Chapter Sixteen
After a long day of practicing and driving, Danica’s hands hurt from where she gripped the steering wheel. She knew she would have to ice them later, but she refused to do so and admit the weakness in front of Arden and Phi. It had been so long since she’d driven to that extent, her body wasn’t used to it anymore. The thought made her sad, but she wasn’t too stubborn to ignore the ache before it got too bad. She needed to be at top capacity for the Games if she wanted to win. At least her instincts were just the same. Those muscles weren’t out of shape.
The house was fancier than anything Danica had ever been in, let alone lived. For the first few days, she actually tried to ignore the details of where she was living, but in the end, she couldn’t miss the luxury around her. The opulence slapped her in the face, nearly striking her dumb every time she walked into it, but perhaps the most difficult thing to get used to were the workers. There weren’t many of them—in fact, Danica would say there was the bare minimum—but there was still a chef somewhere in the house and an older gentleman who came out baring the dishes on a cart. He was professional when setting the plates before Arden and Phi, but when he set down Danica’s plate and she said “thank you” quietly, he smiled at her. Kind eyes. She hadn’t expected such kind eyes. It was a testament to Phi’s treatment of those who worked for him.
But now, after the man had left, Danica couldn’t stop staring at Phi and Arden as they both dug into food.
“You two have said repeatedly that you are vampires. You’re supposed to drink blood, right? But you’re eating food?” Wrinkling her brows at them, Danica studied the way Phi took a bite of the steak. It shouldn’t have been sexy to watch him eat, but it was. He met her eyes without flinching as she watched—a challenge? Or a decree? But everything she knew about vampires seemed to not be true. Hell, both Phi and Arden were regularly out in the sunshine with her. They lived in the desert for fuck’s sake. What was even true?
“We’re vampires, not heathens,” Phi responded, delicately taking another bite of his food in such a way that it would put most people to shame. How could someone be so delicate in his movements and yet so masculine?
“But you’re supposed to drink blood, right?” Though she’d stopped questioning if the vampire thing was real or not, she had yet to see them drink blood. Both Phi and Arden were too otherworldly not to be something besides human. Danica wasn’t sure the exact moment she’d stopped doubting the story and accepted it, but it was hard to dismiss such claims considering the details of the race she was about to enter. Besides, she’d seen pictures of some of the other competitors. It was difficult to ignore the large wings on the back of the Fae racer.
“Not like heathens,” Phi said again, rolling his eyes at her questioning.
Arden didn’t seem at all bothered by the interrogation. “Why?” he asked, drawing her attention to him. His elbows were braced on the table, his hands together in a power pose that spoke of experience. Whatever business Arden was in, he most likely dominated it. “Would you like me to bite you?” he asked, his voice as smooth as honey, an invitation there. Arden was all smooth calculation, and no doubt, if she said yes, he’d be on her without a second’s hesitation.
“No,” Danica replied, raising her brow. There was a promise in his eyes she didn’t miss, but while she was curious, now didn’t seem to the time to be drained of all her blood.
The corner of his lips ticked up, a tease. “Pity. You might be asking for it later.”
“Doubtful.” Danica shrugged, taking a sip of the wine in the crystal glass set before her. She made sure to meet Arden’s eyes with her next words. She’d never been a subtle woman, never played these sorts of games, but she knew Arden didn’t expect it. “If I’m being bitten, you’re not breaking skin, and it would only be because I tell you to do so while you’re fucking me.”
Phi choked on his food and started coughing, but Arden? A slow smile spread across his face. He perked up, and when his smile spread all the way, his canines were longer than normal.
“That can be arranged,” he purred.
Phi growled from the other side of the table. “No fucking.” It was an order, plain as day, and though Danica was teasing, she scowled the same as Arden did.
“Buzzkill,” Arden growled back, but Danica only turned to Phi and leaned her chin on her hand, completely improper in front of a prince, but then again, what did she care?
