Page 315 of Flirting with Darkness

She turned on the water and then went through his medicine cabinet and the cupboard under the sink. Nova grabbed a brand-new toothbrush and inspected it, trying to decide if this was a good thing or not.

On one hand, he could just have a stash of them, or on the other, he could have regular overnight visitors.

Nova rolled her eyes and rummaged around for the toothpaste. Like it mattered if he had people sleep over? Dex was a big boy. His personal life was none of her business. They werenotdating, and she had no plans to in the future.

After tonight, she needed to think about what she was going to tell the Council.

Brushing her teeth made her feel a little better. Then she stared at her own reflection, eyeing the dark circles under her eyes and the way her scar seemed more pronounced today. Usually, the silver was very faint, but she felt like it was stark under the bathroom light.

Or she was just ridiculously pale after the nightmare that was her own personal hell. As if experiencing it hadn’t been enough, she had to relive it every time she had a bad night.

What was she going to do?

Nova knew she should leave Seattle, but she didn’t want to. She wanted to stay here because…

Because of a stupid fucking boy.

Stepping into the shower helped her refocus and calm down. The hot water eased the tightness in her muscles, and she searched his shit to see he actually owned various different products. No two-in-one here.

It wasn’t her usual unscented, but it had a nice mild fragrance and Nova scrubbed while she considered what her actual options were.

Okay, so what if she liked a boy enough to want to stick around? There were other problems. Was he one of the ones the Council had sent her to watch? Would he be the one she would have to arrest?

What if he wasn’t, and she just left?

The Council would send in another hunter and Nova had no idea what would happen then. She’d have no control over the situation, and if Dex was not actually causing problems, he could end up hurt or killed if someone found out what he was.

As a hunter who swore to protect those who needed it – would she be able to leave knowing that might happen?

And if he was actually the one causing problems? Nova needed to be able to have the professional decency to get over her feelings, no matter how rare they were, and arrest someone who could possibly expose them to the humans and put the entire paranormal community in danger.

The only way this was going to work though was if she could figure out which it was, and quick.

She washed her hair and breathed in the steam, feeling antsy despite her exhaustion.

Spying on him felt gross, but she had to know.

Tonight.

Nova would gear up and stalk him until she had her answer. Every night until she knew for sure. Until then, she’d have to make excuses to avoid seeing him. It would be easy to pretend she was looking for a job.

That settled, she turned off the shower, wondering if the usual weapons to kill angels would work on him. She’d have to look into it.

Just in case.

21

DEX

Dex cut the fruit up as he subconsciously listened to the shower running. Nova seemed to have settled down. He could hear her when she wasn’t wearing her boots, but he figured the scent charm was somewhere more permanent.

Was she really that annoyed about spending more time with him, or was it something else? He couldn’t figure her out.

Smiling, he placed the fruit on both plates. Dex kind of liked that about her.

The girl was definitely not easy to deal with. But the situation was something he understood. Neither of them should have let this happen, but being ‘just friends’ was clearly a struggle for both of them.

It was hard to resist the comfort Nova gave him or resist his feelings for her, especially when he knew that he provided her comfort as well.

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