Really would warm my heart if it wasn’t already so cold.
I look around the party for a moment, and already it seems like a repeat of the first night I arrived at Onyx House: more and more people filtering into the room, the lights getting lower, the music getting louder.
I’m sure many people have already seen us getting cozy together on the couch.
But he’s still looking at me, blinking with those long lashes, halfway drunk and probably still waiting for some sort of answer out of me.
Fine.
Just a little bit of mercy for you.
“The reason I was late is because my cousin needed help with an issue.”
He frowns at me.
His face really is pretty, and it’s even more obvious when I’m this close to him.
Pretty toy.
Nice that I get to play with you ‘til we’re done with each other.
“Is Sevan okay?” he asks.
I frown and look away, watching a girl grind up against a guy in the corner of the room. “He’s okay for now. My ex dropped him off a stupid fuckingpsychoticgift, though, just like he did to us with the skeleton shit a couple of weeks ago.”
“The fuck? What did Sevan find?”
“A dagger.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“It was plastic. A theater prop, painted silver. But knowing my ex… he’s trying to drop some kind of symbol. And I hate whatever that fucking symbol is. Probably thinks he’s being clever, since Sevan is in Double Daggers.”
“Are you sure Sevan is going to be safe tonight?”
“He’s safe. I did something I didn’t want to do, and I called Callum’s neighbor. She’s a heinous woman, but she assured me that Callum’s out in his hot tub, nowhere near here anymore. We’re okay. For now.”
“I want to help,” he tells me. “We can get Roman and his cousins to help, too.”
I pull in a long breath. “I need to forget. I’m going to need you topleasetalk about anything else,doanything else rather than think about that piece of shit.”
“Fine. But I want you to tell me next time something like that happens.”
I stand up, pulling my hands away from him, and run my hands through my hair. When I glance back down at him on the sofa, I almost pounce on him again on sight alone.
He looks ravished, and all I did was kiss his neck. His hair’s a little tousled. His cheeks are flushed. His body looks like it’s melted into the couch, and his legs are parted enough that I can see the faint outline of his hard-on even in the dim light.
“Stay here for a while,” I tell him.
He frowns, and it’s adorable. “No. Where are you going? Why does it seem like you’re about to do something terrible?” he asks.
“I’m about to do somethingnecessary, and it’s going to ensure that by the end of this party, everyone knows we’re a couple.”
“Ollie! Yo! Guess who I just talked to,” Weston says as he enters the room, grinning and waving at me, too.
“Perfect,” I tell Oliver in a low tone. “Talk to Wes. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Weston seems drunk, warm, and happy now, too. He sits on the couch next to Ollie and I blow a little kiss before taking off toward the back of the house.
