His lips fell a little and his eyes turned serious as he studied me. He laid a hand on my cheek and traced my jaw with his thumb. “I have enjoyed our time here, mon ange, with just us and our friends. I feel human in an age where being human is sublime. All these years as a supernatural, my mortal life before it—this is the happiest I’ve ever been. It feels like I am truly living for the first time. I am blessed. Truly.”
I leaned forward and kissed his lips. “I’m happy, too. I love you.”
Despite knowing Penny wanted something and I should really go find out what, I lost myself in Darius again, relishing the peace and serenity of the moment and of this place. Because yes, this life was sublime. Darius made it that way. I could stand living it for a while longer. More than stand it, if he’d be here with me.
A while later, with a deep inhale and a slow exhale, I leisurely walked down the halls in a flowing white dress that danced around my ankles. The neckline plunged between my breasts, revealing plenty of cleavage, and even a peek of my stomach when I bent over. The back swooped down low, too, almost to my butt. With the light around me, the thin material revealed what was underneath -a muscular female form, the same thing Penny had recently seen wrapped around Darius’s thrusting body.
I stopped and tried to hold back laughter.
To complete the ensemble, I went without shoes and jewelry and left my hair down in a wild halo of sex hair. The goal: embarrass the shit out of Penny. The look would undoubtedly remind her of the big ol’ dong that had suddenly appeared in front of her, pointing her way.
I bit my finger to try to hold back the guffaws. Why I found this so funny was anyone’s guess, I just knew it was, and poking fun at her was one of life’s greatest pleasures.
The dying sun dappled the stamped concrete patio as I came around a large square pillar to the pool area. Cahal stood off to the side next to the bar, his shadows swirling around him as though he didn’t want to be seen. He was probably grumpy about something. He had moods.
Three people were gathered at the round stone table beyond the bar, sitting in Darius’s comfortable wicker chairs. I stopped dead at the sight of the broad back of the one across from me. It stiffened noticeably, and Penny and Emery, seated across from him, looked over his shoulder, finding me.
“What are you doing here?” I blurted, unmoving.
He rose as though uncoiling from an attack-ready crouch, the kind of move powerful shifters excelled at. Pushing the chair out of the way with the scraping of wood feet against stone, he swung around, pecs popping in his overburdened white T-shirt. Good thing cotton was stretchy, though I wasn’t sure why he always felt the need to put it to such extreme tests.
Penny and Emery didn’t bother moving, and I didn’t have the presence of mind to savor the red hue that quickly flooded Penny’s cheeks. Roger always spoiled everything.
His dual-colored eyes, one blue, one a faded green, like a beat-up dollar bill, found my face. A crease formed between his brows, and his eyes flicked downward.
Gorgeous. I forgot she was so striking, he thought, and it took everything in my power to keep from mouthing off with a sarcastic comeback.
He didn’t know I could pluck thoughts out of someone’s cranium, and he couldn’t know. Very, very few creatures could do something like that. Although Roger likely knew—or strongly suspected—that I had demon blood, he didn’t know my exact lineage. Much better to keep it that way—which meant I couldn’t inform him that he needed to protect his thoughts around me.
I cut off the echoes from his mind, a tactic Cahal had helped me hone.
And while I was thinking about it…
I glanced Cahal’s way subtly, acting as if I wanted a drink and was checking out the bar. The druid’s magic kept him in people’s blind spots, and I didn’t want to out the guy if he was trying to be all seekrit.
I opened up to his thoughts, and a beat later I heard, I’m online.
Apparently he thought he was a computer. Whatever worked.
“You might want to wait to start drinking,” Emery said, though I was sure he knew what I was actually doing. That meant he was playing along, just like I’d done with him last night. “Though, given your joke is ruined, I can see why you’d want to start early.”
I spat out a laugh despite myself. He knew why I’d dressed this way, it seemed. Penny had chosen well.
“What joke?” Penny asked, her beet-red face making me laugh harder.