Page 99 of Living Legend

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No. God, can you just let it go?” His expression was exasperated. He looked over his shoulder towards where his father slept.

“I will. You must admit one thing, though.”

“Alright, what?”

I let a devilish grin creep to my lips. I leaned forward, rising a bit so the sweatshirt pulled upward and showed a bit more of my thigh. My hands crawled across the middle cushion that separated us and remained just shy of his knee. “You liked it.”

He pressed his lips together, as I watched his Adam’s apple bob harshly. He snuck a look at my legs and then to my hands. His eyes closed for a minute but then popped open, boring right into mine as if challenging my words. “I liked it.”

I scrunched my nose at him, reaching my hand up to caress his jaw. “Wasn’t that easy?”

He didn’t try to remove my hand when he spoke. “I’m surprised you don’t want to talk about this more.”

“Nah, you find me intriguing, and I find you intriguing. You wanted to fuck and so did I. We are two beings who wanted to get off and we did. It’s quite simple when you break it down.”

Nicholas let out a disgruntled sigh. “I didn’twantto fuck, Dani. You make me sound like I was dying for it, like I had no self-control.”

“If the wings fit, Nicholas, you demanding thing.” I tapped my index finger on his lips, letting the pad of my fingertip linger over how soft they were before I let my hand fall away.

He pressed his hand to his chest. “Alright, alright, my bad. I should have asked permission.”

I vigorously shook my head, my curls bouncing in all directions. “Oh god, no, you handsome ethereal creature you. I liked what you did. Granted, I was waiting for you to make a move I never thought would come, but well, next thing I know, my leggings are off and you are pulling sounds out of me I didn’t know existed…” I started to barrel on, but he rushed over and placed a hand to my mouth. His leg was touching my knees and his face was inches from mine. I could smell the beer on his breath, and I drank it in.

“Can you not?” he asked in a pleading tone, but there was some amusement to his voice. “We get it. You liked what we did and…. I liked what we did, but that’s it. It was a thing that happened that could likely be a very funny story in a few centuries.”

He was finished, but he didn’t move away from me. I lifted my mouth and wrapped my lips around the top of his hand, baring my teeth. I bit down on the flesh right near his thumb and laughed as he pulled away, waving his hand in the air. “You like me,” I stated.

“Hmph, debatable,” he mumbled, picking up his beer and draining it. I watched his hand wrap around the bottle and remembered what his hands felt like wrapped around my thighs as he lifted me up and away from the wall.I stood up abruptly, making my way around the coffee table and over to the mantle.

Nicholas followed me with his gaze as I walked over, his eyes glued to the hem of the sweatshirt, almost magically trying to see what was underneath…or what wasn’t.

I started to scan the photos one by one. The first few that decorated the mantle were of Nicholas as a toddler, the same dark head of hair and playful smile on his face, like he knew something you didn’t but would probably tell you at some point if you played your cards right.

“So, Markus asked about me?” I asked, not looking at him.

I heard him sniff behind me and move around on the couch, as if he was readjusting his posture. “I didn’t say he asked about you.”

“Look who’s playing coy now.”

I practically felt his eye roll at my back. “Executives ask about weapons brought into our realm all the time; it’s nothing special.”

I looked over my shoulder and gave him a face that told him that I wasn’t going to accept his story. “We both know you don’t believe a word you’re saying.”

“It really was nothing. It was quick and to the point. I said no and moved on.”

I let out a hmm, which made him raise both his eyebrows, as if to askwhat. “You said no.”

“Didn’t I just say that?”

“I know. You said no, which means you had an inkling shit wasn’t right.”

He leaned over and grabbed my beer from where I had abandoned it on the coffee table. “No, I said no because I would rather not have my ass chewed out by Markus Seraph.”

I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “You are really fucking adorable when you don’t want to admit the truth. What would they really have done to you? Smacked your hand and said, ‘bad boy, don’t do it again?’” I tried to mimic Markus’s tone.

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