“You’re not my prince,” Danica challenged lazily. “I don’t have to listen to you.”
If Danica hadn’t understood that Arden and Phi were vampires, the moment Phi moved, she would have known. Phi moved too fast to follow his movements, at least with her eyes. As she glared at him in challenge, one moment, he was sitting in his chair enjoying his meal, the next, he was behind her chair and pulled her backward.
The front legs of her chair lifted, and the world titled until she was off balance. Her arms flailed out of instinct but there was nothing to catch onto until Phi was in her face. Then her fingers curled around his biceps, holding on so she didn’t fall backward and brain herself. Brilliant golden eyes flashed above her, that gorgeous pale hair hanging around his face, framing his chiseled jawline. Phi was a prince in all aspects, but when he growled at her, when he flashed his canines, it should have broken that illusion. Instead, it only made him more attractive to her. Her lower stomach tensed, her fingers digging in tighter to the material covering his muscled arms, until for a moment, she forgot he was intending to threaten.
“There is much at stake in this race, Danica Dyers. I will not have a lover’s quarrel disrupting that progress.” His eyes glanced toward Arden, who sat grinning at them. In their position, Phi was leaning over her, practically straddling her lap with the way he held her chair in check. Golden eyes flicked back to hers. “Arden is an asshole and will no doubt piss you off. When I say no fucking, I say it because we all need to win this race. The outcome is far more important than a brief moment of pleasure.”
“Excuse me? Brief?” Arden grunted, but Danica wasn’t paying him any mind. Her attention was completely on Phi.
Sharp canines threatened to bite her if she refused, but something told her Phi would never bite her without permission. He was too proper, too conscious of consent. Even now, threatening her, he wasn’t touching her. He’d allowed her to touch him at her choice. But Danica was nothing if not a rebel. The moment someone told her not to do something was the moment she wanted to do it. She was already wholly attracted to both Phi and Arden, and the possibility of dying was a threat hanging over them all. What was one little poke of the bear?
“So, you’re saying,” Danica said, her voice breathy. “If I kissed you right now, you wouldn’t kiss me back?”
Phi’s face twisted but Danica didn’t miss the way his eyes dropped quickly to her lips. He met her gaze again once he realized what he’d done but it was too late. Danica had already seen. Golden eyes flashed and Danica’s thumb moved against his bicep.
“Don’t test me, Danica,” he warned. “Just because I’m a prince doesn’t mean I’m nice.”
Danica settled in the chair, trusting him to hold her in the precarious position. There was hardly any shift at all, his strength revealed with the movement. She released one of his biceps to trail a finger down his throat. It bobbed at her touch, a contrast to the threat. Phi, it seemed, was not as unaffected as he’d like her to believe. “I didn’t think it did,” she teased.
“No fair!” Arden grunted from his place at the table. “You told me not to do anything and now you’re practically fucking her with your eyes.”
The tension around the table increased, until it should have been choking. Instead, Danica absorbed it and it released the tension in her shoulders. It had been a long time since she’d flirted, teased, raced. It seemed Arden and Phi were triggers for many things in her life.
“No fucking,” Phi repeated, almost to himself, a reminder.
“Your decree doesn’t affect me,” Danica argued, and then, because she apparently had a death wish, she leaned up and nipped his chin.
Phi dropped the chair, gravity suddenly pulling her toward the floor. It jolted at the feeling, but laughter burst from her lips the moment she slammed into the ground. Because despite Phi dropping her, despite his surprise when she’d nipped him, he’d protected her head as she hit the ground, his strong fingers cupping the back of her skull briefly before he set her gently on the expensive marble.
Before she could call him out on his care, Phi was storming from the room with an air only royalty could have. She didn’t know how she’d missed the air of prince-ness around him before, but her eyes followed him all the way from the room, and she knew he knew she watched him.
Perhaps, that was why he moved at human speed rather than the vamp speed he’d just showed himself capable of. . .