Chapter 19

When we get to the door, Leila hugs me around the head, slobbering a few more kisses my way, unwilling to let me go without a shower of love and garbled sentiments. Daniel expertly disentangles limbs, so I can get free before carrying her off toward home, which is only fifty yards away.

I wave her off with a relieved sigh at finally being free, turning back inside when Arrick grabs my hand, blocking my route with his body and a crazily serious expression on his face that stuns me. He yanks me back outside, giving me no option but to obey, and I’m not sure how I should react. He does not say one word, just hauls me, as though he has a right, into the darkness so that I start tripping with shoes on soft ground. He tugs me towards the side of the garden, out of sight, towards the Carrero house. He moves too fast for a drunk male, and I am hauled with him without resistance. I am too damned drunk myself to fight in any way and have to focus fully on not falling.

“We need to