Read Online Knight in Leather by Holley Trent - Free Book Online

out of the mound of meat and poked at the salad.
    “Just the male ones. The fairer of us do enjoy the occasional carbohydrate.”
    “This is a lot of meat.”
    “Well, that’s Ethan for you. Of course he’s going to give you a pile of meat. He can’t help his preferences.”
    “Why is that?”
    Siobhan shrugged. “Because he’s a freakin’ beast. That’s his magic. So, listen—”
    “Don’t try to change the subject on me, Princess. I know the game you’re playing.” Dasha also wanted to know what that nature of Ethan’s magic was since Siobhan had brought the subject up.
    Siobhan sputtered her lips. “Fine. You want to know about my magic? All I can say is mine isn’t much different than Heath’s. Like him, I manipulate energy, just a bit differently.”
    “That’s what you inherited from your mother. What’d you get from your father?”
    Siobhan studied the kittens on her nails again.
    “Really? You’re gonna clam up like Heath? He won’t talk about your father’s power, either.”
    Siobhan dropped her hand and glanced toward the parking lot. “Suffice it to say, my father’s abilities are not commonly known.”
    “Are you merely tightlipped or is the secret due to his potential being some terrible thing?”
    Siobhan grimaced.
    Not a good sign. “Does anyone in the crew know besides you and Heath?”
    “Well, at this point, Simone knows, but telling her was somewhat necessary since she and Heath swap power on occasion.”
    “If I asked her, I suspect she wouldn’t tell me.”
    “Eh.” The princess cringed. “Probably not.”
    Dasha wasn’t one to push on subjects she perceived to be delicate, but damned if she wasn’t curious. She let the topic go for the moment, though. There was already too much going on in the pool area—too many sounds, too many things to look at.
    Someone—Matt, if Dasha had to venture a guess—had put on some music that Dasha couldn’t identify much less categorize. She couldn’t find the beat or even discern if the song had one. The bass booms and cymbal crashes were unpredictable, the lead guitar’s “melody” was spasmodic, and the whispering vocalist was hissing more than singing. The noise was hurting Dasha’s brain, but not distracting her enough to ignore the people around her.
    Simone and Heath were standing on the opposite side of the empty pool, both looking very perplexed in their deep conversation, but that was typical for them. There was no such thing as a “petty concern” as far as the two of them were concerned. A few fairies, including Daryn, milled about in the shaded courtyard playing some card game that had looked like a supernatural Cards Against Humanity to Dasha when she’d walked past. Oblivious motel guests, still in their beach clothes, lingered around, sipping complementary booze and waiting on Sully’s charred meat.
    Ethan had apparently taken the admonition to babysit his fellow fairy to heart, because he leaned against a pergola support pole and glowered at the grill grates.
    Dasha snorted and picked up her hamburger.
    She found that being amused by the man was so much easier when he kept his distance. And just looking at him was easier from where she was. Looking certainly wasn’t a hardship. She could find a man attractive without wanting to be with him. And he was attractive, but they all were—the fairies. Alluring and magnetic, a good deal of their magic seemed to be tied up in their abilities to make people stare. She wanted desperately to resist the pull, but couldn’t fight the urge to look. She figured thirty seconds of ogling couldn’t hurt, seeing as how he wasn’t looking back.
    He was tall and broad-shouldered. He looked strong, but without all the big, bulky muscle that came from serious weightlifting.
    What kind of exercise do fairies get, anyway?
    Blond men generally didn’t do much for her libido, but most of the men she worked with in her department were clean-cut conservative types. They certainly