“What’s up?”
The soft sound of her laugh floated through the phone.
“What’s up? No over dramatic sigh with a ‘what do you want, Violet’?I’m almost disappointed.”
“Did you just quote me?”
“Maybe.” Her tone was teasing.
Damn it. I wanted to see her. Was she grinning? Sitting? Holding the dragon? Looking out her window watching the city? The next thing, I knew I was out my door and strolling to her apartment complex.
I sighed.
“What do you want, Violet?”
“Perfect.” There was a brief silence. “Um… I… I don’t really know. I just— Shit, can you hang on a second? The other line is ringing for my bedtime check-in. Sorry, one sec.”
She didn’t even wait for my answer before the line started beeping to tell me I was on hold. Fine, it would give me a chance to get up to her balcony. Two minutes later, I was at her door and she was still talking to whoever called her. I knew for a fact it wasn’t Eva. Who the hell was keeping her so long?
“—code word then?”
I caught the end of her sentence. She’d changed out of her dress, into pajama pants and an oversized sleeping shirt.
“Well, you can’t decide one now. I’ll need to see you face to face to confirm it’s really you giving me the code word.”
She laughed. “Is that your way of asking me out, Hem?”
That poisonous little weasel! He was so getting his ass kicked the next time I saw him.
“That depends, would you say yes?”
She blushed. Oh, he was so fucking dead. He knew damn well that she was fucking off limits. I made that very clear when I tracked him down after their first meeting.
“I guess that depends, can you turn all liquids into poison or just water?”
Deep breath. You’re very drunk and you cannot rip her door open and hang up the phone.
“Can I trust you with a secret?”
“Lots of people trust me with lots of secrets. You’ve already trusted me with one, why not another?”
I felt myself scowling. Did she forget we were on the phone? Thatshecalled me? Did I mean so little she could make yet another date while she kept me waiting on the other line?
“I can turn any liquid into any other liquid. You have water but want wine? Call me Jesus baby, ’cause I can make that happen.”
Her mouth fell open.
“Seriously? And you’re out here poisoning people when you could make a killing selling custom drinks! You’re in the wrong line of work, my friend.”
“So is that a yes?”
“No. I couldn’t possibly go out with someone who could be a billionaire but chooses to live in poverty to kill people. Clearly they’re an idiot.”
He started cackling.
“Not many people would have the balls to call me an idiot right to my face.”
A mischievous smile spread over her face.
