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And maybe I didn’t want to. The lingering buzz of panic would make sure I never, ever took Cory for granted. I knew exactly how lucky I was to have him, and especially as long as my nerve endings still tingled with that hanging-by-my-fingernails fear, I wasn’t going to forget it. That moment when he’d been so closed off, when he’d assumed I’d come for his trickster favor to get out from under my curse—no one had ever been further away from me.
Yet he’d still been willing to give me Galen’s favor.
“You’re incredible, you know that?” I whispered.
He peered curiously up at me. “Huh?”
“After last night, you were still going to give me that favor.” I smoothed his hair as I swallowed hard. “Anyone else would’ve told me to pound sand.”
Cory broke eye contact but didn’t pull away from me. “It hurt. I’m not gonna lie.”
Closing my eyes, I drew him in closer and kissed the top of his head. “I’m sorry.”
“I know. And I understand now.”
“But you were still going to let me use it.”
This time, he did pull back, but only enough to look up at me. “You’re still my friend.”
“Even after—”
“Yes,” he breathed. “I didn’t just stop loving you because I thought you weren’t into me.”
“But you thought I used you.”
He half-shrugged and didn’t gainsay me. “Didn’t mean I was going to turn my back on you.”
I suspected he’d wanted to. The pain in his eyes when I’d come to his door—he’d probably wished he was the kind of person who could tell someone to get wrecked.
I was just incredibly fortunate he’d been willing to hear me out, and that I’d managed to soothe the hurt I’d caused him. All I had to do now was spend the rest of my life making up for it.
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “I’m just glad you answered the door.”
“Me too.” He laughed halfheartedly. “I almost didn’t. But…” He sighed and met my gaze. “I don’t know. Something told me I should.”
“Good thing it did,” I murmured, and claimed a kiss. There was nothing either of us could say that would soothe my conscience completely for hurting him like this, but the way he kissed me told me he really was moving forward. He was holding me tight, exploring my mouth in the most deliciously unhurried way, and like this, I could believe we were on solid ground.
How did I miss that you loved me?
Then again, he’d missed that I felt the same way, so maybe we really were oblivious idiots.
After a while, I broke the kiss and gazed into those beautiful eyes. “Okay. Question.”
Cory lifted his chin. “Hmm?”
“How exactly did you wind up in possession of a favor from the Trickster King?”
He laughed, lighting up the whole damn world. “Oh. That. It’s, um… The story isn’t quite as exciting as you might think.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Basically, we were getting shit-faced with a couple of my clients, and—”
“Wait, wait, wait.” I put up a hand. “Back up. How did you end up getting shit-faced with him? Because that’s not exactly a minor thing, is it?”
“No. And that story isn’t that impressive, either, honestly. He caught wind of me helping out several victims of a particular fae, and he was concerned about this being a trickster who’d gone rogue. Which… they had.” Tsking, he rolled his eyes. “God, that was a shitshow. I mean, any other day, I’d have been like, ‘whoa, wait, why the fuck is the Trickster King showing up in my office?’ But that day, it was more like, ‘Please tell me you’re here to unfuck this mess.’”
“Which he was?”
