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“Well that’s something.” She glanced at me. “Are you going to reply?”
I made a face and took the phone from her to dump it somewhere on the bed. Then I lay down and tugged her on top of me, making sure the sheets were bunched at my hips because I was definitely going to get hard again.
“I’d much rather use my hands for something else.” I waggled my eyebrows at her suggestively. “If you catch my drift.”
She wrinkled her nose with a laugh. “Shockingly, I do, despite the very subtle way you’re squeezing my ass.”
“I can’t help it.” I squeezed again, just because. “I’d like to request that my coffee comes with a free ass squeeze every morning. As payment.”
“What?” Beryl laughed. “How is that payment? I deliver your coffee and my payment is getting my ass grabbed?”
“Grabbed by me.” I gave her a wide grin. “You love me.”
“How about I get to grope your ass every morning?”
“Deal,” I said immediately, my grin turning smug as I shut my eyes and relaxed into the bed. “You got played, berry.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Beryl
“Okay. Nuni, Laki, Daga, Kiti, Sorin…” My mind went blank as I ticked the names of Greid’s siblings off on my fingers. I glanced over at him in panic. “Fuck, I’ve forgotten the other two.”
He chuckled, hand shifting on the steering wheel as he turned the car onto a quaint suburban street lined with squat, dark demiurgus houses. “Suni and Tuvin.”
“Tuvin’s the guy, right?” I frantically tried to picture the family photo I’d studied at home before we left.
“Yeah. Blue in his hair. Suni has green.”
“Okay.” I wiped my palms over my jeans, ridiculously nervous. “And Daga’s lifemate is called Elern, right? And they have four kids? What’re the kids’ names again?”
“Even I can’t remember that,” he joked, reaching over to palm my thigh. “Chill, berry. It’s not like they’re going to give you a pop quiz when you walk in. The ones you haven’t met will introduce themselves anyway.”
Greid’s mom, Una, had visited us a few more times in the last couple of months, twice with Kiti and Greid’s brother Sorin in tow. Kiti had demanded my number the last time, so now we spoke a lot through text. And she sent me a lot of childhood photos of Greid. The last one had been an adorably awkward yearbook photo, when he’d had braces and a huge pimple on his chin.
We’d been watching TV when she sent it, so I’d shown Greid my phone screen straight away, then launched myself at him when he dragged a blanket over his head with a groan. He was just so cute.
Laki had also stopped by once to get high with Greid, and I was glad I’d met them in advance of today so I wouldn’t be so nervous around them. They were one of those intimidatingly, effortlessly cool people—tall and lanky like Greid, with gorgeous, turquoise-streaked hair, a nose ring and weird pale tattoos all over their arms.
I’d ended up getting high with both of them. And I’d ended up telling Laki about the cult. Una and Kiti already knew—I didn’t want Greid to have to lie to his family, so I was trying to drip feed them snippets about my past to make it seem less weird.
Laki had been totally cool about it, but I had no idea if that was because they’d been high. They’d just gazed at me with bloodshot yellow eyes and said, “Huh. Glad you’re out of there now,” before stuffing a handful of chips in their mouth.
“Who else will be there?” I asked Greid, my belly jumping with nerves as we approached the house on the street with a lot of cars parked outside it. “Just so I know what to expect.”
“My Aunt Indi—Mom’s sister—and her lifemate Bax. The siblings. Daga’s mate Elern and their kids. Um… maybe some partners of the others? I’m not sure. Kiti usually invites whatever d-bag she’s dating at the time.”
“Kiti isn’t dating anyone,” I said absently, peering out the window at the big, dark stone house. “She told me the other day.”
“Thank fuck for that,” Greid muttered, pulling into an empty spot. “She has terrible taste in men.”
“Greid!” I smacked his arm. “What if some of your family think that about me? You’re dating a human!”
“They don’t care about that. And you’re not a d-bag.” Shutting off the engine, he reached over and cupped my cheeks, grinning as he squished them. “You’re the best. Plus”—he let go of me to unbuckle his seatbelt—“we’re not just dating. We live together. You love me. No takebacks.”
I snorted, unclipping my seatbelt and leaning down to grab my bag from between my feet. Una had choked on her excited gasp when Greid called to let her know we were Officially Together. She’d turned up the next day with a cake. And Kiti.
That was when I’d told them about the cult. Una’s big yellow eyes had gone glassy when I briefly explained my childhood, which had made Greid duck his head and rub his own eyes because he couldn’t handle seeing people cry.
