Chapter 10

Olistaire

I hadn't exactly intended to give that little speech. I'd wanted to keep things light, fun and flirty.

Five seconds later, out of nowhere I'm confessing the strength of my desire for her like some sort of rut-crazed bull. I'm just wondering whether I should be feeling embarrassed or not, when she curses, downs the rest of her cocktail, and looks like she's about to vault the table and climb into my lap.

My breath catches at the look in her eyes, and I stop fiddling with my glass. "Grace—"

"Right!" She moves back and starts frantically searching for a waiter. "I need some water."

"Grace," I all but purr contentedly, a smile pulling unbidden against my lips as I watch her cheeks flood with pink. "Are you flustered?"

"Jesus Christ," she mutters again. "Flustered? Good god, Oli, where do you get off talking to women like that? And this dress! You can't just spend that much—Who even—Yes! Please, can we get a bottle of water for the table?"

I grin at the waiter, a perky satyr who appears suddenly beside us, and order myself another drink too, as well as a charcuterie board, in case Grace gets peckish after her two consecutive cocktails.

"I bought you the dress because I'm selfish," I tell her as the satyr leaves, and I lean back to drape an arm over the back of the small outdoor sofa I sit on. "I wanted to see it on you. And it was worth every cent, whether you give me the opportunity to peel it off you or not."

"Jesus fucking Christ," she chants under her breath. When the water arrives and I pour her a glass, she downs the entire thing like it's a shot of tequila. It takes everything in me not to chuckle. She is entirely too cute right now.

"Right," she repeats when she's done. "So, Sera. Is she even here? Who am I looking out for?"

I blink, my mind taking a second to catch up with her words. "Would you believe me if I told you I'd forgotten about her?"

"Pff," she snorts, pouring another glass and avoiding eye contact. "I'm sure."

I take a second to decide whether it's worth arguing the point. I had forgotten, to be frank, caught up in the flushes of Grace's skin. The whole world's boiled down to the woman before me, and as I look around the bustling courtyard, the quiet hum of chatter and jazz wafting back into my awareness, it feels odd. Like none of it is important anymore.

I spot Seraphina as my eyes do an uninterested sweep of the space, and I almost miss her for my haste to look back at Grace. "Actually, don't look, but she's just arrived," I say absently.

Grace immediately swivels in her seat, craning her head to gaze all around her, and I rub my forehead with an amused wince. "Subtle."

"Which one is she?"

"I'm not telling you until you look back at me."

When her bright blue eyes land on mine, I raise my brows. "Don't turn your head, I'll tell you when she sits so you can subtly

look, alright?" I don't really want to think about Sera anymore, but I can see that Grace is burning with curiosity and likely won't drop the issue, so I relent. "She's the harpy in the pencil skirt and briefcase. Black rimmed glasses perched right on the end of her nose, bright red lipstick."

"What's a harpy?" Her head tips in curiosity, and despite her two successive cocktails, there's only a slight looseness in her shoulders and words.

"Half-woman, half-bird," I say with a shrug. "Big, black-feathered wings… on her back…"

Immediately—and I mean immediately,

before my sentence even finishes — Grace's head is swiveling once more.

"Wow, yeah, her wings are huge."

I start to chuckle, despite my best efforts to hold it in. "Alright, you see her. And soon, she'll see us. Mission accomplished." I reach for my glass and take a lazy pull. "Can we get back to the part where I make you blush?"

But her face remains firmly pointed at wherever Sera must now be seated with whoever she's being joined by, and she doesn't reply.

I clear my throat, and eventually Grace looks back.

"She's really pretty." Her expression has gone oddly blank, and her gaze slips away from mine too quickly as she crosses her arms. My heart skips a beat. Is she jealous?

Once more, I see nothing but the curvy little beauty before me, chewing on her cheek in annoyance and trying to look unaffected. Her hair falls in caramel waves around her shoulders, her breasts pushed enticingly up over the scooping neckline of the dress I chose for her, which she honors me by wearing. She huffs and pouts at the mere existence of Sera, and nothing has ever looked more delicious to me in my life than the sight of her right now. Which strikes me as odd, since jealousy is usually a turn off. Why it would make my heart thump in my chest with possessive satisfaction is beyond me, but I can't deny that it does.

