Page 21 of Sprite Wedding
Did he even know the answer?
LUCAS
It was tough to wake. Caught in a dreamlike state with all these psychedelic images that didn’t make any sense, I remained in a daze.
That is, until I remembered last night.
“Please say it was all a dream.” I clutched the sides of my head. Zoe was there. I could sense her in the bed beside me.
“I wish I could,” she replied.
I opened my eyes, afraid to see her reaction. We were in my room, although why she came home with me was a mystery after my behavior.
She searched my face. “Are you okay?”
I made a cringing face and hissed. “Aside from being horrified to an epic level about last night. Why did I do that, Zoe?”
She pulled her lips into a grim line. “I’m not sure.”
I sat up, pulling the sheet with me. My upper body was bare, and I only wore boxer shorts. She wore a pair of soft gray pajama shorts and a white tank top.
“I acted like a total ass.” I climbed out of bed. “Why would I go back there and do that?” My gaze darted to her hand, where her fingers were bare, and I winced. Why on earth would I propose to her in a strip club? And without a ring?
Zoe sat up in my bed and propped a pillow behind her back. “Did you drink or eat something that could have been tampered with?”
I rewound through what I’d had yesterday. I’d eaten at home. “Aside from cereal, which I’d eaten plenty of times already, I ate a huge plate of leftover lasagna that Sebastian made and brought over. But he and Gianna had some too. I didn’t see them shaking their money makers beside me on stage.”
“We’ll check with them.” Zoe tapped her chin. “What about drinks?”
“Just water. I refilled my water bottle from the filter on the fridge.”
Zoe hmphed and tapped her chin. “Something must have happened to make you act out of character like that. It’s the second time.” She tipped her head. “Maybe it’s your subconscious revealing your secret desires.”
“Idon’twant to strip again,” I countered. “Especially not in places where it’s unacceptable—like a cruise ship.”
“Okay, okay.” She spread her arms wide. “I’m just trying to figure out what could have happened. We’ll bring a sample of what you ate and drank to the Network for testing just in case. And double check with Sebastian and Gianna that they didn’t have any odd symptoms after eating the lasagna.”
With how Gianna’s drink had been recently tainted by a potion that forced her to age, the misuse of magic was fresh on our minds. Not to mention an earlier incident that clouded Diego’s memory and affected him with a love spell.
“Do you remember that woman who ran up to you and hugged you?” Zoe asked.
The fuzzy memory took shape. “Oh, yeah. That’s just Linda.”
“Linda,” Zoe repeated through tight lips. “Is she always that friendly?”
We had gotten together one night. Actually, it wasn’t that long before I met Zoe. Most women didn’t give me much of a hard time when I left, but sometimes it happened. That was back in my wild days B.Z.—Before Zoe. Linda had been clingy the next morning. She’d wanted to spend the day together. It had taken more than a few attempts to escape her clutches that morning. I’d decided never to go home with her again.
“She can be a little much, but it’s no big deal.”
“Really?” Zoe arched her eyebrows.
“Right.” Sometimes a woman could get possessive and take things too far. It was usually accompanied with too much alcohol. I laughed to put Zoe at ease. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Uh huh.”
After we dressed, we moved downstairs with Shadow following along. A trio of socks lay twisted at the base of the stairs.
“You are one strange kitty with a thing for loose socks,” I said.
