The Goblin King Read Free

what they fought about? He fabricated a lie around enough truth that it was plausible.
    “She saw me talking to another woman. Got jealous. Women on their birthdays—they just don’t like getting older.” Steven walked toward the door.
    He didn’t want to seem overly eager to get the cop out, but if the constable looked hard enough, there would be something that would earn a more detailed investigation of the house. He couldn’t afford that. He was working a balancing act. He wanted Eliza found and he wanted his privacy.
    Did he want too much?
    “She’ll be back by dinner,” the cop assured him.
    She’d better be. But already he was making a contingency plan. Eliza wouldn’t catch him with his pants down twice.
    Steven opened the front door and winced. There was probably glass embedded in his hand. It had been everywhere else—in the bath, in his suits, on the floor. One glass in a hundred pieces.
    The cop had noticed and paused. “What did you do to your hand?”
    Steven held it up for inspection. “Broke a glass while I was cleaning up the lounge room.”
    “Looks like you’ve got more to go.”
    “I’ve got cleaners coming in to help.” He’d left enough mess to make sure he looked like the anxious fiancé. The bedroom he was going to have to finish himself. It was too much of a crime scene. Like Eliza was trying to frame him and make sure the police would search the house and office. Was she hoping they would find what she couldn’t?
    Whatever Eliza was trying to pull would fail. He’d already bagged his suits and put bicarb on the stained grout. Getting rid of the stink was going to be harder. But by the time he was done, there would be no reason for the police to suspect him of any wrongdoing at home, or at work.
    If she came back, he would be teaching her a lesson. He needed to pull her into line. And fast. A performance like this at the wedding wouldn’t fly. It would ruin his reputation.
    Steven held the front door open. “Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t want to see you again.”
    If Eliza didn’t come back, he would have to file a missing persons report just to look the part. A flicker of doubt surfaced. What if she were really missing? He pushed the thought aside. Who abducted a woman from her own birthday party?
    ***
     
    Roan watched the rise and fall of Eliza’s chest. Her lashes lay against her cheeks as if she were a doll waiting for life to return and reanimate her body. A purple bruise and patterned graze marred her forehead, and her feet were bandaged. Anfri had worked under his supervision, touching only where told, yet still it had been too much.
    Now he waited, stretched out on the bed next to her. Over the span of two thousand years Roan had become very good at waiting. And watching.
    Her black dress tightened then eased with each breath. Women hadn’t changed that much over his long and unnatural lifetime. The clothes, the jewelry, the makeup—of which she wore too much—were all irrelevant. And he was sure the blond of her hair was false. He smiled and ran his hand up her thigh, nudging the dress a little higher. He was looking forward to finding out.
    He pushed the soft silk until it just covered her underwear. The beads in his hair whispered in his ear as he moved. Would she fight or submit?
    Over time he’d learned how to avoid being commanded by his summoner; after answering their initial call, he simply left. Some tried again. Most laughed and had another drink. Yet, ignoring their demands hadn’t always been so easy. He wore the scars of being called by history’s worst—weak-willed commanders, paranoid rulers, men who didn’t deserve respect. He had committed atrocities in their names.
    Decades had passed since anyone had offered him anything of value other than gold. The last summoner to give him something had been a child wanting to be a young woman. In helping her, he had remembered what it was like to be human again, something that