Edmund cleared his throat. “Pretty as a picture, isn’t she?”
Fade only nodded. His hungry stare brought color to my cheeks, and I was too conscious of the warmth of his fingers when he touched me. Just on the arm, but my skin was bare, and it felt shocking, intimate, too daring in front of my foster parents. Nodding in answer to Momma Oaks’s excited chatter and Edmund’s more measured farewell, the two of us went out into the night, into fresh air and bright music.
“I want to drag you off and hide you away,” he whispered.
“Why?”
“I always knew you were beautiful, but now everyone else will too. I won’t be able to keep other boys away from you, and it’ll make me crazy.”
I laughed, thinking he was trying to make me feel less self-conscious about the dress and my hair, which tickled the back of my neck each time I moved. But he kept his hand on my arm, as if he thought someone would pop up to steal me away. Dazzling heat blazed between us, fiercer than the lamps hung around the green.
Not far from the dancers, he pulled me into the shadows and drew me up against him. “One kiss before I have to share you.”
Hardly knowing myself, as Deuce the girl held sway tonight—and the Huntress watched with quiet embarrassment—I tipped my face up. His mouth touched mine, light as a breath, but brushed again and again, a tease, until I reached up and cupped his face in my hands. Then the kiss flared like lightning, deeper and more thorough than he’d ever dared before. When his tongue touched mine, I pulled back, shocked and breathless.
“Where did you learn that?”
“You’d only get mad if I told you.”
I muttered beneath my breath. Probably, he was right. I didn’t want to hear he’d kissed some girl down below. If there had been another female for him since we arrived in Salvation, I needed to cut off all her hair and beat her half to death. The strength of that impulse scared me, and I took a step back. Deuce the girl was every bit as vicious as the Huntress, it seemed.
He read my mood, even in the shadows, and he ran a hand under my artificial curls, fingers hot and tender against the nape of my neck. A shiver rolled through me. I felt helpless to resist him, incapable of knowing what was best for me. But this was Fade; he would never hurt me.
“It doesn’t matter now,” he whispered. “There’s only you.”
I didn’t like the certainty that he had secrets, but then Fade didn’t like the fact that Stalker watched me like a hungry wolf, either; so I couldn’t hold it against him if he had felt like this before, if someone else had taught him about tasting a girl as if her mouth was full of honey.
“Do you want to dance?” I asked.
In reply, he took my hand and led me to the lamp-lit green, where other couples were already spinning. It took me a few moments to pick up the steps, but this wasn’t too different from what we’d done at the feast down below; only here you did it with one partner instead of the whole community. I liked the intimacy of his hand on mine, our bodies moving in perfect rhythm, guided by the music and instincts that heated me all over. I didn’t trust those impulses. Fade smiled at me as if he could read my thoughts. The night was cool on my bare arms, and his body warmed mine.
Eventually, we paused to nibble at the refreshments that had been laid out. Tegan joined us, looking bright and pretty in a pink dress. A boy stood next to her, older, I thought, but I couldn’t remember meeting him. Politely, she performed the introductions. “Zachariah Bigwater, these are my friends Deuce and Fade.”
Must be Justine’s brother.
“You don’t have two names?” he asked.
“Only need one,” Fade said.
His manner wasn’t short, exactly, but I sensed his impatience. This was our evening, and he didn’t intend to spend it in conversation with the elder’s heir. Zachariah must be a nice person if Tegan liked him, but I shared Fade’s quiet urgency. Our time together was melting away. Tonight, I didn’t even want to sleep.
“People call me Zach,” he said then.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I offered, not really meaning it.
Tegan flashed me a knowing grin. “How do the fields look? I’m heading out tomorrow to do some upkeep.”
“No major problems.”
Beside me, Fade folded his arms in a hostile posture. I leaned against his side and gently dug my elbow in. While I didn’t know Zach, Tegan was a friend, and I hadn’t seen her for a while.
But Zach could read cues; he turned to Tegan. “Want to dance?”
The request revealed tact and sensitivity, as her leg might not hold up to a rollicking number, but the music had slowed. Relieved of the burden of courtesy when the other two moved off, Fade drew me against him, closer than the other couples. I didn’t protest. Instead I leaned my head against his shoulder and let him guide my movements. That demanded trust I couldn’t offer anyone else.
A scornful, speculative whisper pierced my dreamy reverie. “D’you think she’s got knives strapped beneath those skirts?”
Someone snickered. “Probably.”
I pretended not to hear, but Fade’s fingers tightened on my waist. From the tension in his body, he was ready to fight on my behalf. Again. I put a hand on his cheek. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Maybe he likes girls who act like boys.”
That time, it took all my strength to hold on to Fade. He wasn’t dancing anymore, but merely standing while other couples whirled around us. His black, black eyes burned like dark stars, as coldly wrathful as I’d ever seen. If he got ahold of those idiots from school, they wouldn’t walk for weeks. Moonlight silvered his features, lending him a fierce, unearthly beauty.
“Let’s just go.” I had an idea that it would cause trouble for Longshot if we got into a fight while on furlough.
“I think she looks pretty,” Merry said. She was one of the girls who had been kind at Justine’s party.
“Well enough,” someone else admitted.
“I’m going to ask her to dance.” Fade didn’t like that either, but it was no reason to punch the boy in the face.
I didn’t know his name until he came over. Terrence was shy and quiet, but he moved well enough. He kept plenty of space between us—and half the song passed before he spoke. “I hope Fade’s not mad. I thought this might calm everybody down.”