Chapter 49
Carla
I run off the dance floor, past a blur of tables and startled faces, and down the hallway toward the bathrooms. My hand is planted over my mouth. My eyes are wide. I am not going to throw up in the middle of Robyn’s wedding reception. I am not. I refuse.
My stomach rolls, and I’m pretty sure I feel sweat bead on my forehead.
No!
Nooooo!
The bathrooms are a row of unisex rooms, each one self-contained with its own door.
I was in one earlier tonight and took a whole minute to admire it, because whoever decorated this venue deserves an award.
Gorgeous dark and moody wallpaper, gold fittings, a gold-framed mirror above the basin, and a little gold dish for the hand soap.
Each room has a toilet and a basin and enough elegance to make a woman feel fancy while she washes her hands.
There is no time for admiring anything. Not this time.
I hit the door of the room toward the end, shove it open, and drop to my knees in front of the toilet. I don’t know how I make it. I’m out of time before I’m even down. I lean over the bowl and gag, once, twice, three times, my body heaving with it.
Nothing comes out, which makes me feel sicker. By now I’m starting to get hot as another wave hits.
“Carla!”
Then Malachite is there, right behind me.
“Are you okay?”
No. No, no, no. I am not okay; I’m sick, and now I’m mortified as well. I’m about to lose my dinner with someone standing right behind me. This is not happening.
I try to tell him to leave but gag instead, and my hair falls forward over my face. It still has lovely soft curls in it. That is a spectacularly stupid thing to notice at a time like this, and yet here I am, noticing it anyway.
If I wasn’t on the verge of puking, I’d laugh.
Malachite crouches and gathers my hair in one hand, holding it back and away from my face.
“No! Go! Away!” I get the words out one at a time before another gag takes me.
“It’s fine. I’ve got you, Carla. Let me help you.”
I try to argue. I try to yell at him. I can’t do either because I’m too busy feeling like death. Tears gather in my eyes. Not from the humiliation but because of how sick I feel. Although it could be both.
Then I gag one more time and actually throw up, and it looks like what I drank of the Cosmo and half of my dinner as well.
One more wave rolls through my stomach, and then, mercifully, it’s over. The nausea loosens its hold on me. My insides go quiet.
“That’s it,” Malachite says. “Breathe. Get it all out.”
Shit.
I just threw up in front of Malachite. At my best friend’s wedding. If there is a prize for worst date behavior, I have won it, and the trophy is a toilet bowl.
I get to my feet and flush, then turn to the basin and twist on the cold tap. I cup the water in my hand and start rinsing my mouth.
“Carla!”
It sounds like Magma is in the bathroom now too. This cannot be happening. I just puked. My mouth tastes like vomit.
What did I do to deserve this?
Suddenly there is no air left in here at all.
“What’s wrong?” he snarls. I glance his way, and his muscles are bunched under his dress shirt.
Holy shit.
Why are they both here? Why is he here?
I do the only reasonable thing and keep rinsing my mouth, taking big handfuls of cold water, swirling and spitting like my life depends on it.
“Um…it’s Carla… S-she…” Malachite stutters. “She isn’t feel—”
“What did you say to her?” Magma shoves him against the wall, hard enough that the gold mirror rattles. “What did you do?”
“Nothing! I—”
“What’s wrong, Carla?” he demands, but I’m mid-rinse and in no position to answer.
He rounds on Malachite again. “What is wrong with her?” he roars, grabbing a handful of his dress shirt and knocking him back against the wall again.
The mirror rattles harder, and for a second, I think it’s going to fall.
I practically choke on the water in my mouth.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Magma growls before Malachite can say a word.
“Yes, but I’m…” Malachite starts.
“Fuck off!” Magma hauls him away from the wall, walks him straight out of the bathroom, and shoves him into the hallway. “You are not needed. Go!”
I swallow one more mouthful of water, splash my mouth twice, and turn to face Magma, who is still glaring out the door after Malachite like he’s deciding which limb to remove first.
“Don’t!” I yell. “What do you think you’re doing? What the hell, Magma!?”
He grips my arms, and all that fury redirects onto me as pure, burning concern. “Are you okay? What’s going on? Speak to me,” he adds when I just stand there because what the fuck?!
“I felt sick. The food was rich, and I might have drunk my Cosmo too quickly. I’m fine, I—”
“How are you feeling now? Do you need to go to the emergency room? I can take you.”
And then he picks me up, holding me against him like I’m broken or injured.
“What the heck, Magma? Put me down right now.”
He doesn’t.
“I’m taking you to the hospital.”
“Are you kidding me? I don’t need to go to the hospital. Put me down!” I half yell. “You’re being unreasonable and overreacting. I’m sure it’s your dragon—”
“I’m not! It isn’t! I’ll find somewhere for you to lie down then. You look pale.” His arms tighten around me. “That asshole male needs to take better care of you.”
“You will put me down, you idiot! You don’t have to take care of me anymore.” I shove at his chest, trying to make myself clear.
