Page 67 of Marked by the Demigod

"I bet he did," Iakov mutters, before sighing. "He couldn't have known you were mine, he's not that talented, he just thought he could...find something out about someone new."

The burger all but melts in her mouth, and it takes actual effort to not moan about it in his face while he's talking about his brothers. "So...bad luck?"

"Bad luck and them staying all the fucking time in Vegas cause they like to appear important." He grumbles, and the Texan accent slips, just a hair, before returning. "Didn't know I needed to warn you about Vegas. Thought Katya would."

Aimes shrugs, and without them asking the waitress drops off two beers. "She didn't know I was here until she got someone reporting me to her."

Iakov's eyebrows climb, and he scowls for a moment, digging his fingernail into the already chipped booth, before his face clears abruptly. "Did you grow up in Los Angeles?"

She blinks at him around a mouthful of burger. "No? Boston, family's still there."

He nods, as if she was confirming something instead of it being an actual question. "When did you move out?" He sits back, expectant, as if this is much more interesting than, you know, the grand Demigod plan to kill him.

"You sent me the knife, right?" She challenges back, quick.

He nods, as if it was normal. "It's a good knife, and I didn't know how you felt about guns."

Her eyebrows fly up, though the fact that they were in a Texas bar meant that no one paid them any attention. "I'd hope to not need one."

He shrugs, the arm draped over her shoulder briefly tightening. "Ask Katya to take you shooting. She'd enjoy that." And they're sitting so much like a normal couple at this Texas burger and beer joint that she just snuggles back under his arm. For a few seconds it's perfect, the sound of a light rain outside.

Her phone buzzes, and she digs it out of her purse.

TRIXIE (10:45 AM): There's already gay drama and I'm living for it.

Aimes lips pull up into a smile.

AIMES (10:46 AM): Vegas delivers.

"What does that mean?" Iakov rumbles, pressing a kiss into the point where her shoulder and her neck meets.

"It means that her conventions are much more fun than my conventions, and the drama isn't boring."

He hmmmmms and resumes eating, just watching her, and the attention is almost verging on uncomfortable.

And there's something in the way that Iakov looks at her that's deeply familiar, deeply soothing, and deeply unsettling.

Rocky wouldn't look at her, not like that. It wasn't that he was ashamed of sex, but he didn't like putting affection on display, and would often avoid her gaze after fucking. He would claim that it was because PDA's were a blight on society, but it certainly didn't help her confidence.

And now she has a literal demigod looking at her as if he wants to fuck her again on the table. A literal demigod who she still, despite having a list of all his crimes against humanity, she knows very little about his personality.

"Is there anything else I should ask Katya about?" she asks, quiet, almost not wanting to break the silence.

He sighs, exactly the reaction she didn't want. "There's just so much," he grumbles. "If I wasn't...if things weren't so dire," he briefly nuzzles the top of her hair, "if things weren't so dire I would take you on a grand tour, introduce you to as many people as I could, show you this side of the world." The arm tightens even further. "But instead it's dive bars in Texas."

While that's a grand, pretty statement, it doesn't tell her anything, and his non-answers and deflections start to grate against her. "So...ask her more general information?"

He slumps. "Ask her about general prophesies around Demi gods and how fucked up they are."

Her phone buzzes, and it's a welcome relief from the tension of his grumpy mood.

KATYA GOVERNMENT (11:01 AM): Are you safe?

A glance at Iakov's face shows his eyebrows mirroring hers.

AIMES (11:01 AM): Yes?

"Yes, you're very well fucking safe right now," he grumbles, and the Russian accent slips out.

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