Philippa gave her shoulder a mock shove. “This is shocking, Claire. Beyond shocking. I need details.”
“Not here. Not now.”
She seemed suddenly aware of their surroundings, of the event continuing just outside the restroom door. She met Claire’s eyes in the mirror and shook her head. “Wow. I lost my head for a second.”
“Well, it’s… a switch.”
“It’s an earthquake, woman. This conversation hasn’t even started yet.”
“Fair enough.”
“Nova knows more than I do. It’s all over her every time she looks your direction.”
Claire’s stomach tightened with the danger of Philippa’s uncanny empathy. What if she figured out the date with Tai wasn’t the only secret Nova knew about Claire?
“We had tapas this week,” Claire said, “and I told her I was seeing Tai on Thursday and a little of how it went.” A very little. All Nova knew about her date with Tai was that it had gone well enough for the truce to be permanent, not that they had…
“You kissed him,” Philippa said, pointing her finger like a weapon.
“Gosh, Pippa, are you empathic or telepathic?”
Philippa gave a crow of victory. “Thank you for confirming my wild guess. But I still want an explanation.”
“Go.” Claire shooed her toward the door. “Get out. We’re not talking about this now.”
Philippa shook her head a final time, then returned to their table. When Claire joined a few minutes later, Nova stared at her with glittering eyes and mouthed clear words.You kissed him?
Well…shoot. Claire had to talk to Tai. As soon as possible.
After a reception dinner of small plates—typical vampire party fare—and two hours of dancing in the garden, where music could be played slightly louder for the humans without bothering the vampires, around ten o’clock the guests dispersed and the wedding party drove over to Laurence and Senna Maddox’s home to continue the festivities.
Everyone had stashed a change of clothes here before the wedding. They split up to change in various rooms all over the house, then resumed the conversation and laughter in the den, now wearing various long-sleeved T-shirts, jeans, and lounge pants. Claire loved to dress up more than the average person, but after an afternoon and evening feeling lovely in her dress and kitten heels, she was ready to throw on her yoga pants and coral-orange pullover tunic top. She left her makeup on for now. The contrast of casual clothes and glammed-up face looked pretty good in the mirror, but mostly, she didn’t want to take the time for a good face scrub.
She hardly noticed anyone else’s clothes, but she couldn’t keep her eyes off Tai when he rejoined the group, his lean frame wearing the heck out of vintage-slim black jeans and a brown V-neck tee that could probably be called sandstone. In all neutral colors, his platinum eyes dominated his appearance more than usual.
Of course, he caught her ogling. Of course, he smirked, and it was all she could do not to wrap her arms around his neck for a taste of that smirk. Of course, Philippa’s inconvenient empath status didn’t miss the wordless exchange between Claire and Tai, but this time she let it go.
Hannah and Jake didn’t last long, having not only the human need to sleep every night but also an early flight home in the morning. The vampires, on the other hand, kept the celebration going until daybreak. Only when they finally went their separate ways—including a boisterous sendoff when Ryker and Leslie ran out the front door to Ryker’s car—did Claire and Tai have the chance to speak privately. On the way to their vehicles, he motioned to her, and she didn’t need more explanation than that. As gray light crept up from the horizon and birds chirped their wakeup songs from tree branches all over the neighborhood, they set off on a walk around the block.
“It’s pretty obvious things between us have changed,” she said. Might as well dive in and talk it out. “I mean, even if you’re not Philippa the Empath.”
“Yeah.” He said nothing else for a minute, then, “I don’t want them to know.”
“About us?”
“Not us. Me. I don’t want them to know…” He gave a helpless shrug. “About me.”
“How am I supposed to explain why I’m flirting with you instead of shunning you?”
His somberness cracked for a moment with a look she could only describe assmoldering. “Flirting? Is that what we’re doing?”
“Let me rephrase. How am I supposed to explain that I’m making out with you like the world’s ending tomorrow and we might as well grab what we want and screw the consequences?”
His levity disappeared. “You think there’ll be consequences?”
Claire threw up her hands. “Not what I meant. Stay on the subject.”
He stopped walking, tugged her hand until she faced him. His eyes were so deep with feeling. Come to think of it, this was how he looked most of Thursday night. Maybe his emotions were often big like this. Maybe this was one of the things he felt he had to hide behind the smooth composure he was so good at.