“What? And I should step aside and let that little prick look after you? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m saying. You should put me down and go back to your girlfriend, Brook. The pretty Red shifter. You were rubbing yourself all over her not one minute ago. Have you forgotten about her?”
“Yes, I have, because you are more important right now.”
“Well, you shouldn’t have forgotten her.” A perverse little spark of happiness lights up in my chest at his words, and I hate myself for it. “Go back to her and leave me alone. And you need to apologize to Malachite. You had no right to treat him like that.”
He puts me down. I turn to face him.
“I had every fucking right.” Magma fills the whole space. The whole room. His eyes are blazing, his muscles are bunched, and his white dress shirt is pulling tight across his chest, his shoulders, even his biceps. “You are mine,” he snarls. “Mine to protect,” he adds.
“You can’t say that. You’re here with Brook, and I’m here with Malachite.”
“I will finish that prick if he lays so much as a finger on you again. He doesn’t deserve someone like you.”
“You can’t—”
I don’t get to finish my sentence, because he kisses me.
It’s hard and demanding, and it knocks every thought straight out of my head. I make a noise of shock against his mouth, and then I’m kissing him back with everything I have. Every bit of emotion. Every pent-up feeling I’ve held inside me for weeks and weeks, all of it pouring out at once.
He picks me up again and puts me on the basin, and when my legs hook around his middle, he groans deep in his chest. My hands are everywhere.
His hair, his shoulders, his back, everywhere I can reach.
Then he’s gripping my ass and pulling me flush against him.
His cock is hard. Everything about him is hard, hot granite wrapped in a dress shirt and suit pants.
I moan against his mouth, and I think I grind against him.
“Carla!” Robyn says in a shrill voice.
We freeze, breaking the kiss.
Robyn and Ridge are standing at the entrance to the tiny bathroom. Ridge’s jaw is unhinged.
“Is everything…okay?” Flint appears behind them, and his eyes go huge as they land on us. His mouth falls open. “I was not expecting this.”
I shove Magma away, slide off the basin, and shoulder my way through all three of them without making eye contact with a single one.
“Carla…wait…” Robyn calls after me.
Then she’s jogging, and she catches up, even though I’m walking as fast as my heels will allow.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell her. “I ruined your wedding. I ruined everything.”
She laughs. “You didn’t ruin anything.”
“I did. I—”
“Babe, you didn’t. I swear.”
We walk back up the hallway and out into the main venue, where the music is still going, and nobody seems to have noticed that my entire life just imploded in a bathroom.
“Follow me.” She pulls me through a nearby door, and then we’re outside in the cool night air. Strings of lights glow along the edge of the terrace. She turns to face me. “You and Magma?” She lifts her brows. “Since when? I’m sorry. I don’t mean to pry, but what was that?” She points at the door.
“No. There is no me and Magma.” I wave the idea away with both hands.
“What was that, then? You guys were…getting pretty hot and heavy for two people who are not together.”
I sigh. There’s no point pretending. Not with Robyn. “We had sex on Mistveil. There! It’s out.” I roll my eyes.
“What?” Her eyes go round as saucers. “Really? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because it was just sex. It was intense on that island and it just kind of happened…a couple of times. We agreed to forget about it and move on, which we both have.”
“That did not look like moving on.” She looks entirely too amused.
“His dragon is protective of me. He has literally killed for me. When I ran off the dance floor like that, it sparked something in him. It triggered a reaction because of what happened on Mistveil. That’s all it was.
” I push the picture of Magma and Brook wrapped around each other on that dance floor out of my mind. “Magma is with Brook now.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yes, I’m very sure. The kiss was an accident. That’s all. And poor Brook. Poor you. God. I’m so sorry, I—”
“You can stop apologizing. It’s fine. I told you, you didn’t ruin anything.” She takes my hand and squeezes it. “Are you alright?”
“I’m fine.”
“Malachite said you weren’t feeling well. He looked shaken. We were worried, so we came after you. You should close the door next time.”
“That was unplanned and a mistake. Yes, I wasn’t feeling well.
I downed my Cosmo after having all of that rich sauce at dinner.
My body isn’t used to it anymore. I got queasy.
I’m all good now.” Then the rest of what she said catches up with me.
“Oh no. Malachite. Poor guy. Shit! Magma got quite aggressive with him.”
“Because he’s jealous?” Robyn asks, lifting her brows again.
“Because he’s protective of me, like a…” I want to say sister, but that would be all kinds of wrong. “We’re friends.” All wrong too, but whatever.
She makes a humming sound that says she doesn’t buy a single word of it.
“I need to get back in there.” I point at the door.
“Are you staying?” She looks hopeful.
“Of course I am. Just pretend you didn’t see that. It meant absolutely nothing, I swear.”
“Okay. It’s not my business.” She holds up both hands. “I’m here if you need me.”
“You’re the best.” I hug Robyn tight, and then I go inside to find Malachite.
He’s back at our table, turning his glass in slow circles, and he stands the second he sees me, concern written all over his face.