I gasped. “You can do that?”
He shrugged. “Magic is limited by two things: the extent of your power and imagination. I have both in spades.”
“Show-off.”
We’d reached my door, but before I could disappear inside, he said, “I could try to do your hair, if you’d like. I’ve never done it, but it can’t be that hard.”
I blinked. “You won’t make it all fall out, will you? I already had to cut off a chunk that was burned by a bloody dragon last month.”
“That’s one story I absolutely need,” he stated. “But no. I won’t make it fall out.”
“Fine. Give it a go, then. Perhaps not pink tonight? That’s rather distinctive.”
I hadn’t been to Paris on enough missions to be recognized on sight, but it made sense not to wear my signature look if it could be helped.
He reached for my hair, putting a loose strand behind my ear.
A shiver ran down my spine at the contact, hyperaware of his skin on mine.
“Downstairs in half an hour for dinner?” he asked.
I made myself nod.
Damn him and his hands and his bulk and his fuckingscent. Leather, musk, deep spices and steel. No one should smell this delicious. No one.
In the bathroom, I realized I didn’t ask for a specific color. I quite liked the shade of lilac he chose for me. It wasn’t too far from my usual pink, a little darker perhaps. My hair had never look shinier either.
Rather than having dinner at the hotel, we chose a restaurant a stone’s throw away from the club, and my window seat camewith a decent view of its entrance. It started to get busier around ten, just as we polished off our sinful Paris-Brests.
“There’s a bit of a queue,” I told him, mindful of staying ambiguous in public. “So we’ll get in in thirty or so. We shouldn’t drink too much tonight.”
Cas snorted. “It takes a hell of a lot to get me drunk. How about you?”
“Tons,” I admitted. “Or a single cocktail from Pan.”
“You’ve drank Pan’s brew?”
I bobbed my head, blushing as I remembered feeling high, pissed, and seriously horny that night. “He has a club back home on Life Avenue, in the underside.”
“You’ll have to take me for our second date.”
I blushed like a schoolgirl. The asshole knew just what he was doing, embarrassing and flustering me. “We’ll see if you can behave for the rest of this one, first,” I shot back.
“I didn’t realize I was being tested.” He reclined on his seat. “I’ve been remiss in not telling you how gorgeous you look, then.”
I flipped him the bird, and the unhinged weirdo bent down and put my middle finger in his mouth, sucking it.
I felt it down to my clit.
I could only stare speechlessly while he grinned, knowing he’d won this interaction by being an absolute heathen.
21
SILVER
We bypassed the queue to get into the club after Cas offered a couple of bills to the bouncer, entering a dimly light modern club set in a gorgeous historical space. Between the columns and arches, the stained glass and painted ceiling, this could have been Highvale—except our architecture felt modern, recently built, or preserved to look exactly like it had the day it was built, while there was a certain element of decay in the rest of the world.
I would have enjoyed being here for fun. Instead, my eyes took in every nook and cranny, spotting exits, analyzing the space and each person around us.
