Page 63 of Goldilocks
As Sam stood there, frozen with indecision on how to react, Austin raised his other hand and ran it up Goldilocks’s chest.
Goldilocks’s top lip curled up, his canines flashing as anger filled his gaze. His eyes lost their humanness. The whites darkened, and the muted gold became a brilliant shining colour.
Goldilocks sneered. “You are repulsive.”
Austin’s back was to Sam, and he saw how his slim shoulders rose. As if burned, Austin jerked his hands away from Goldilocks. Sam’s heart squeezed.
Austin stumbled back a step. “I’m not repulsive,” he snapped. There was a tremble in his voice.
“You are a mongrel,” Goldilocks insulted, eyes glowing. “Do not presume to approach me. Do not insult me by thinking I would ever consider you of interest.”
Austin stumbled back another step, and another, until his back struck Sam’s chest. Sam caught his shoulders.
Austin whirled, his eyes flashing violence as they jerked up to meet Sam’s. Hurt shone within them. And something that looked like despair.
“Austin,” Sam said. He didn’t know what to say next, but his heart hurt for the guy. Austin saw the sympathy, and Sam saw plain as day how much he despised it. Austin shouldered past him, shoving open the emergency exit and storming off.
Sam stared after him. His stomach clenched in tension, and he found he couldn’t look away from the door even when it swung shut. Because turning would mean looking at Goldilocks. Sam swallowed hard. The time he’d spent with Goldilocks flashed in his mind. His own words to him, and the words he’d heard back, finally. Goldilocks had always been vicious. Hissing and growling to get his way. Bossy and dominant.
But this was the first time Sam had seen cruelty in him.
“Why did you do that?” Sam asked.
“Do what?”
Sam shut his eyes. There was no repentance in Goldilocks’s tone. No hint that he was aware of any misdeed. Sam swallowed as discomfort flashed to anger within him. Bitter disappointment bloomed, engulfing his senses until he was furious. Furious with Goldilocks. Furious with his words, his actions. And so bitterly disappointed that he’d finally given someone a chance, and this was what it led to. He opened his eyes.
“That was cruel.” Sam finally turned his head. Looked at Goldilocks, who seemed completely unbothered.
Goldilocks said nothing. Sam gritted his teeth.
“I’m not attracted to needless cruelty,” Sam said. Goldilocks’s dark gaze remained focused on him, but his expression was utterly, totally, unreadable. Sam straightened his spine, though part of him shivered to be standing up to so powerful a creature. “You could have turned him down a thousand different ways. But that? That was unnecessary.”
Goldilocks’s head tilted to the side. “I showed you favour—”
“Donotuse me to justify that!” Sam snapped, the hurt in Austin’s eyes flashing in his mind. “I know he’s mean, but he’s young. He’s vulnerable. He’s alone. You could have turned him down nicely or in a way that didn’t shatter his confidence.”
Goldilocks bristled. “You wish me to be nice? I am not nice.”
Sam withdrew, disappointment burning his lungs as he breathed in. “You don’t need to tell me. I saw it pretty damn clearly just now.”
“You pursued the young monarch,” Goldilocks said, voice deceptively calm, though the tension in his body betrayed his agitation. “And there has neverbeena kind monarch, now or ever. He is not kind.”
Young monarch? Sam didn’t know what that meant, but he instinctively knew that Goldilocks was talking about Connor. There was nobody else it could have been.
“You pursued him. He is not nice.” Something about Goldilocks’s voice sanghypocrite.
The song in the bar changed, and a chorus of approving voices rose to sing it. Sam breathed in deeply, fighting for calm. Fighting the prickling sensation stabbing at his insides.
Back when he and Connor had gone out, Connor had one hell of a sharp tongue. His defences were a towering fortress that let nobody in. And Sam had gotten hurt. Badly. His heart turned to a mincemeat of shame and hurt, and until very recently, he would still feel the ache of those badly healed bruises.
“He’s never done that,” Sam muttered. “He’s not nice, but he’s…” Connor was a lot of things.
Sam stared at Goldilocks. This fantastic creature that was interested in him, pursued him, was willing to put him first in the way he’d always wanted someone to. And Sam knew he would be wrecked if he did this. Engaged. Got involved.
He would come out the other side worse off than he had with Connor. And he already knew that it was too latenotto be affected by him. He wasn’t emotionally detached anymore; he was involved. Which was why the blatant cruelty stung so damn much.
Sam tilted his head away, needing to break eye contact. He turned and walked toward the door Austin had stormed out of. “Do you think comparing yourself to a monarch is the best way to attract a mate?”