Chosen Fool (Forever Evermore #5)(24)
His own nose crinkled as he shrugged a shoulder. “People have been known to say that about me.” Another shrug. “Although my actions may, to the close-minded, sometimes dictate that term, I prefer the expression ‘brilliant mastermind’.”
I was done. I fluttered a hand to the left. “Go be brilliant in the corner.”
He choked on a laugh, quickly cutting it off with a fist in front of his mouth when my eyes narrowed on him. His face dimly reflected the blue light from my irked gaze, and he flicked a finger. “I’ll go stand over there, but only because I don’t want you to hurt yourself trying to make me.”
King Collins grabbed my shoulders as I started to lunge at the egotistical man’s retreating back. My King pushed me back onto the mattress, ordering quietly, “That’s enough, Caro. He’s doing as you told him.” Not entirely, but his words sounded good, allowing me to inhale a calming breath and slowly exhale as I kept my focus on the brown eyes staring into mine. “You said you had patience, so start using it where he’s concerned.”
I nodded quickly at the true words. “I don’t feel very tolerant when he pisses me off.”
“Which means it’s probably a good thing he’s more powerful than you, because the ass does a miraculous job of pissing you off.” I blinked in surprise at King Collins, and he sighed, squeezing my shoulders. “I’m just stating the facts, so don’t take it any other way. He’d be dead ten times over with how much he f*cks up. After all, I wasn’t saying he’s like,” his head teetered back and forth in thought, “a weakness to you.”
I stared then my jaw clenched. “You can go away, too.”
King Collins’s lips twitched, his eyebrows rising. “Feel better now?”
Slowly my eyebrows puckered as I realized that I did, indeed, not feel so pissed. My thoughts were possibly more muddled, but I wasn’t as angry at the handsome devil talking quietly with Reese and Roselle in a corner of the room. I cocked my head. “You’re good.”
“Thank you.” He smiled, patting my shoulders before releasing them and straightening. He jerked his head at the wall where Queen Cooper was cleaning beer and lamp debris. He waved a hand. “You can blast someone away from you?” His forehead crinkled at the poor description. But his shoulders still bounced a bit in excitement. “It was enjoyable watching him fly across the room.”
“I thought so, too.” I peered past King Collins to Elder Farrar who waited patiently behind him. “Why are you here exactly? What type of service were you talking about?”
Golden eyes watched me carefully. “As I was attempting to explain before you tried scaring someone who cannot be intimidated,” Elder Farrar paused, telling me plainly my effort was futile, “I can pull tonight’s memory from you so we can all see this Jasper individual, rather than only hearing about your encounter through Reese.” He tapped his fingers on the sides of his legs. “Unless there’s one of the many spirit powers we know nothing of that can project the memory for us all to see.”
I rolled my eyes at his attempt to pry information, but I stopped abruptly when Leric started toward us, his long, strong legs quickly eating up the distance.
He slashed a hand through the air, growling at Elder Farrar, “You’re not touching her.”
Elder Farrar instantly held up his hands. “It won’t hurt her. She won’t feel a thing.”
“Leric…” I griped, anger flaring again. I pointed a waving finger at him as I stood on the bed so I would have some height on all these damn tall people. “This is none of your business so back off.”
Not surprisingly he ignored my words, taking the remaining step toward me. Turning so his back was to me, he crossed his arms as he glared at Elder Farrar. “I don’t like it.”
I barely held back whacking him upside his head, instead grabbing a handful of his soft hair and jerking his head none too gently to the side. I stared down into his face. “None. Of. Your. Business. What don’t you understand about that?”
His nostrils flared as he stared into my eyes. He didn’t try to pull away from my hold. In fact, he leaned back a bit, resting against my body and making me dig my feet into the mattress to keep from falling under the added weight. “I don’t like it.” His jaw clenched with a heavy inhalation through his nostrils. “He’s a shit-load more powerful than you, and he could do anything he wanted while touching you.” His biceps bulged from his crossed arms. “You wouldn’t even realize it until it was too late.”
“I won’t do anything malicious to her,” Elder Farrar continued with his calm tone. His smile wasn’t kind. “Unlike someone did at dinner tonight.”
Leric’s shadowed eyes narrowed and his lips pinched at the snub, but I kept a firm grip on his hair and turned an aggravated expression on Elder Farrar, demanding, “Why the hell are you still trying to placate him, instead of me?” I pointed at my face with my free hand. “I am the one you should be trying to talk into this.” I shook Leric’s head. “Not him!”
Elder Farrar took a moment to answer, that seriously annoying quiet again descending on our group. His lips thinned a smidgen before he finally stated, “To be honest, it’s because he’s, as he said about me, a shit-load more powerful than you, and currently he’s standing between us. Thus he’s the one who has to be convinced, not you, since I could easily extract the information from you if he wasn’t standing there.”