Page 65 of Lucky or Knot
And then he said, “I already did. Now will you let me sleep? You may have noticed, but I had a long day.”
He already had. That second night, when he’d cried.
“Raven? Really?”
His head popped up, indignation in every line of his expression. “As if you have any room to talk, Tony the Tiger!”
“That wasn’t what I—there’s nothing wrong with being called Raven—”
“No, there certainly isn’t!”
“—but you gave me your real name? When that’s something you’d never do. With anyone. Right?”
His ferocious scowl lost some force in the context of his sex-fluffed hair and kiss-swollen lips.
“I already told you,” he gritted out, “you’re an exception. To everything. I couldn’t resist you, and at this moment you’re making me regret it. Now will you, please, for the love of all the spirits of earth and air, go. To. Sleep?”
He dropped back down onto my shoulder with more forcethan necessary, tugged the blanket up, grumbled, and squirmed around, settling himself like an angry cat.
I closed my eyes and held him tightly, safe and warm and—truly mine. Not because I’d claimed him, although I had, and not because I’d fought for him and jumped through hoops and nearly died for him.
Because he loved me, in not so many words. His exception. For a fairy, that had practically been hearts and flowers.
Without a care in the world, and with everything I cared most about in the world snuggled in my arms, I did as he told me, and I went to sleep. It really had been a seriously long fucking day.
Chapter 21
“Yeah?” I tossed the phone into the center console, only listening with half an ear, because an unknown number almost always meant someone trying to sell me solar panels for a roof I didn’t own. “Fuck! Sorry, not you. I’m in traffic.”
Why did I always end up crossing the Strip? I knew better. Everyone who actually lived here knew better, although hopefully I wouldn’t be living here much longer.
A pause that somehow communicated baffled offense echoed down the line.
“Is this Tony Kaplan?” said a prim, faintly accented female voice, sounding as if she hoped I’d say no.
“Yeah, that’s me. What?”
“I asked if you were Tony Kaplan, and you already confirmed that,” she said, and now she sounded like she hoped I’d jump off a bridge. “So I don’t understand why you’re requesting clarification.”
I spared the phone a disbelieving glance, nearly rear-ended the SUV in front of me, and bit back another curse.
“I was asking you what you want,” I said, with as much restraint as I had left in me.
Raven had been gone for three weeks now. He’d spent nearly that long with me first, and then kissed me, promised to return once he’d “wrapped up a few things” in his own realm, and swanned off to Endless Sky. My patience with literally everything had worn tissue-thin in his absence. I missed him. I fucking needed him, and I’d never needed anyone before, except my family. I ached for him, bone-deep, and even though our magical link shone as bright as ever, always orienting me toward a freaking fairy spa in Summerlin, I couldn’t shake the fear thatthis was the one time a fae would break a promise. Maybe he’d left a loophole that I was too not-fae to notice.
She sighed. “I want to confirm your appointment, Mr. Kaplan.”
“I don’t have an appointment with anyone. You have the wrong number, or something. Look, could you—”
“You’re booked for a massage at Endless Sky this afternoon at two,” she snapped. “That is in half an hour. If you—”
I slammed on the brakes way too hard, to a chorus of angry honks from behind me. An apologetic wave in the rearview mirror got me flipped off, and I hit the gas again, still not quite breathing.
“Endless Sky? You said Endless Sky?”
“Yes,” she said, and that bridge she wanted me to jump off of had gotten a lot higher. “Endless Sky. In half an hour.”
“I’ll be there. Thank you. I’ll be there in—”
