I barely made it halfway down the hall before I could feel him trailing behind me.
It wasn't a sound that gave him away. No. Tomas was silent, possibly fuming. It was his presence, his single-minded focus. I could feel it between my shoulderblades.
I wasn't about to turn around. If he wanted to fight, I'd fight. But he could start it.
I reached my door, stepping inside and shutting it. I didn't exactly slam it, but I did shut it with force. My pulse was still humming from dinner, from the game with Derek. The thought of stripping off this dress and sliding under the blankets was the only thing keeping me from pacing the room.
I had just unpinned the first coil of my hair when the door slammed open.
No knocking. No pause. Just a rush of dark energy that shoved all the air out of the room.
I peeked over my shoulder to find Tomas filling the doorframe. I rolled my eyes. Did he understand just how predictable he was, lounging in doorframes so he could appear larger and scarier?
"What," His voice was a hoarse whisper, deadly and quiet. "Was that?"
I kept pulling the pins from my hair. If he was going to do this, I was going to be decidedly unbothered. "You'll have to be more specific."
He stepped inside, closing the door behind him with deliberate slowness. The latch clicked into place. Great, trapped with a caged wolf. "At dinner. With Derek."
I tilted my head slightly. "You said I needed to practice flirting."
"I said to practice on Callum." His voice cracked across the space between us.
"And I chose Derek." I countered, letting the pins drop to the vanity. "If I'm going to practice, the shouldn't I try for the harder mark?"
His jaw tightened. "You thought flirting with Derek was a good idea?"
"It worked, didn't it?" I crossed my arms, my chin lifting. "He didn't bite my head off. He was almost pleasant. I actually enjoyed myself. For once."
"Almost pleasant?" Tomas repeated, his tone full of disbelief. "You were supposed to practice flirting, little fox. Not…" His mouth pressed into a hard line. "Not whatever that was."
"That was flirting, Tomas." I purposefully said his name. Both to aggravate him, and to remind him that I was still a person, even if he wanted to use me as a tool.
The silence that fell after that was thick enough to drown in. His eyes locked on mine, unreadable, and for a moment I thought he might turn and leave.
Then he moved toward me.
His pace was slow, unhurried.
"You think this is a game?"
"I think you made it a game." I shot back. "You told me to be convincing. You told me to keep their attention. And I did."
His steps ate the distance between us until I could feel the heat rolling off him.
"You think I didn't see it?" His voice was quieter now, and it touched on the edge of dangerous. "The way you touched him. The way you looked at him."
"That was the point." I had to pull back to keep from shouting. "You cannot have it both ways, Tomas. You cannot tell me to charm them and then throw a fit when I do."
Something flickered across his face. Not anger. Not exactly.
"You don't know what you're playing with."
"I'm playing with exactly what you handed me." I took a half step forward, refusing to be the one who bent first. "If you don't like the result, maybe you should be clearer next time."
His gaze dropped to my mouth for the barest fraction of a second before snapping back to my eyes. "Clearer?" There was a question there I wasn't sure I understood the answer to.
"Yes, Tomas. Clearer."
"You think I'm upset because you passed this little test?" His voice had dropped again, nearly a growl now.
"Am I wrong?"
"You're wrong about a lot of things." He moved closer, pressing into my space until I had no choice but to give up ground. And kept moving until my back pressed into the edge of the vanity. "Starting with the idea that Derek is harmless enough to toy with."
I swallowed hard. "He handled it fine. He even seemed to enjoy the attention."
Tomas's laugh was humorless. "You don't know Derek like I do."
"And you don't know me like you think you do." I kept my voice steady. "I can hold my own."
"You shouldn't have to."
I blinked at him. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means—" He cut himself off, his hands curling at his sides like he was holding something back. "It means I won't have you turning this court into your hunting ground just to prove you can."
I let out a short, sharp breath. "Are you serious? You told me to flirt. I flirted. I did exactly what you wanted. Now you're mad?"
He stared at me, the muscle in his jaw working. "I'm not upset, Cassidy."
Cassidy, not little fox. I both liked and hated it. He shouldn't say my name like that.
"Then why all this drama?"
"This isn't drama. It's…making sure you understand that this can't happen again."
I laughed then. It wasn't pretty. "You don't get to decide that, your Majesty. I might just be a pawn on your chessboard, but I am my own person."
He stepped even closer, his hands braced on either side of me now, trapping me in place.
"I said, you are not going to do that again."
I tilted my head back to meet his gaze. "Or what?"
His eyes darkened, and for a second I thought I had pushed too far. "You don't want to find out."
"I think I do."
He went completely still, and something twisted inside of me. His eyes held mine for a fraction of a second. Then his hands were on me.
One closed around my wrist, pulling me off the edge of the vanity. The other came to the small of my back, jerking me forward until I collided with the hard line of his chest.
I could feel the rough drag of his breath. The way his heartbeat pounded against mine.
His face was close. Too close. His eyes locked on mine with a focus that burned. "You want clearer?"
I didn't answer. Couldn't. My pulse roared in my ears.
He dipped his head, the space between us narrowing to a breath. The air shifted, the weight of the moment pressing down until I could feel nothing else.