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Neve grins apologetically, lifting her shoulder. “I mean, I know she picked it as a middle finger.”
“You think?”
She laughs. “But it works! I mean,yourock the Johnny Cash look all the time anyway, Mr. Man-in-Black. You two look good together.”
“Which is a zero percent concern of mine, but thank you anyway.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m justsaying. I like the goth prom king and queen vibe you guys have going on.”
“Oh good, that’s what I alwaysdreamedI’d hear on my wedding day,” I mutter with a dramatic sigh.
Neve chuckles, slapping my arm. “Don’t be a dick. Look, I mean, I know it’s not—”
“Neve?”
She arches a brow.
“Before you launch into the same pep talk I’m sure I gave you when you married Ares, it’s fine. This is what being at the top means.”
“Well,” she sighs with a grin. “If you’ll let me finish, I’ll just say, you could have done a fuck of a lot worse than her.”
My brow knits curiously. I wasn’t present for Neve’s and Una’s first interaction back at the house, though I wanted to be, given…history. But when I caught sight of them outside in the garden talking, and having seen them together now, here at the reception, it’s clear that the meet went better than I could have ever expected.
“She’s not her father,” Neve says quietly.
“Funny, that’s exactly the way I put it to her this morning, too.”
“And,” she shrugs. “I kinda like her, actually. She’s pretty cool.”
Part of me wonders how “cool” Neve would think her new—fuck, her newaunt, technically speaking—was if she knew the details of said particular new aunt’s history of trying tomurder me. But, the other part of me knows she’s right.
I could have done a fuck of a lot worse.
Hell, she could have beennormal. Devoid of darkness. I could be politically married now to some wholesome, bubbly, peppy little suburban housewife type whose idea of inner darkness and baggage is the piece of candy she stole when she was a kid. Whose most depraved kink is keeping the lights on.
Thatwould have been a bitter pill to swallow, even if it meant saving the empire.
It’s only the fact that Unaisdamaged, and dark, and fucked up like me that makes this palatable. No. Much, much more than just “palatable.” Even if she’s notasfucked up as me.
“It is what it is, Neve.”
She grins. “Well,Ithink she could actually be good for you.”
I’m already rolling my eyes but she stops me.
“No, I mean I know it’s about politics. But I mean she’s a good match for you. And you can relax, I don’t mean emotionally or romantically. I mean as in, you could honestly use someone who stands their ground in front of you sometimes.”
I look at her over the rim of my whiskey glass. “Is that your way of calling me a tyrant?”
“Thatwas my way of saying having someone who can throw your shit right back in your face is a good thing. Trust me on that.”
I smirk as she glances past me, her lips pulling into a grin as she spots Ares across the room, talking to Dylan O’Riordan and Castle.
“It’s just politics, Neve.”
She shrugs. “I know. But if it ever became more than—”
“Just. Politics.”
