If I’m going to get her to love me, then I can’t just let the night end like this. Ronak is pissed, which means he’ll probably ban her again, and then I’ll have to wait another long stint before I get to try again. I want Amorette to be able to spend time with all of her grandparents, and I want Ronak to have a relationship with his parents again. I love Ronak for always putting me first. I love that my alpha adores me enough to cut his parents off for disrespecting me. It proves just how much he’s in my corner. But I know he misses his family, so I’m determined to change things.
“It will be great,” I say, my high-beam smile on. “I bet there’ll be honey cakes. Will there be honey cakes?” I ask.
“I’m sure we can find you some,” Sylred assures me.
“I could do with some honey cakes,” Evert’s father says.
I smile at him. “Exactly! Honey cakes are the best.”
Sylred’s father, Perel, says, “I prefer chocolate.”
I start gagging.
Yep. Just the mention of chocolate these days sends me into a fit of heaves. It’s heartbreaking. Sylred had to throw away all of his old pants, since he couldn’t get the chocolate scent out of his pockets.
Okot rubs my back while my eyes water, and I try to convince my stomach to keep everything down.
“Was it something I said?” I hear Perel ask.
“She can’t tolerate the C word,” Okot says politely.
Evert snickers again.
By the time I manage to stop gagging, I’m pretty sure my eye makeup is ruined because I have tears running down my cheeks. I pick up my soiled heart napkin and start dabbing myself. I’m pretty sure all I’m doing is just smearing meat juice on my face, though. Again, not the sex kind.
Chapter 13
Okot takes the gross, juicy napkin from me, and replaces it with his super clean one and uses it to dab my face. When he’s done, he leans back, his red-ringed eyes roaming over my face adoringly. “There, my beloved.”
Gods, this guy. I lean forward and press a kiss to his lips, wishing I could run my hands through his mohawk and have my way with him. “Thank you, Okot.”
“There she goes, using her love magic on them,” I hear Resha grumble.
I look up, surprised. “I didn’t use love magic.”
“I’m sure that’s how you got them to mate with you in the first place,” Resha says haughtily.
“Nope. It was her tits,” Evert deadpans.
His dad chuckles, his mother hisses his name, and Sylred smacks him on the back of his head.
“I’ve never used love magic on any of your sons,” I announce. Then, thinking about that, I say, “Well, okay, I Lusted them a bunch of times, but mostly because it was funny, and—”
“See! She admits it!” Resha exclaims, now deigning to stand like the rest of us. “She tricked our sons into mating with her!”
I frown. “That’s not—”
The restaurant host comes over to ask us to be quiet, but one snarl from Ronak, and the male goes scurrying away.
“Not like that,” I argue. “I never would’ve forced them to love me. That’s not how it works, anyway. My Love Arrows wouldn’t work unless there were already some inclination there, and—”
“You don’t have to explain yourself,” Ronak cuts me off angrily. I know his anger is directed at his mother and not me, but I still hate the direction this dinner has taken.
“I want to,” I insist, wringing my hands. This has turned into a giant ball of shitcluster. “I’m barely even a cupid these days, to be honest. I hardly ever use my power. I’m lazy. Plus, I’m pretty sure I have some cupid PTSD from all the lonely years I was stuck on the earth realm working. But…yeah, lazy. It’s mostly because I’m lazy,” I admit. “The cupid thing? Psh. Barely do it.”
Of course, that’s when a dozen cupids come filing down the stairs.
Shitty heartsharts. Why do I always have the worst timing?