Chosen Fool (Forever Evermore #5)(15)

He let out an extremely quiet, slow chuckle as he let me pull him along. His voice purred very softly behind me. “Who’s to say I already haven’t?” I blinked, glancing back while walking, and saw one slashed white eyebrow arch while his silver eyes flicked to my wrist. “You are happily wearing something bought with someone else’s money and not your hard-earned cash.” His red, lush lips lifted a smidgen, a small smile.

My eyebrows raised even further, and I quickly pulled my gaze from his mouth, turning my attention back to where we were walking. I was just now appreciating the startling fact that it was very possible I was underestimating this man. That prospect was more than mind-boggling, since I already knew how devious and powerful he truly was.

“It’s about time you two caught up,” Mrs Damon clipped, glancing at us just as I tugged Leric the rest of the way to re-enter our group. She was holding in her hands a vendor’s merchandise, a white purse, but her eyes flicked down to where I was gripping her son’s wrist—I quickly released it—then her brown eyes flicked to my wrist. She stared at my bracelet. Her nose crinkled a bit. Her attention altered back to the purse she was holding, inspecting it. “I see you purchased the bracelet you were ogling.”

I cleared my throat and started perusing the other purses on display. “Leric was kind enough to buy it for me.”

She made a huffing noise, her regard flicking to her son who stood behind me while I examined the girlish goods. “At least it has some white on it.”

I heard Leric snort behind me, but he didn’t actually laugh.

I told his mom, “That’s what he said.”

She nodded curtly, lowering the purse to lift another white one for inspection. “I taught him well.” A finger flicked at my black purse while she held up the white one she had in her hand. “This one would be much better than that hideous accessory.”

Extremely humored, my lips twitched. I lifted a black purse with a hot pink jeweled skull on the side. “I was actually thinking about this one.”

Mr Damon came out of nowhere, chuckling quietly and placing his arms around Mrs Damon’s waist from behind. Her stunned, distasteful countenance instantly turned to prim happiness as she peered back at him over her shoulder. Mr Damon stated in his soothing tone, “Please, Ms Jules, you’ll make my Tavia faint if you keep talking like that.”

Now that, I wouldn’t mind seeing.

Clearing my throat against that entertaining visual, I muttered, “To avoid shocking the innocent, I’ll try to keep my purchases today hidden.” I wasn’t playing by anyone’s rules, much less theirs.

Mrs Damon blinked at me, a slow eyebrow rising.

Mr Damon’s grin only widened.

Not wanting to stay trapped with this intimidating group for long, I cleared my throat again and covertly glanced about as I handed over my credit card to purchase the incredibly cute purse. I saw only one outlet of escape close by.

Dammit, not exactly ideal.

But with Mrs Damon’s eyes scanning my person again and her lips trembling like she was dying to start quizzing me, I quickly grabbed my credit card and receipt from the vendor and turned my eyes to the left—and stared pointedly into an amber gaze. I grasped the sack from the vendor, mumbling, “Thank you.”

With perfect timing, just as I stuffed my purse inside the plastic sack and Mrs Damon’s mouth opened, Brann’s deep rumble erupted from my left. “Caro, do you have a second? I’d like to talk to you about something.”

I inhaled casually, ignoring the three spirit Elementals standing next to me, and peered up into sparkling amber eyes. His loose black curls dangled around his tanned, striking face. “Sure. I want to hit that vendor up there.” I pointed ahead, not having a clue where I was really indicating. “We can talk along the way.”

He nodded securely in the face of my blatant lie. “That’s fine.” He dipped his head at the spirit Elementals. “If you’ll excuse us.” He lifted a hand and gestured for us to move forward, not giving the Elementals a moment to speak. I slipped outside of their group and began walking silently beside Brann. When we were a decent distance from them, Brann broke the quiet tension between us, whispering, “It must have been a real emergency for you to resort to asking me for help.”

I chuckled at his truth. “Being cornered by them does constitute an emergency.”

He snickered right along with me, steering us in the direction of a booth with homemade scarves. We ducked under the hanging silk, cotton, and cashmere into the small tent so that we were somewhat hidden by the hanging colorful bits and pieces. He spoke with soft humor. “We had been doing so well at ignoring each other, too.”

With a sardonic curve of my lips, I glanced up at him. He stood close by my side in the hidden alcove. I allowed myself the moment to stall and stare at his features as the merchant stepped outside her tent to help a customer. I hadn’t permitted myself this luxury in so long.

Deep amber eyes roamed my face just as gradually. Like my own, his gaze wasn’t as heated as before. Too much had happened, too much had changed us.

Air slowly rushed past my lips and I whispered softly, “Friends it is.”

A black, thin eyebrow lifted. “Friends is enough.” His lips twitched. “Besides, I believe you have your hands full.”

I rolled my eyes. “That I do.”