“All right, enough,” I said. “It's not that funny.”
“It is that funny!” He gasped, caught his breath, and straightened. “Oh, shit!” he huffed. “A guy who wants to hold out for love. You found something that I thought didn't exist. You, of all people.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means that you needed the opposite. And you're supposed to be blessed by the Goddess and shit. But you choose the one guy in the whole fucking citadel who wants love before sex.”
“Yeah,” I whispered, something shimmering inside me. “He is something special, isn't he?”
“That's one way of putting it,” Gray said. “Not my way, but one way.” Then he frowned at me. “Areyou in love with him?”
I shrugged. “I think I'm getting there.”
“And that's not enough for him?”
“He's a romantic.”
Graysen snorted. “No shit.”
“I'm serious. He's very romantic.”
“Well, Mr. Romance just walked out on you, so maybe he isn't all that into you after all.”
I grimaced. “He's into me. But that might be the problem.”
“When did you start spouting nonsense all the time?” Graysen shook his head and started walking again.
I hurried to catch up and got in line with him at the lunch buffet. “It's not nonsense. If Vex wasn't in love with me, he would have fucked me already.”
A couple of the lords in line ahead of us glanced back.
“Mind your manners!” I snapped at them.
“Fuck off, Ember,” Lord Jusso said. “You can't say shit like that around us and expect us to ignore it.”
“I mean, he isn't wrong,” Gray said.
“Oh, fuck all of you,” I muttered. “I have no fucking privacy anymore.”
“Try saying thingsin private,” Graysen advised.
Jusso burst out laughing. “You're funny. I like you.”
“Thanks.” Gray looked him over. “I like you too. Because you're super sexy.”
“Thanks.” Jusso licked his lips. “You're pretty fuckable too.”
I leaned forward and gleefully ruined the moment. “You're both tops.”
“Fuck,” both men growled in unison.
It was my turn to laugh. But my amusement didn't last long. As the line moved and Jusso and Gray got over their incompatibility, my thoughts turned back to Vex. He was certainly living up to his name.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Practice on me today,” Keltyr said after we arrived at the training location. “I want the reward.”
I laughed. “Kel, you can have me anytime. You don't have to do this.”
