Page 39 of Excess

“I’ve been thinking, and I, er, owe you an apology,” I said quietly, while Freya made a beeline for the swings.

“Me? Why?”

I frowned, looking at Inika out of the corner of my eye. “For being a dick?”

She dragged her lower lip between her teeth, valiantly trying not to smile. “I assumed that was just your personality.”

“It is. I’m sorry about it.”

This time, she did laugh. Suddenly, the sun felt a little warmer.

“Don’t be. I like to think I’m quite secure in myself—it takes a lot to hurt my feelings. And I like your personality. You’re refreshingly honest. Refreshing honesty is in short supply in my life.”

“Too many people telling you what you want to hear?”

She hummed in agreement. “It’s not their fault, of course. Most of the people I interact with are either on my payroll or Om-Guard’s. It would be unreasonable to expect them to speak freely around me.”

“You must have friends, right?”

We both fell silent for a moment as Freya sprinted up to me, shoving the fairy wings she’d insisted on wearing into my hands before booking it towards the slide.

“I do.” Inika was quiet and thoughtful for a moment, and I watched her with probably too much intensity, hanging on her every word. “My closest friends are the ones I grew up with at Anworth Hall. But they’ve all found mates, and most of them have had children. We’re in different places in life.”

“Do you not…” I cleared my throat. “Do you not want those things?”

“Yes and no. My mama nearly died having me. She instilled a fear of childbirth in me since I was old enough to talk, though she regrets it now that I’m not giving her any grandchildren. I’d like a mate—if I could choose him for love, and he cared about more than just breeding me.”

A shudder ran down my spine at the sordid term. “Play fair, princess. We’re out in public. I don’t even want kids, but when you say shit like that, I at least want to practice making them with you.”

She snorted, bumping my biceps with her shoulder. “Blake! I can’t take you anywhere.”

Fuck. What did it mean that I wanted her to? I wanted to tease her in public, and I wanted her to roll her eyes at me then beg me to fuck her the moment we were alone.

It’s just because you can’t have her, I reminded myself. It’d never work out in real life. You’re not going to take her to Leviathan. She’s not going to take you to her high society events.

There’s no world in which Blake Alwis and Inika Dara made sense together, no matter how tempting the idea was.

Chapter 12

INIKA

“Hey,” Maia said, poking her head around my office door without knocking. “Do you need me today?”

I minimised the team chat I’d been idly scrolling through.

“No?” I mused. “I’m just answering some emails, then I’m taking a Pilates break.”

Maia nodded slowly. “Do you actually need an assistant?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “Not these days. But you get paid for it and a free place to live, so you’re welcome to keep the role in name only if you like.”

Maia narrowed her eyes at me. “What’s the catch?”

“Occasionally making phone calls for me. You know how I despise those.”

Maia smirked. “Of course. How do you have such a cool, calm reputation in the media? If only they knew you were deathly afraid of the phone.”

“That would ruin the mystery. Are you going into the office?”

---