Page 56 of Fire of the Fox

“Why don’t you tell the truth about how you guys met? You met at the club,” Bassel suggested.

Still pissed that they were leaving me out of the loop in certain things, I chomped angrily on my cookie. I didn’t like being left out. It was my charade to pull off, too.

Rune shrugged. “That could work, but I’d obviously have to change the story some. I wouldn’t want them to know about her almost being robbed and us intervening. It needs to be something else.”

“Fine,” I said, wanting my voice to be heard after Rune had blatantly ignored me. “I asked you to dance, so we did. After we danced, we spent the remainder of the night together, and the rest is history, as they say.”

“That’s a good story,” Akira said. “I like the sound of that.”

“Okay,” Rune said. “That’s our story then.”

My attention turned to the cookie I held. They continued discussing a believable amount of time that Rune and I could have been dating, as well as other intricacies of the plan. My mind strayed as I twirled the cookie around in between my fingers. Images of earlier tonight flashed in my head. I could still feel Rune’s lips on my neck as if his kiss were branded there. My skin still felt hot where his hand had trailed up my shirt, caressing my breasts.

He was such a dick for playing me like that. He said he wasn’t going to do anything with me, yet he did stuff with every other girl. He’d even planned on doing that same thing with me at the start, so what was stopping him now? Had my personality made me unappealing to him? Or was he afraid of crossing the “strictly business” line we’d drawn? Whatever the reason, it ached like a punch to the gut.

I snapped the cookie in half, listening to the loud pop as it broke down the middle. That’s what I felt like. Torn. There was so much on my plate. Between school, training, the weird shadow that kept popping up, and studying to be a Fae, I didn’t know how to also sort through these feelings about Rune. It was leaving my mind a confused mess.

“Bria,” Akira called softly, placing a hand on my arm.

“Hmm?” I turned to look at him.

He quirked a brow. “Did you get all that?”

Quickly pushing all thoughts of my relationship troubles aside, I nodded. “Ah, yeah. Sorry. I just spaced out for a minute. I still paid attention, though. Y’all decided we’ve been dating for two years. Since Rune hasn’t been home in about three years, two seemed the most believable.”

“How did she get all that if she wasn’t actually listening?” Bassel asked, watching me with wonder.

“I was listening.”

Sort of.

Rune downed the last of his coffee before jumping to his feet. “Well, since the planning party is over, Bria and I are going to head out.”

His gaze found mine, and my heart tripped over itself. It was the first time we’d really looked at each other since earlier. I hated that he had this effect on me. With one look, he had my skin flushing and nerves rattling. My heart clearly didn’t understand that it was supposed to be mad at him.

Stupid heart.

“Come on,” he said.

I placed my now-cold coffee on the table and stood to follow Rune to the door. “Are we doing more training today?”

“No training. You’ve gotten the basics of fighting down, so we’re doing something else today.”

“Really? What?” I asked, thrown off guard.

“It’s a surprise,” he said before grabbing my hand.

I reluctantly followed him to his car. The rain was just starting to come down, so we rushed to get in, and once we were settled, Rune took off down the road.

I laid my chin on my fist and rested my arm on the armrest of the passenger side door. I sighed and asked again, “Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise. I already told you that. I’m not giving you any details. That’s the point of a surprise.”

I frowned but didn’t ask any more questions, knowing by now it was futile to argue with him. I stared out the window at the falling rain, counting the drops that trailed down my window. We drove for a good twenty minutes before he pulled up outside of a large brick building. My jaw fell open as recognition flared. It was called The Paint Palace, a well-known place for dating couples to paint together.

Dumbfounded, I turned to Rune. “What are we doing here?”

He smirked and gestured at the building. “Isn’t it obvious? We’re here to paint. I know how much you love painting. You’re putting up with all of this Fae stuff just so you can paint professionally. I thought this could be something fun we did together. You’ve been working hard, training and putting up with me. You deserve some fun, don’t you think?”

---