Page 80 of Wicked Heirs

~Orpheus~

Xavier was being a smooth bastard.

He’d picked Alena up from her chambers for their date dressed all dapper in a pair of his nicest navy blue designer jeans and a gray sports jacket. He’d actually forgone his usual hoodie or denim shirt look for her. That said a hell of a lot, because those were his comfort clothes. For her part, she looked magnificent and unbelievably sexy as usual, this time in a turquoise crop top that was decorated with a golden leaf design, a pair of white wide-leg pants and then jeweled sandals completing her look.

Xavier had even driven her down here in his pimped-out midnight-black RAM truck.

If he’d clued me in, I would’ve suggested he asked Tal for his neon-orange Corvette ZR1 for the night. Given that she drove a sweet Mustang, it was a sure thing that she would’ve appreciated such an impressive ride.

But he hadn’t.

He hadn’t come to me.

He hadn’t told me a thing about this little date of theirs.

They were dining at a cute little patisserie café in town. He’d even had the staff set up a table complete with candles and her favorite sweet foods and drinks. I’d learned through my observations of her that she had a real sweet tooth.

Xavier was really pulling on the romantic side of himself this afternoon.

Fortunately, he had no trouble walking in the sun. The first was because of the magic flowing through his veins from his sorcerer side. But should his power weaken, his father had added a failsafe in the form of one of Xavier’s tattoos, specifically the one over his heart that was a tree of life with a sun behind it in deep indigo—the color of Elliot Sabre’s magic.

I’d been watching them since I’d caught sight of him settling her into his car, then I’d followed them down here, using the brief breach ofthe domethat Xavier had requested, in order to get through myself without having to risk using my magic to get the job done.

I’d intended to hop on my Harley V-Rod to follow them, but something had come over me and I’d let my wings loose instead.

I stroked them absently as I watched Xavier and Alena across the street from my position on the treetop. My wings were charcoal-gray with a leathery texture, a cross between a bat’s and a dragon’s wings, really, just obviously not as mammoth as the latter. At the tips there were silver spikes, both functioning as adornments and as useful assets during battle.

It had been so long since I’d had them out and then even flown that it was a relief I hadn’t even realized I’d needed that had come over me, that had calmed me somewhat.

Probably the only thing preventing me from storming into the café and breaking up Alena and Xavier’s romantic fucking afternoon out together.

Their time together than should’ve also been mine.

But she’d claimed she couldn’t trust me.

No, not even that, because it was to be expected, the need to build that trust over time. She couldn’t evenbeginto start on the road to trusting me.

“You’re enamored right now, but when this connection is no longer new, it’s quite plausible that this issue between us could revitalize and cause a shitstorm—again.”

It wouldn’t.

There wouldn’t be ashitstorm.

I’d made the definitive decision to back off with targeting her and I wouldn’t go back on that. I’d promised her and myself.

More than that, I didn’t have the desire to do anything like that any longer.

I hadn’t for a while.

Ever since she’d gotten under my skin.

“Tell me why you hated me, why you hated my mom. The whole story.”

I’d considered giving her what she’d asked for, what she believed she needed from me.

But it was fraught with complications.

She might not take it well.

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