He smiled, knowing she couldn’t see it, and ran his hands up her arms. Her skin pebbled beneath his touch as he moved along her shoulders and glided the backs of his knuckles over the nape of her neck.

Hovering his mouth above her own, he waited until his breath had just coasted across her lips before gripping her hood and yanking it up and over her head.

Her eyes shot open, and she shoved him back, irritation bleeding into her bright, silver eyes as her cheeks flushed. “You’re such an ass.”

He smirked, ignoring the challenge in her gaze. Now wasn’t the time for one of their battles, no matter how much the feral part of him wanted to egg her on.

“I’ll kiss you all you want once we’re alone, little star, but for now, we need to move. The inn I usually stay at isn’t far from here.” He reached up to yank the edge of her hood down farther over her eyes, but she smacked his hand, stepping back.

“Everyone here knows who you are. Our cloaks aren’t going to make us suddenly invisible,” she snapped, sounding more tired and sulky than actually angry.

“I’m not the one I’m worried about.”

“No one is going to recognize me, Jaren. You didn’t.”

His lip curled at the reminder. Yet another reason he’d been nothing but a shitty fucking mate so far. “Probably not, but we’re not taking any chances. We’re both too drained to deal with a mob, good or bad. You can take it off as soon as we get to our room,” he added, gesturing toward her head.

Her eyes narrowed, and he tensed. He’d bet anything she was weighing her odds at whether she wanted to risk flinging the hood off right there.

Running a hand through his hair, which now reached his eyes, he pushed the matted strands out of his face and sighed. “Gods, why must you be so stubborn? The faster you stop arguing and start walking, the faster you can bathe.”

She crossed her arms, tilting her head and sucking on her teeth. “The faster I undress, the faster I can bathe too. Maybe I’ll make this even easier and rip all my clothes off right here and strut there naked.”

He broke the small space between them, pressing himself flush against her, and slid his hands around her waist. Her body felt so gods damn good molded to his. “Go ahead, little star, I would very much enjoy that view.”

She scoffed, but he didn’t fail to notice that she didn’t pull away. “You’re full of shit. You and I both know you’d want to kill anyone who looked at me.”

“I can promise you, I would not.”

“Is that so?”

“It is,” he said, the corner of his lip curling up. “It’d take way too long to clean up that many bodies.”

Her eyes narrowed, not believing a word of it, and he chuckled, moving his hands lower to cup her ass. “I’ll gladly let every Magyki here admire your naked curves just so they can see how fucking good my mark looks upon your skin.”