Her name once more leaves me in a contented purr, and I lean towards her. "Grace, do you remember when I told you I'd never lie to you?"

She finally makes eye contact with a half-glare. "You mean literally one minute ago? Yes, Oli, I remember."

"Good." I keep my gaze steady on hers. "You are much prettier than Sera could ever be."

Her face scrunches with a frown, loosens with a sigh, and then her lips purse as she tries to suppress a smile. "Jeez, Olistaire… Could you maybe tone it down for like five seconds?"

Tone it down?

"You are the prettiest female I've ever seen, possibly the prettiest I'll ever see," I say instead, feeling a rush of warmth in my chest when she finally lets out a laugh.

She grabs a loose napkin and throws it ineffectually at me. "I don't care. She can be as pretty as she likes, it's got nothing to do with me."

I hum noncommittally, but I can't help feeling both amused at her reaction, and relieved that I seem to have made her feel better. The world around me is beginning to fade into nothing once more, melting away to non-existence as I look at Grace. We sit in comfortable silence for a little as she fiddles with another napkin, sending me a shy smile followed by an immediate eyeroll, and I smile back. I could do nothing but watch her all night, and I'd be satisfied.

"Well, well, look at the happy couple."

It takes me a second to register the newcomer. I turn to look at Sera standing suddenly beside us. Huh. I didn't expect her to approach us at all.

"Fancy seeing you tonight, handsome." She spares Grace an unreadable glance with eyes the same color as her blood red lips, before laying a hand on my shoulder. "What are you doing out here in the cold?" Her fingers trail towards my neck. "Come join me inside, enjoy some good company tonight."

"Sera, it's nice to see you here," I say with a wince as I brush her hand away. "But as you can see, I'm in the middle of something."

"Oh, come on," she huffs, shivering her wings coquettishly so the dark feathers gleam in the warm lights. "It's nicer at my table. I'm with the old crowd, we'll have a good night together. You can bring your little friend, too. What do you say?"

"My name is Grace." Grace's voice is calm enough, but when I look over, I notice her spine is stiff.

Sera barely spares her a glance. "Oh? I'm Sera. Oli and I are good friends." She puts her hand back on my shoulder. " Very good friends."

"I know who you are," Grace replies. "You and Oli used to fuck."

I press my lips together to stop myself snorting in shocked amusement, and Sera's smile freezes on her face. She finally turns to give Grace her full attention. "Excuse me?"

"Oh sorry, was I speaking too quietly?" Grace's eyes flash towards Sera's hand on my shoulder, which I once more remove. "I said, you and Oli used to fuck, but now you don't. So you should keep your hands to yourself."

There's a brief silence between the three of us.

"Ah, well," I say awkwardly, doing my best to keep my voice neutral. "Like I said, nice to see you, Sera. Have a lovely evening."

Sera lets out an outraged huff, her brows slashing furiously over her red eyes, but she seems to stop herself from what she's about to say and lifts her chin, pointedly turning away from Grace. "When you get tired of keeping such poor company," she clips angrily to me, "you know where to find me."

Then she turns and saunters away.

Grace watches her until she's out of sight, and I can't seem to hold my smile back any longer. "You have nothing to fear from that female," I tell her, hoping to soothe her blatantly territorial behavior. The fact that she's acting like this over me , the male she insists she has no interest in, has me feeling all sorts of masculine satisfaction. I decide not to analyze why I like this behavior in Grace so much, and simply allow the tugging in my heart to draw me closer to her. I lean forward, resting my elbows on my knees with half a mind to reach out and touch her cheek, when she finally looks away from where Sera disappeared.

"Little friend…" she repeats Sera's words darkly. "I don't like her."

"I wonder why," I say under my breath, but I don't think Grace hears me anyway. I'm starting to realize she's got quite a temper on her, and I like the way it fires her up.

