Page 36 of A Match Made in Error

This is just another round.

And we are clearly very good at pretending.

Pros at this now, we easily settle on the stump in the same position we were in before. Why fix it if it isn’t broken? We’re so in sync, we don’t even have to speak as we climb up and she gets settled into my arms.

Wonder how Angora and her lord are doing? I snort and turn my head, expecting to see her rolling her eyes and telling him off for messing up her hair or something.

Her face is in his neck—she wouldn’t be so mad that she’d be biting him…would she? Her head is rearing back now. She’s not going to headbutt him, is she? No, she’s crying. See. I knew she wouldn’t be enamored with him long.

Wait.

Is she laughing?

She isn’t biting him; she is nuzzling him and, Fate help us all, she is licking him. She was as frigid as a Foxhole-stamped cube of ice when she was with me, and now she is…giggling? With him? The other matches are oohing and awwing. The Moirai smile as they watch them grope one another.

I need to step it up. They cannot be the most desirable couple here. I won’t allow it.

“Just for the record,” I say lightly, “this is the part where I pretend you’re mine and forget it’s a lie.”

“What?” Poppy asks, but it’s too late to answer; I’m already acting.

“Careful, love,” I say loud enough for others to hear, but quiet enough that it feels private, “you can’t keep looking at me like that in public, or I’ll start acting like we’re alone.” I turn my lip to her ear once I’m sure I have their attention. “Hold still,” I murmur. “I need them to believe you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. Smile like you actually like me, sweetheart. The realm’s watching, and I’ve got a reputation to uphold.” I nuzzle into her neck, nipping at the soft skin that smells like vanilla and bad decisions covered in coconut sunscreen. “Tell me to stop if you need me to.” I know me, and I’m sure I’ll take it too far if allowed.

“What are you doing?” Poppy hisses through a smile.

“Trying to win.”

“That’s dumb.” Even in her annoyance with me, she sounds the part.

“We should kiss,” I insist. “That will really sell it.”

She scoffs. “No.”

“Yes,” I lick up the column of her throat, noting the shiver that runs up her spine and the spike in her bracelet.

“Why?” she bites out, her thighs tightening around me like she’s afraid I’m going to drop her.

“Because then we will win,” I say as if it’s obvious. “I love kissing, so my heart rate will spike, plus it’ll piss Angora off, which I know is an added bonus for us both. When we first started dating, she hated that I never wanted to make out with her because the lip stuff she wears tastes like eels.” Poppy doesn’t answer—she doesn’t say no, but she also doesn’t answer. “Please, Pop.”

“For Fate’s sake, fine,” she groans before bracketing my jaw with her hands and pressing her lips to mine. She kisses me hard and fast without softness, like she’s angry. Angry at Fate.

I pull back, breathless. “That was unfair.” My heart is going wild, so wild that Angora must’ve snapped her neck to watch us, sending her off-balance and toppling into the water as a result.

Riven and Poppy: 1

Angora and the douche lord: 0

“Unfair?” Poppy asks, and I watch Angora and Erik wade in front of us on her way to the beach.

“Yeah, because I want to do it again.” Her breath catches. Mine nearly does too, which feels deeply inconvenient. “I’m definitely not supposed to. We have an audience after all, and I am a gentleman.” My response is rehearsed, as in I’ve definitely said it before to another female, but I can’t stop it from coming out. I lean into Poppy, lips ghosting across the shell of her ear. “If that’s how you fake it, I can’t imagine how you do it for real. And bonus points for getting me half-hard on a live magical broadcast.” Not a lie. Poppy snorts softly, rolling her eyes in that way she does when she’s trying not to smile, and something warm twists unexpectedly low in my chest.

Dangerous.

Not the kiss.

The fact that making her laugh feels better than the kiss did.

Which is ridiculous, because the kiss was phenomenal.