Dark Sexy Knight (A Modern Fairytale)(14)

Verity was uncharacteristically quiet as they drove the fifteen minutes from Decatur to Stone Mountain, staring out the window while Ryan mumbled “pop” and “’vic-ted” from the backseat until he dozed off. Colt hadn’t known her long, but a quiet Verity was new for him, and he wondered what was going on in her head. She was in desperate straits, that was for sure, and probably more than a little apprehensive about staying with him, even though she’d insisted she wasn’t afraid of him.

It had been a while since Colt had lost control to the degree he had today. Months, at least. Working as a Viking Knight allowed him a chance to fight in the arena every night and twice on Saturdays and some Sundays, and sure, it was play-fighting, but it still burned off the steam of rage that he carried inside.

But seeing that redneck shitbag open that can of pop in Ryan’s face made something inside him snap. All his anger—all his deeply buried fury—had rushed to the surface so fast, it should have made him dizzy. Did he feel bad for breaking that dickweed’s leg? God help him, he didn’t. Hopefully a few months in a cast would make that * think twice before he picked on someone who clearly wasn’t playing with a full deck.

Sighing softly, he shot another look at Verity, who worried her bottom lip between her teeth.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah.” She turned from the window, her face brightening with a small smile like she knew he needed it. “I was just thinking . . . life is real strange, isn’t it?”

“Guess so,” he said, turning off the highway, relieved to hear her talking again.

“This morning I woke up with one life, and tonight I go to sleep with a different one. What else do you know can change that fast?”

“The weather,” he said, looking out the windshield, stopping for a red light.

He was surprised to feel her pointy little elbow jab him in the forearm. “Did you just make a joke?” She gasped, grinning at him. “I may pass out if you did.”

He pursed his lips. “No need for the vapors.”

“A second joke?” she asked, laughing softly. “Wonders never cease!”

Colt glanced over at her, watching her dimples as they deepened, making her look impish and young. Had he thought her plain earlier today? Fuck, he’d been blind. She wasn’t plain. She wasn’t even just pretty. She was . . . she was . . .

“Light changed,” she said, and Colt jerked his gaze away from her.

. . . different.

“What you did back there?” she said.

His fingers curled around the steering wheel, bracing himself for censure or fear. “Mmm.”

“Seemed like maybe you’d done it before.”

“I fight in the show every night.”

“Oh, right,” she said. “I didn’t think of that.”

They were almost at his house now.

“You sure you don’t want me to take you to a hotel? There are a couple—”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay, then,” he said, turning right, into his driveway.

Instead of pulling into the dark garage, he stopped in front of it, putting the car in park and cutting the engine. He sat still for a moment, waiting for her to say something. When she didn’t, he turned to look at her, and the sweetness of her face made his breath catch.

She stared at the modest house like it was something special or beautiful, her lips parted and her eyes soft. He watched as her gaze touched softly on the white-painted brick, the bright blue hydrangeas that flanked the front steps, the diamond-cut glass windows on either side of the front door, and the bay window in the living room.

“This is your house?” she murmured.

“It’s not much, but . . .”

“I love it,” she said, turning to smile at him. “I don’t know what I expected. You’re such a giant, I guess I thought you’d live in a . . .”

“What? A cave? A castle?”

She shrugged, looking back at the house, her face filled with wonder. “It’s just a nice little house.”

He sighed. “I’m a knight, not a king.”

When she didn’t respond, he opened his door and left her there, popping open the trunk and taking out the two suitcases. Peeking in the rear window, he saw that Ryan was still asleep, so he closed the trunk gently and picked up the cases, heading for the front door. Behind him, he heard her car door open, and he looked back to see her following him.

“Okay if I let him nap for a few more minutes?”

“He’ll be okay?”

She nodded. “He sleeps like a log until I wake him up.”

Unlocking the front door, he preceded her into the house, heading straight up the stairs. “I sleep downstairs. You two can stay up here. Bathroom.” He gestured to the door in the middle of the hallway at the top of the stairs. “One bedroom left. The other right.”

“Does it matter which one I take?”

“The left one belonged to my cousin, Melody. May as well take that one,” he said, placing her suitcases on the carpeted floor of the small hallway. He hadn’t redecorated the upstairs bedrooms, so Melody’s room was still wallpapered with bunches of purple violets, and his old room, to the right, was still wallpapered with airplanes. He figured Ryan might like those old planes covering the wall, and he liked the idea of Verity waking up to flowers tomorrow morning.