Daemon and Alix’s wedding is a blur of laughter and dancing that stretches until dawn breaks. Joy radiates through our little group as we watch them together, their happiness almost infectious.
Eventually, they retire to their room, and Jett jokes that we shouldn’t expect to see them again for at least two weeks.
“Three.” I grin. “I’d put money on it.”
“I know better than to bet against you,” Jett replies, also grinning. “Three it is.”
Everyone laughs, and even Fox smiles—though it’s not the genuine smile that always makes my heart skip, and his dimple remains invisible.
Fox, Jett, Kastian, Odessa and I find ourselves in the living room sharing wine well into the early hours of the morning. Even Connell joins in, and Jett is having too good of a time to notice that the pirate really shouldn’t be roaming freely, let alone joining us for drinks. I like Connell, so I don’t bother to remind him.
As the night wears on, Odessa yawns and tugs Kastian to his feet, the two of them bidding us goodnight before disappearing upstairs. Their absence leaves just me, Fox, Jett, and Connell.
Connell sprawls out on the floor, his arms and legs outstretched, taking up as much space on the rug as physically possible, while Jett stands over him, loudly reenacting the story of how the two of them escaped some guards back in Hydratta. The room tilts pleasantly when I turn my head, and I laugh loudly at the story, my cheeks burning warm.
I’ve somehow ended up sitting on one end of the velvet sofa, with my legs tucked beneath me. Fox is sitting beside me, and my shoulder keeps brushing against his whenever I gesture with my hands.
“Wait!” Connell says, sitting up abruptly and interrupting Jett’s story. The pirate tilts his bottle upside down, watching the last crimson drop cling stubbornly to the rim before falling to the carpet. He sighs dramatically. “It’s all gone.”
Clearly forgetting whatever he’d been saying a moment before, Jett spins around to look, swaying slightly as he finds his balance. “That’s awful,” he bemoans.
“Downright cruel,” Connell agrees, nodding.
“Frankly barbaric. We’ll have to remedy this immediately.”
“Good man,” Connell booms, scrambling to his feet. He makes a theatrical sweeping bow toward me and nearly topples forward onto his face. “Excuse us, dear lady, we shall return in a moment.”
I giggle, as Jett grabs him by the back of the collar and drags him out of the room in search of more wine. We can hear their echoing, slightly slurred, shouts as they disappear down the hallway.
“They don’t need more wine,” Fox mutters.
I look sideways at him, still grinning. “Maybe not, but it seems like you do. You’re not even smiling.”
He pointedly lifts his mostly full wine glass to his lips and takes a sip, then flashes red stained teeth at me, like a wolf bearing its bloody fangs.
“Is that supposed to be a smile?” I ask, laughing. “I can’t even see your dimple.”
His brow furrows. “My what?”
“Your dimple.” I reach out and poke him in the cheek, and his face splits into an actual smile. “Oh, there it is!”
A loud crash and the sound of Jett and Connell’s raised voices comes from the other room and both of us freeze, glancing toward the dining room.
“I should go make sure they don’t hurt themselves,” Fox mutters to himself, even as he makes no effort to stand up.
“Why aren’t you as drunk as the rest of us?” I ask, nose wrinkling.
“I metabolize toxins quickly.”
“I’m so sorry! That must be horrible.”
He flashes me another grin. “Not always, but right now it’s not great.”
“Drunk people are a lot more annoying if you’re sober. I must be so annoying to you right now.” My face falls. “Wait, I swear I can focus. Hold on a minute.”
I close my eyes and try to banish the buzz of wine in my head. It helps I think…but it’s hard to tell. I tuck my feet more securely beneath me, the cushion dipping as I adjust, and when I open my eyes again, Fox’s gaze is already pinned to my face.
“You’re not,” he says.
