Page 60 of The Villain

“Out!” I bellow. “Enzo. Get everyone out. Now!” My voice bounces off the walls, the vaulted ceilings. I don’t look away from Jet, not for the time it takes for the soldiers to clear out. I watch him watch her, watch his gaze move to mine, narrowing to slits.

He wants a fight. He’s itching for it.

I force a slow breath in, count to ten, turn to Allegra. She’s watching us, her gaze moving between Jet and me, settling on me. I get the feeling she’s not sure if shewants to tell me off or go back to hiding in his room. “Allegra.” Her name sounds strange on my tongue. My voice is low and tight. “Come here.” She doesn’t move. “Now.”

It takes her a minute to decide and when she does, she raises her head, makes a hard line of her mouth. Her bare feet pad over the stone floor and up the stairs to the kitchen. She wraps her arms around herself, the sleeves of his shirt so long they drape like bishop’s sleeves. Is she hugging his shirt to herself? Is that what this is?

“You have no right to be angry,” she hisses.

I let my gaze move slowly over her. Let myself feel the boiling of my blood.

“Did he touch you?”

She glances over my shoulder to Jet.

“Don’t look at him. Look at me.” She does, her eyes narrowed to slits. “Did. He. Touch. You?”

“What if he did?” she says through clenched teeth.

My fist comes down on the altar-table so hard I wouldn’t be surprised if it cracked the stone. Allegra jumps, backs up a step.

“He didn’t touch me!” she cries out.

Do I believe her?

I look at Jet. Allegra moves to stand between us. “I said he didn’t.”

“But he wanted to.”

Jet keeps his eyes on me, and I keep mine on him. He’s right, we have shared women in the past. And maybe I’ve been a fool to give him the impression he can somehow come and go as he pleases here in my home.

“You want her,” I say. He doesn’t deny it. If anything, the look on his stubborn face tells me I’m right.

Allegra starts to say something, to move away, but I set my hands on her shoulders, keeping my eyes on Jet. Moving behind her, I slide my hands to her arms and lean close to her ear. I make myself breathe in the smell of his aftershave on her.

His. Fucking. Aftershave. On. Her.

“Tell me, Moth,” I start, liking that she shudders when my breath tickles her cheek. When the scruff along my jaw brushes her ear. “What do you want?”

“What are you doing?” she hisses, turning her head, but the collar of the shirt is unbuttoned and too wide and I see the throbbing of her pulse at her neck.

“You want him to touch you?”

“Don’t be fucking crazy,” she says, trying to tug free. “You left me down there. You just left me.”

“That’s not what I asked you, Moth.” I straighten to look at Jethro and reach around to undo the buttons of the shirt.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asks, catching my hands.

I take hold of her wrists, draw them behind her back, noting how her cheeks are flushed, how dark her eyes have gotten. I hold both tiny wrists in one hand while I continue to undress her with the other. When the shirt is unbuttoned, I watch Jet. Watch his eyes move over her. I take note of how his jaw tenses.

“You want to see, don’t you?”

Jet meets my gaze. He doesn’t answer me. Doesn’t have to.

I draw the shirt off her shoulders and the soft cotton slides easily down, the only thing stopping it from dropping fully to the floor is my hand cuffed around her wrists.

“Cassian,” Allegra starts, twisting in my grip, shuddering as her nipples tighten when Jet takes her in.