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He dropped into a lounger and pulled me down onto his lap. My fingers snaked around his neck and into the soft hairs at the base. Part of me was waiting to wake up from this perfect dream. The other half was determined to suck every second of joy from it I could. He ran his palms over the sides of my face, brushing away loose strands of hair as he gazed at me with more feeling in his eyes than I deserved. If I did relationships, he would be one of my first picks.
"No strings," I murmured against his lips, and he grunted his agreement. The string that tied my heart to his seemed to pulse between us, highlighting how reckless I was letting myself be in the moment.
"For now, Sammy," he whispered between kisses.
Normally those words would make me run for the hills, but coming from him, warmth spread through me, making me soft and melty in his arms. Lazy kisses filled the better part of a half hour as we enjoyed each other. My lips were swollen, and I could feel him beneath me, probably uncomfortable in the constraints of his jeans.
"Uh, I don't mean to interrupt," Ty's voice was like a cold shower on my desire, and I flung myself from his best friend's lap like it had caught fire. "Jesus, Samantha, it is okay, I told him he could date you."
"We aren't dating," I said automatically, not daring to look at Rai after saying those words.
"For now," Rai added on and that same stupid warmth tried to make me melt again. He was dangerous, and if I knew better, I would stay away. Instead, I wanted to run back into his arms.
"Right, I'll leave that up to you guys, but Rai, there is a pretty terrible fire we've been called in to, across town. Carl said you hadn’t answered your pages. I told him that I'd get you and be there as soon as we could." He didn't wait for a response and disappeared back inside as quickly as he had appeared. I imagined he felt as awkward as I did about this. Rai was his friend, sure I had weaseled myself into that friendship over the years like any good little sister, but he was still his best friend. I definitely wouldn't have been cool with Brook dating Tyler.
"I'll come find you when we are done, and we can finish this conversation," Rai said, unfolding from the chair. I watched as he fixed himself in his jeans, a slight blush on his face as he did it.
"I very much want to finish this conversation later," I said against his lips as he pulled me in for one more embrace. With a groan, he released me and followed my brother inside.
I sagged into the chair he had vacated, my fingers pressed against my mouth. With him in front of me, I couldn't think clearly. He was everything I had wanted for as long as I could remember. I just had to remind myself that an actual relationship was not possible in my line of work. It was hard to tell my heart that, because right now, it was jumping for joy inside my chest.
CHAPTER 26
Alastor
My visitback home was a bust. Maybe if I had gone directly to my father, he would have found the information I needed, but interfering in the mortal world wasn't his directive. When I still couldn't find the Demon Prince, I thought maybe he went home on his own. No one had seen him in Tartus, or if they had, no one was talking. I found a book on our library shelves about the portal, and it confirmed royal demon blood would close it. Energy sparked inside of me as I stalked down the sidewalk. I would be scary if flowers didn't bloom behind me as I walked. I was leaving a trail of greenery in my wake, like my mother.
Cerberus snapped at the magical bees that appeared around the flowers and trailed after us. Of course, when some of my powers appeared, it was all about mending and growing. Useless to the King of the Underworld, unless he wanted something fixed or flowers on the tables. So I had to prove myself in other ways, like finding the prince and bringing him home. I had always strived to make my father proud, not that he was cruel or unkind, he was the opposite. He wanted the best for me. But he wanted me to follow in his footsteps. Maybe he should have thought about that before he fell in love with my mother.
My children would be strong. Although thinking about kids was a couple of steps ahead of my current situation. Right now, I was still in the protect and save mode, not that Samantha knew that was where we were in our association. Not that she was aware of the relationship at all. It sounded worse than it actually was. I wasn't some crazy, obsessed stalker.Okay, maybe I was, minus the crazy part, because I knew where she was right now, and I was obsessed with anything I could learn about her.
A group of women scurried across the street, their wide eyes taking in my trail of fucking flowers. Why couldn't it be something cool, like Lex and his shadow tattoos? I wouldn't mind some of those, even if it meant Nyx knowing where I was at all times. She wasn't as bad as I had pretended she was. She cared for her children, that was for sure. At least I had Cerberus, he was intimidating.
Fantasia came into view, and part of me didn't want to step foot into Lex's domain and the other part had to see Samantha with my own eyes to make sure she was okay. She would never know how many demons I had eliminated for her, neither would the King of Demons or my father for that matter. Both of them would lose their minds if they knew I was helping diminish the existing population after how hard they had worked to ensure its growth.
The regular troll stood guarding the door. He grunted and stepped aside when he saw me approach. At least he knew who I was. A sort of laughing snort came from him as I passed. Of course, the flowers. I threw him a glare, and he paled, his face wiping any trace of humor away.
At least the flowery display would stop once we were inside. No dirt meant no flowers.
The smoky club encased me as I stepped further inside. I scanned the frantic dancers and the booths in the shadows for the blonde head of hair I was searching for. Lex was inhis normal spot, pretending to be a bartender. I would never understand him. He went from having anything he could ever ask for as Nyx's son to this, serving supernaturals. He put himself below the very beings that his mother ruled. Anything that went bump in the night was under her domain, including the demons, really, not that she ever forced that rule.
Dismissing my old friend, I surveyed the rest of the club. She perched on a tall chair, a drink with an umbrella in her hand. Cutting through the crowd that separated us, I made my way to her. Bruises still marred her face, causing more of the anger inside of me to boil up. She appeared deep in thought as I stopped by the side of her table. She slowly raised her gaze to mine. Recognition sparked in the depths of her moss green eyes. At least there was that, she knew who I was.
"Alastor," she greeted me. I smiled. She knew my name, too.
"You remembered," I said.
"How could I forget you? You've been trying to help me, and you don't have to. In my books, you are a great guy, no matter what people say about you."
My smile grew. She wasn't joking. Lex had probably been very unkind in his opinion of me.
"I'm glad you don't judge a book by its cover," I replied.
She took a sip of her fruity looking drink as she watched me over the rim. "If I did, my judgment would have us doing the horizontal dance."
It took a moment for her words to sink in. I could feel the surprise widen my eyes at her brashness. Although it shouldn't shock me, she had asked me if I knew how to fuck when we first met. "Why does the dancing need to be done horizontally?"
She smiled as she tugged her lower lip between her teeth and lifted her eyebrows. "True." Her eyes drifted to the actual dance floor before coming back to me. "Want too?"
