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“So…I’m guessing you had a good afternoon?” I ask with feigned nonchalance, glancing over at Steph from the corner of my eye.
“The best,” she says, her smile widening before it drops. “Oh, shit. You heard everything, didn’t you? Fuck. I didn’t even think about that.”
I look over to meet her eyes. “Just the beginning, I swear. Jesse, Leif, and I left the hotel to give you some privacy.”
“Thank you,” she says, then brightens again. “Fuck, Eden. It was better than I’d ever imagined. My lady bits are still singing Erik’s praises.”
A laugh bursts out of me before I sober. “Did he bite you?”
Her smile tightens into a pout. “No. I begged him for it, but he refused.”
“Why?” I ask, and her expression softens.
“He said he wanted to save that for next time.”
“Next time, huh?”
“Next time,” she repeats, the words soft and breathy like she’s caught in a dream.
“I’m happy for you, Steph,” I say, then twist my lips into a smirk. “Even if you had to manipulate him into giving in.”
She just shrugs, not getting defensive in the least. “I had to do something to make him realize I’m not just going to sit around and pine for him while he denies us both out of some misplaced sense of propriety.”
“But you wouldn’t really go sleep with someone else, would you?” I ask, already knowing the answer.
“Hell, no. Since the second I laid eyes on Erik, it’s been him and only him. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it’s not just lust between us. I’ve been pretending that’s all it is because what I felt when we met scared me, a little, but now? Now I know I was right. There’s something there. Something that feels like…destiny.”
She blushes with that, and I try to keep my expression blank as I nod. Steph isn’t the “destiny” type, and hearing her use the word is a bit of a shock to us both. It makes me wonder…is she Erik’s mate? Will a bond form between them the way it did for me and Jesse? Or are they simply falling for each other?
“Who knew Erik has such a filthy mouth?” I ask, lightening the mood again before things get too serious.
We don’t have enough time to delve into the subject of destiny and mate-bonds right now. We’ll be in Terremagie in about five minutes.
“What did you hear?” Steph asks with a sound that’s a half-gasp, half-laugh.
“Just the beginning, like I said,” I answer with a chuckle. “When he started talking about how wet you were for him, we hightailed it out of there.”
“Oh, God,” she groans, her face turning pink again.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” I say, taking one hand off the wheel to push against her shoulder. “Think about me, living in a house full of vampires who heard everything every time Jesse and I made love…which was a lot.”
“How did you deal with it? Coming face to face with everyone afterward?”
I shrug. “Most of the vampires in the mansion have been around a long time. Noises like that don’t phase them, and it’s not like they bring it up in polite conversation.”
“The way you just did to me?” she asks, her tone snarky.
I laugh. “Well, I’m your best friend, so it’s my duty to call you out and give you shit.”
“True,” she agrees.
“Plus, Jesse’s bathroom is soundproofed, so we could just go in there if we wanted real privacy.”
“That’s convenient,” she says, her lips twisting.
I drive through the caution light in the single intersection of Terremagie, and we fall silent. The heaviness of our situation weighs down on our shoulders as we approach the area where we’ll need to pull over and cast the invisibility spell. I look over to my left, my gaze searching the thick forest for any sign of Jesse and the others. The movement I saw before isn’t there, which means they’re either holding back or moved ahead to get into position.
For the time being, we’re on our own.
