Page 51 of Until the End of Ever
Half of them ate them on the spot, ignoring stomachs still full of chocolate, lemon, or cream.
“Are you trying to get abducted and wedded to a dark wizard?” Lucian admonished in a whisper. “Because this’s how you get abducted and wedded to a dark wizard.”
I stared back at him, batting innocent lashes. “Cookies?”
To be honest, I knew I was playing the crowd, making them like me. That skill had been instilled in me from the moment I could walk. Iwasthe daughter of two politicians. Most of the time in my everyday life, I didn’t attempt to earn anyone’s favor anymore. But that didn’t change the fact that I knew precisely how to do it. They’d nicknamed me the sweetheart of the vale for a reason. I could live to the name when I wanted to. And I wanted the unders to like me. I loved their side of town, though I’d only explored a small fraction of it.
It was nice that all it took for every single guest to adore me was to be myself. That never happened at home.
“Don’t you look at me with those big innocent eyes.” He rolled his. “You know what you did.”
“Hey, you can’ttell meyour grandma has arthritis and bad knees and expect me to do nothing about it,” I reasoned. “I’m a healer.”
“I don’t see you healing willy-nilly in the Guard. In fact, Mother mentioned you needed to cause a distraction just to help out a friend up there.”
Rather than formulating a logical argument, I countered, “Willy-nilly? Are you three hundred years old? Should I also check your knees?”
“Come closer. Try. See where that lands you.”
And in the depth of his silver-gray eyes, I could see exactly where pushing this teasing would land me. Back under his sculpted body, holding on for dear life and trying not to scream his name too loud.
Except afterwards, we could barely talk for a day and a half. I was fairly certain that if we didn’t have the mystery of my curse to resolve, he would have shut me out entirely. He didn’t even look at me most of Monday morning.
We couldn’t have our easy, fun relationship and world-shifting, mind-blowing, entrails-rearranging sex. One threatened the other. And I wanted to keep him in my life, in whatever way I could.
Although it was a struggle, I made myself look away first. “Your knees are just fine, grandpa.”
The asshole laughed. “Coward.”
Bloody hell. This was going to be a problem.
21
KLEOS
We ended up staying at Lucian’s parents’ for the night. The guest bedroom where Cassiopea had shown me to was offered to me. I was fairly certain it was as grand as my father’s master suite in our home. The bed was so vast, one had to wonder just how many guests were supposed to fit in it. A football team would have been perfectly snug, cuddling each other.
But if there were any signs of a former orgy, I missed them. The bedroom faintly smelled of lavender and some fresh spice I couldn’t quite pinpoint. Not a speck of dust had been permitted to exist anywhere in this house from what I’d seen of it.
I wondered if blue was Cassiopea or Kaelius’s favorite color, given how everything seemed to be white or the many varying shades of the sky and sea. Perhaps both of them favored it. Come to think of it, Lucian also often wore blue.
His core magic was bloodred, on the rare occasion I’d seen him make use of it, but minor spells, such as resizing or levitating objects, tended to leave a faint blue mist.
“I trust you’ll be comfortable. Are you two staying together, or should I open up another room?” Cassiopea asked oh so casually.
“Oh, we—” I stuttered, not wanting to get her to go through any extra work at, what, two in the morning? I couldn’t keep track, and still didn’t have my phone. The dinner party had started late, and lasted long enough for me to be a yawning mess. “We could share?”
We were only going to crash. And it wasn’t like we had never shared a bed, in any case.
Great. I was blushing like an idiot, thinking about Saturday night all over again.
“Mother, behave,” Lucian retorted, appearing right behind his mother, shaking his head. He walked into the room, heading towards me with a smile. “There are a dozen spare bedrooms in this place, all of them ready at any time. Don’t let Mother make you feel guilty. I warned you she wants grandchildren.”
Spectacular. Awesome. I’m thinking about sexharder. In front of Cassiopea, on top of it.
“And so what if I do?” the matriarch challenged. “Don’t forget, Luce, that if you’re not interested, I have another son who might see the wisdom in snatching up such a gem.”
“Mother, dear?” he purred, sounding ever so sweet. “Another word, and I’m getting on my knees in front of Thea on the morrow. Good luck getting any grandchildren from me then.”
