RISING (#2, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 53

I tugged and strained against his strength, my long hair flailing about my shoulders as I tried to free myself from his unyielding grip. "Tabitha," he gritted out, "calm the fuck down."

I gave up, not because I wanted to, but because I realized I was stuck here with the cheater until he chose to let me go. I threw up my arm and seethed, "You're Varen Crowther! When"—the hells—"were you going to tell me?!"

His fingers tightened on my wrist. "To be fucking fair you never asked my name."

"I did! I did!"

"No. You. Didn't." He flipped up his free hand, frantically rolling his wrist as if he were trying to remember something specific. "You said something along the lines of—I don't know your name."

"Not outright! Not freaking outright!" I shouted, stamping a foot. "You knew I was a servant. You knew it, and you played along and pretended to be a hunter." I shook my head in disbelief, my nostrils flaring. I'd been so clueless. Such an utter fool.

I wrenched my arm and he let me go. I staggered back, righted myself, and flung at him, "I can't believe that your fiancée doesn't know what a jerk you are. A cheating jerk!" How many other girls had he been with over the years? Beckah always said—Once a cheater, always a cheater.

"Irma is not my fiancée—"

"Really?" I spat, interrupting him, popping a hand on my hip. "Because everyone seems to think she is." I stabbed my chest with a finger. "Even I know it. I'm a servant and I know that Varen Crowther and Irma Szarvas are childhood sweethearts destined to marry."

"Like fuck I will. We're—"

"It doesn't even matter," I interrupted, waving a hand to cut him off. My voice rose to a horrible shrill note. "You are a cheater!"

Varen's face contorted with anger. "Listen up, Little Miss Freak Out. You and me, we kissed—"

"We freaking made out against a wall, Varen." I was struck silent as soon as I uttered his name aloud. Varen. It rolled around deliciously in my mind. I blinked, mentally shaking it free from my head, shaking the feeling of how lovely it felt on my lips. My gaze sharpened on the offender in question. "You and I..." Heat stung my cheeks as I made a waving motion between us both, down there.

My legs had been wrapped around his hips and he'd ground his hard length into a place that ached sweetly. Both of us seeking friction, chasing it, hunting it, desperate to steal it from one another. Flustered, I tried to make my point that it was indeed more than a kiss we'd shared. I raised a finger upwards. "You breathed in my ear. I didn't even know how sensitive it could be to have someone breathing and kissing my ear. I sure as"—hells—"didn't know you could orgasm from it either!"

"We kissed. I made you come. We didn't fuck. And this thing with Irma isn't what it looks like."

"What does it look like, Varen?" I crooned, crossing my arms over my chest and tapping an irritated foot. "Because from where I was standing, you pretty much looked like a couple. You kissed her."

"She kissed me. I was an unwilling participant."

I snorted, rolling my eyes.

He had a girlfriend. I felt sorry for her and disgusted with myself. I'd been duped, so easily too. There was no way I would have ever done anything intimate with Varen if I'd have known that he was in a relationship.

A chilling thought ensnared me. Would Irma know what Varen and I had done? My mind swept back to Irma in Varen's arms. Her body had been battered and bruised, and she was clearly distressed as she desperately clung to him. Irma had been so worried for him too.