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“I omitted some information, but I didn’t lie,” I say firmly.
“So you said… but humans do. And I think you can admit you aren’t great at interacting with humans. I misread all of your clues, and it’s literally my job to read people. I know how to blend into different crowds and you, I’m sorry to say, stick out like a big gray thumb.”
Eden and my brothers look from her to me, waiting for me to tell her she’s wrong and that our plan is foolproof. But for hundreds of years, we went without human contact, and it’s only in the last century we’ve reconnected with the Strange. If Julianna felt the awkwardness in our conversation last night, it was because it was there and I’m out of practice.
She continues, gaining steam.
“You really think it’s going to be that easy to talk your way into getting one of LA’s most coveted invites? My job is to interact with men like Freddy, both as a sugar baby and when I was acting. I know how to get them on my side.”
All vim and vigor, Julianna stares at me, hands on her hips, daring me to disagree. I suppress a smile. I want to kiss her. I want to throw her over my knee. I want her to stop talking.
“And another thing—”
I make an instant foolhardy decision.
“Fine then,” I growl out with a frown. “If you know better, you’ll be my date to the wrap party and you’ll help me secure the invite to the unveiling if I need it.”
That’ll shut her up.
ChapterFive
JULES
“I’ll do it.”
Stone eyes snap towards me, and my gaze desperately swings around the room as I’m sure I wasn’t the one who just spoke.
“For a price,” I add quickly.
My pulse races, and my stomach drops under the intense stares of the gargoyles. My brain struggles to process them as anything but a hallucination. Each of them is massive and powerfully muscled, with horns, tails, and wings that only make them appear larger. They are uniquely fearsome, and their sharp fangs and talons should scare me. I should be screaming, running for the door, but I felt Titan’s stone skin under my fingers. He’d felt warm, his skin giving way to pressure, and he didn’t seem so frightening. He’d given me a warning growl, and it had only made me want to touch him more.
What am I doing?
It seems like the only sensible thing to ask myself because I realize I just volunteered to play super spy with a bunch of living, breathing mythical beasts.
While Titan talked with his brothers, I sent several texts to Safiya, promising her I was safe. She sent me a photo of her on her sugar daddy’s private jet, and I, in turn, typed and deleted several messages describing the strange situation I’m now in. When I determined I’d need more time to correctly describe the monster who’d just made me come so hard I squirted, I shifted over to my bank app. I sent a couple months’ worth of back rent with the money Titan had given me the night before. My landlord is officially off my back for the short term. However, the several emails, texts, and phone messages from my lawyer made it clear that I’m far from out of the financial woods. When we first started working together, my victory in the case had seemed months away, but years later, my mother and ex-manager’s grip on my trust has only seemed to tighten. I’ve paid him when I could, but he’s growing impatient, and I can’t blame him.
The threads of a plan knit together. If Titan was willing to cover several months of rent for a night together, what would he do for my help in recovering his precious Keystone?
“No,” Titan grunts abruptly, puncturing the ballooning fantasy I have of a month or even a year of security.
“Yes,” I bite back with a frown, squeezing his emerald ring tighter in my hand.
I could pocket it right now. I could leave with the ring in my purse and sell it. It could buy me time with my lawyer.
Titan doesn’t even bother to turn around, just angles his carved granite face towards me and eyes me from over his wings. I can see the hints of the human Titan in his square jawline, made sharper by the stone, and the gray eyes that are now just a shade darker than his skin, but it’s the expression that marks him as the same being, flesh or stone.
His gaze narrows and locks onto me. His now-heavy brow furrows to create sharp cracks across his forehead, and his mouth forms a firm line of stern disapproval. The huge horns that curve up and back, almost touching the ceiling, add weight to his warning. I refuse to back down. I pull the blanket tighter around me and resist the urge to squirm under his spotlight.
“It’s not a terrible idea.” Rook, or at least I’m pretty sure that’s what Titan called the gargoyle with the one broken horn, cautiously breaks the silence. “You haven’t been around humans for longer than necessary in decades. None of us have. You could use help blending in—”
“Then Eden will go as my date,” Titan interrupts sharply.
Eden, the curvy, raven-haired white woman I’d first met last night as she ushered me into Titan’s private elevator, lets out a squeak. She shuffles backwards like a scared rabbit until her back hits the bedroom wall. It’s not the reaction I expected from a woman who only minutes ago had easily put giant, grunting gargoyles in their place. But then it’s going to take me several months to fully process that a whole monster mash of creatures are real and living in Los Angeles. Maybe I should just throw my expectations out the penthouse window.
“Eden doesn’t know the world you’re stepping into. Jules does.” Rook walks forward, pulling Titan’s attention back on him.
I catch the grateful look Eden shoots Rook’s way and how his eyes soften before he gives her a cold nod in return.
