Knight in Leather Read Online Free Page A

Daryn and Caryl, closed the door, and put her back against it. “Gods.”
    “What?” he asked. “Where’s Dasha?”
    “I’m not worried about Dasha right now. She’s safe and being well taken care of. Maybe she’ll forget about the insanity she’s come to visit if Simone does her job right.”
    “Well, that’s not helping me. I need—”
    Princess Siobhan grabbed him by the shirt and gave him a frustrated little shake. “You should have drowned that bitch when you had the chance.”
    “No disrespect intended, but what the fuck are you talking about, Princess?”
    “Laurel.”
    Ethan furrowed his brow. “Pardon? What the hell does Laurel have to do with anything?” He hadn’t seen the woman in years, and he was happy enough about that, indeed.
    “She was here. When you were gone.”
    “Right then ?”
    Princess Siobhan nodded and scraped her hair back from her face. She produced a clasp out of nowhere—at least, seemingly—and secured the thick fall of black hair at a questionable angle, but that probably didn’t matter anyway. She always tossed clips when they started to annoy her. “Caryl!” she shouted.
    “Yeah?”
    “Tell him.”
    Caryl emerged from her bedroom wearing a bathrobe and brushing out the ends of her silver hair. The best Ethan could remember, the hair under the dye was blond, but she hadn’t worn her natural color in so long, he couldn’t be sure. He couldn’t even gauge her natural color by looking at her twin, because Daryn had been an artificial brunette for at least ten years. They claimed dying made blending in among humans easier. They may have been right, though Ethan couldn’t speak confidently on the matter. To him, they still looked like fairies. They all had the right look, Princess Siobhan included. Tall and lithe with skin that glowed. He’d always been better than most at identifying their kind from a distance, though. That skill was part of his arsenal of magic.
    “Ethan, she’s still nuts,” Caryl said.
    “What’s that got to do with me? And how the fuck did she find me?”
    Princess Siobhan padded into the kitchen, her flip-flops slapping against the ceramic tile as she went.
    He found the princess wearing anything but denim and leather to be so odd. Taking up residence at the beach had softened her wardrobe. Caryl and Daryn’s, as well. He’d never seen a fairy in short shorts until the month prior.
    Princess Siobhan opened the fridge and pulled out a water-filtering pitcher. “I imagine my mother had something to do with her sudden arrival.”
    “To what end?”
    “Just her newest tactic to annoy the shit out of us. You know how she is.”
    Hands on hips, Caryl stood in front of him. “Laurel still thinks you’re her mate.”
    “I’m not.”
    Caryl shrugged. “I believe you.”
    “So, what’s the problem?”
    “The problem is that she thinks that you’re running from your match, and I guess she appealed to Rhiannon to help her tidy things up. You know how fairies feel about people not holding up their ends of a match.”
    “Rhiannon can’t really believe that scheming nag is my match. And why would she even fuckin’ care, anyway?”
    “Whether she believes her or not doesn’t matter. She saw an opening to access you and the rest of us without having to engage us directly, and she took it. She granted Laurel the ability to leave the realm so that she could come fetch you.”
    Ethan scoffed and arced around Caryl. He needed a glass of that water, or even something stronger.
    The ladies were the only ones from their crew who’d gotten cozy and decorated their little slice of the property, but seeing as how Princess Siobhan had paid for the construction, the personalizing probably was fair. Princess Simone had had no intention of improving The Hearth, but Princess Siobhan, being the opportunist she was, had seen potential. She’d seen a place for their nomadic, ragtag crew to finally have rest, but the motel had been too small to house