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

delay with the execution of his will, and for a long time the family couldn’t work out who the property belonged to. The record was updated recently. I reached out to the new guy, but I haven’t heard back yet. I really hope he doesn’t want to build anything there. That’d suck. We need the space.”
    “Especially if some of your fairy peers who’ll depart the realm end up joining you here, huh?”
    Ethan sidled up close before Caryl could put her foot up on the railing. He dropped another piece of steak onto Dasha’s plate. “Medium-rare, I think. Sully can’t tell the difference.”
    Dasha looked down at the tender fillet. “Um. Thank you, but…there’s no way I can eat all this.”
    “You don’t like steak?”
    “My lack of enthusiasm doesn’t have to do with me not liking what’s on my plate. I’m simply pondering where I’m going to put all this food. I don’t have a fairy appetite.” She looked up to find him furrowing his brow.
    Her very normal appetite seemed to perplex him.
    “Ethan, honey,” Siobhan scolded. “If sourcing food for her means that much to you, carry on. I’m sure she’ll let you scavenge off her plate when she’s done picking things off.”
    “I can make a new one if that one’s not right.”
    Dasha tightened her grip on the edge of the plate. She wasn’t giving up her food, and she had a strong hunch that if Ethan were to attempt a round two, the second offering would have an even more startling pile of meat. “This is fine,” she said in a voice she hoped was soothing. “It’s just a lot of protein for a girl like me.”
    He grunted, then walked away scratching his head.
    “You can’t fault him for the way he is.” Caryl reached over and speared Dasha’s grilled chicken. She plopped the breast atop the small triangle of salad on her own plate. “He’s going to do what he can to take care of you, even if all the fussing drives you nuts.”
    He returned a moment later and thrust salad in a bowl at her. “I don’t know why anyone would want to eat that, but…I guess there are some nutritional benefits or whatever.”
    “Um. Yeah. Green stuff is an important component of the human diet. Also…you know. Starches?”
    That factoid seemed to bewilder him, which made Dasha wonder how the man had survived as long as he had. The pile on her plate was a harbinger of a heart attack.
    Or perhaps fairies simply have more forgiving constitutions for this kind of food.
    After all, Ethan didn’t seem to be suffering for his dietary decisions at all. Quite the opposite. There wasn’t anything spare about him—not a pinch of fat anywhere to be found, at least as far as Dasha could see. As always, he was mostly covered. Leather was a good friend to him. It did wonderful things to his backside. His front side, too, if she were being honest with herself. She found keeping her gaze fixed at a respectable point to be difficult when his crotch was at her eye level. She didn’t think all that bulge was zipper.
    “Oh.” He pulled a fork out of his pocket, wiped the fuzz from it onto his shirt, and handed the utensil to Dasha.
    Bemused, she took the fork and said, “Thank you,” but he didn’t seem to have heard her. His gaze was at the parking lot again, and his full lips pulling into a grimace.
    She would have asked if something were wrong, but obviously there was, judging by the way Siobhan abandoned her seat and jogged after Simone toward the front of the motel.
    “Where are they going?”
    Ethan squeezed between the loungers and went after them.
    “What the hell?” Dasha turned in her seat, straining to see anything, and was about to get up to investigate for herself when Caryl slid over and said, “Careful, you’re going to drop your salad.”
    Dasha looked down at her precariously tilting plate and bowl and righted them. “What’s got them so amped up?”
    Caryl’s gaze flitted shiftily. “Uh. Guest checking in, I guess.”
    “That doesn’t require three