That drew out another loud laugh, and for a small moment, I thought his gaze stopped on my lips, but he quickly turned and called for the bartender.

CHAPTER FIVE

Landon

I had another night without sleep, and this time it wasn’t because I had to wrap my head around there being supernatural creatures and that I was fated to one.

Though maybe I wished it was.

Instead, my lack of slumber was because, for a brief moment in the bar—when Dashiel had asked, “What do you feel when I’m around”—I had the strongest feeling that if I asked him to go away, he would have… and I would’ve regretted my choice.

Then, when he’d joked about coffee, a brief urge to press my lips to his in gratitude for making me feel comfortable and happy had pushed at me.

I groaned and dragged both hands over my face. “Nope,” I muttered into the darkness of my bedroom. “Absolutely not.” I was also ignoring the fact that as soon as I got home from the bar, I’d gone for another shower and jerked off because my dick wouldn’t go soft.

I was aroused and confused and frustrated all at the same time,

Because that was insane.

Completely insane.

I stared up at the ceiling while my brain replayed every second from last night with the kind of determination usually reserved for psychological torture.

Dashiel and how he chuckled softly.

How pleased he looked when I laughed.

How he said he wanted to burn down a building because a woman touched my arm.

That one should’ve concerned me more than it did.

Instead, I’d liked it.

Liked how possessive he’d seemed, which confused me in so many more ways.

My stupid brain also kept circling back to the way he’d looked at me when he said he couldn’t imagine his life without me in it.

God. I rolled over and shoved my face into the pillow. “I’m losing my damn mind.”

I’d almost kissed him.

For one tiny moment, as I sat there beside him while he made me feel strangely safe and seen and comfortable despite everything, I’d wanted to know what his lips felt like.

And that was a whole issue I didn’t know how to unpack.