Page 67 of By the Fae

Holly was proving exceedingly popular at work. All the other designers keen to bounce their ideas off the only human around. Keen to get Holly’s opinion. Even if they were reluctant to admit that hers was an expert opinion. So far Greyson had proven himself to be a total numpty. I was hoping by this point she’d be coming back from her ‘meetings’ with him full of barf-inducing minutiae. Instead, she would flop onto my couch and wipe her brow with her sleeve as though she had been working on a construction site all day.

“You’ve only been in his office twenty minutes. Is it really that bad?”

“Urgh,” was Holly’s reply.

So much for plan A.

Luckily, I had managed to keep Seth’s sooty little mitts away from her by intercepting any and every opportunity for them to be alone together. I’d pop up in the break room or push my chair between theirs at team meetings. One time, when Holly was supposed to be visiting Seth for a ‘meeting’, I glamoured a kitten into my office, and she found herself entirely unable to leave.

Seth was starting to get desperate. I could tell. I had a feeling if he didn’t get her attention soon, he would conveniently faint at her feet during her next trip to the water cooler. He knew I was blocking him. I could see it in his narrowed gaze, and that set in his jaw. I knew that set. Even if he didn’t.

“All fae do is talk in riddles,” Holly had said one Friday afternoon after a gruelling week of one on one ‘meetings’ before the main team briefing. “It’s exhausting.”

“It’s so they can fuck around with the truth.”

“You and August are the plainest speaking fae. Thank you. Does Seth speak in r—Never mind.”

“You still like Seth?”

She’d shrugged. It was a subtle, involuntary gesture, but I caught it, nonetheless. “He’s just . . . so beautiful.”

“We’re fae,” I said. “We’re all beautiful.”

“Aw, you’re pretty too. In your own special way.” Holly pinched my cheek like a grandmother, and I rolled my eyes. Inside me, a weird battle of emotions ensued. Preening, because I was a vain bastard, amusement and . . . jealousy.

I was only jealous because it was Seth. If it had been Lans or Greyson that she’d latched onto, it wouldn’t have bothered me nearly half as much.

The weekends, though.

The weekends were my favourite.

Saturdays were spent playing video games. Sometimes mine, sometimes Holly’s, sometimes retro platformers that Holly brought over with her, including her original consoles.

“I can’t believe you still have all these cartridges,” I told her.

“I might be a hoarder. I just don’t seem to be able to throw anything away.”

We played onMagic Thief One. I winced at the basic graphics.

“It’s beautiful. Just like I remembered,” Holly said, eyelashes wet with tears.

On Sundays we’d hang around with Sugar Paste and Taur, and occasionally Dima. Annoyingly, Holly and Sugar Paste had developed some sort of girl-bond, which was just as confusing and impenetrable to Taur as it was to me. Sunday evenings were Mal’s Motley Meals, and Mal had found a new excuse to be absent each week.

I missed him. Or at least, I would have missed him if I hadn’t been so preoccupied.

Because the weekend nights . . .

I had stopped pretending I was ‘teaching’ her a long time ago. Though Holly still diligently assumed the student role. It was so fucking hot, so I went along with it. Really, there was pretty much nothing she couldn’t do. Sure, she was inexperienced, but my body always responded to hers. Reacted as though she were the master of it. She could point at me and tell me to come, and I probably would.

We still hadn’t kissed. We still hadn’t had penetrative sex. I was desperate to be inside her, but I would wait. As long as she needed me to.

And in the meantime, we did everything else. Multiple times.

One thing that had been niggling in the back of my mind, and whirring up my stomach like bad eggs, was the rapidly approaching deadline for the games expo. Three weeks, and I would need the game nearly complete, or at least have something presentable, and there were many, many things to iron out before then.

And three weeks would also mean the end of my deal with Holly.

Three weeks.

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