"We're clearly on a date." Her glare deepens as she stares across the courtyard again. "But she still flirted shamelessly with you and tried to steal you away."

My smile stretches, and the warmth in my chest flourishes. "Nobody could steal me away from you, sweetheart. Not for anything."

Grace barely even hears me, her eyes once more pointed to where Sera walked away. "She called us a couple, so it's not like she didn't realize. She knew exactly what she was doing." Her lips purse, and she stands. "And she's still staring at you, by the way. She's sitting by the window looking out at you as if I'm not right here."

My brows shoot up my face, although the warmth spreading through me only deepens. I wonder if I'm going to have to break up a fight, and I brace myself to stand, but instead of storming across the courtyard, Grace instead storms over to me and angrily plonks herself sideways onto my lap.

My heart rate instantly doubles at the feel of her soft body pressed against me, and I palm her thigh.

"Well," I murmur, staring at her angry side profile and the long, slender neck hidden beneath the waves of her hair. "This is a welcome turn of events."

"She's so rude." Grace finally turns her heated blue eyes my way. "I'm sick of women taking my men!"

I tighten my fingers against her warm leg. "Am I your male, then?" I tease, but for some reason, find myself holding my breath for her answer.

"According to her, you are," she huffs, before snatching up my glass from the table. "And she needs to learn a lesson."

Then she takes a gulp of my whiskey, slams it back down, and turns and presses her lips against mine. I sigh against her, wanting nothing more than to melt into her kiss—and more importantly, feel her melt into me—but she's once more revenge-kissing me, and I'm not about to let things go too far if that isn't what she actually wants. So with deep, deep regrets, I thread my fingers through her hair and pull her back.

"Grace, my dear… are you here with me?"

"What?" She squints, her face pulling back in confusion. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean are you here." I run my hand up her thigh, tracing over the lovely curve of her hips before squeezing her waist. "In this moment, with me. Or…" The hand in her hair slips out, and I tap gently at her forehead. "Are you locked away in there?"

She huffs. "Olistaire, if you don't let me kiss you right now, I'm going to get angry."

I grin, shaking my head. This female. "Then it's a good thing you're beautiful when you're mad."

"Oli," she whines, wriggling in annoyance, and I bite my lip and try to control my body's reaction to her. Because she is sitting precariously close to a certain interested part of me who doesn't particularly care about morals or doing what's right. "Isn't this what all your overzealous flirting was for?"

"Overzealous, huh?" I shake my head again. "You have such an easy way of making me sound rather pathetic."

She smiles suddenly and leans forward, resting both her forearms on my shoulders. "Not pathetic." When her hands instinctively loop to connect behind my head, I almost close my eyes, because this is exactly how I want her to hold on to me when I slide deep inside her wet little slit. "If nothing else, you're a lot of fun, Oli, I'll give you that much. Like you said, you never make me feel anything but good."

"Just give me half a chance," I murmur, entranced by the sight of her lips so close to mine. Gods, how I want to make her feel so much more than just good.

"Then kiss me, you idiot."

My hand snaps back to her neck, gripping her spine gently as I shift forward. "Listen carefully, little human, because you need to understand. If I kiss you, I'm going to do it properly." She blinks in surprise, and my hand at her waist tugs her closer. "And when I kiss you properly, I'm going to do everything in my power to ensure you don't ever want me to stop. If you'd let me, I'd make you come right here in public with nothing but my hand between your thighs, and my lips at your neck. I wouldn't think twice, sweetness. So I'm going to ask you one more time."

Her lips part, her gaze on mine heated and, finally, steady. No more darting to the side, thinking about everything else in the world but the male who is desperate for her. No, she's

looking at me .

"Are you here?" I whisper, and I can't stop myself from shifting still closer. "With me?"

"Yes," she breathes, the sound barely more than a flutter of desire. "I'm here with you."

My fingers tighten at her neck as my blood rushes through me, and I let out a slow breath. "Then I'll kiss you."

Her eyes flutter shut, and I almost groan aloud with relief and need as I put my lips to hers, and slip my tongue into the wet heat of her mouth.

Yes.