Much, much more. Because he would never have altered his home for anyone else, nor been so happy to do so.
Ash will kill me. But as the movie started and Simi manifested a blanket and bucket of popcorn, he realized he didn’t care what Ash thought. Or what he did to Thorn.
All that mattered was Simi and her happiness.
His heart pounding, he sat down next to her.
She smiled and offered him her bucket.
Thorn took a handful of the popcorn and sat back.
“We need Cokes.”
Thorn manifested a big cup of fountain soda for her. It was her favorite for movies and the smile on her face made his heart pound even harder.
He’d done this as a lark and honestly had expected her to mock him for it and not really use it. But this …
She was giddy and he was thrilled that he’d made her so happy. Which was weird. He hadn’t cared this much about someone else’s happiness since Brigid.
For a time, he had lived and died for the goddess. And he’d never thought to feel this way about anyone ever again. Especially not Simi.
With Brigid, she’d enchanted him the moment they met. He’d known she owned him right away.
With Simi …
She’d snuck up on his feelings. Or had she?
Now that he thought about it, he’d adored her since the moment they first met and she’d laughed at him.
There was nothing else in this universe like her charm. Or her heart.
They’d been friends first. Best friends for centuries.
Now he wanted more. Much, much more. He wanted her here with him all the time.
And he couldn’t do anything about it. Ash would absolutely destroy him.
They would never be friends again if he told her or acted on his feelings.
You have an even bigger problem.
He didn’t know how Simi felt about him. Never once in all these centuries had she ever shown an interest in him as anything more than a friend.
She slept with the Malachai.
That still galled him.
No, it hurt him and that was the truth. He’d never been angry over it. He’d been gutted. Gutted to the core of his rotten soul. She had chosen someone he still wanted to slug over it.
Too bad Nick was such a decent guy. He made it hard to hate him.
Simi slurped her soda, then frowned. “You okay, Thorny? You seem distractable.”
“Sorry. Not my favorite movie, but I know you love it. So here I am.”
She handed him her cup. “Thank you for suffering. It is much appreciated.”
“All good.” And it was. As bad as he hated this movie, he loved her enough to sit through it for the thousandth time and listen to her sing off-key with Julie Andrews. Besides, it could be worse. She could have chosen Nosferatu. Her other favorite movie that made him crazy.
