Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews Page B

why I was on the receiving end of Curran’s alpha stare. If he leveled it at Jim, there would be a fight.
    I sidestepped. Jim moved with me. I stared at the ceiling and growled.

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    “Cute,” Curran said.
    Die. “Why don’t you come over here and I’ll show you cute.”
    “I’d love to, but he’s in the way. Besides, you had your chance to show me anything you wanted to.
    You’d just run away again.”
    For the love of God. “I didn’t run away. I made you your damn dinner, but you didn’t have the decency to show.”
    Jim’s eyebrows crept up. “Dinner?”
    Curran’s eyes blazed. “You took off. I smelled you. You were there and then you got cold feet and ran.
    If you didn’t want to do this, all you had to do was pick up the phone and tell me not to show up. Did you actually think I’d make you serve me dinner naked? But you didn’t even bother.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “Hey!” Jim barked.
    “What?” Curran and I said at almost the same time.
    Jim looked at me. “Did you make him dinner?”
    He’d find out sooner or later. “Yes.”
    Jim turned on his foot, went out of the room, and shut the door behind him.
    Alrighty, then.
    “He thinks we’re mated.” Curran moved forward, too light on his feet for a man of his size, his gaze locked on me—a predator stalking its prey. “In the Pack, one doesn’t stand between mates. He’s being polite. He doesn’t realize you broke it off.”
    “Oh no. No, I didn’t break it off. You had your chance and you blew it.”

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    Curran’s mask cracked. “The hell I did.”
    All of the pain and anger of the past month smashed into me. Having him near was like ripping the dressing off a raw wound. Words just came tumbling out and I couldn’t stop them.
    “So it’s my fault? I made you your bloody dinner. You didn’t show up. Just couldn’t pass up a chance to humiliate me, could you?”
    Curran bit the air as if he had fangs. “I was challenged by two bears. They broke two of my ribs and dislocated my hip. When Doolittle finally finished setting my bones, I was four hours late. I asked if you called and they said no.”
    He’d sunk enough gravity into that “no” to bring down a building.
    “If you were late, I would’ve turned the town inside out looking for you. I called you. You didn’t answer. I was so sure something happened to you I dropped everything and dragged myself to your house. I came to check on you with broken bones and you weren’t there.”
    “You’re lying.”
    Curran snarled. “I left a note on your door.”
    “More lies. I waited for you for three hours. I called the Keep, thinking that something happened to you, and your flunkies told me that the Beast Lord said he was too busy to speak to me.” I was shaking with rage. “That in the future I should address all my concerns to Jim, because His Majesty declared that he didn’t want to be bothered with talking to the likes of me anymore.”
    “That phone call happened in your head. You’re delusional.”
    “You stood me up and then rubbed my nose in it.”
    Something hissed behind the frosted glass in the main hall.
    Curran lunged toward me. I should’ve thrust straight through him. Instead I just stood there, like an idiot.
    He clamped me to him, spinning us so his back faced the glass.
    The glass wall exploded.

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    Shards pelted the dining room behind us, breaking against Curran’s back. A black and gold jaguar crashed against the opposite wall. Twin jets of water burst into the room from the main floor. The first thudded into the wall, pinning Jim. The second smashed against Curran’s spine. He grunted and clenched me to him.
    We were caught out in the open. No place to hide. Oh, the stupid, stupid idiot. He was shielding me.
    Jim