Her eyes dart between mine when I lean in. “Chaz…”
“Yeah, Aves?” I brush my fingertips up her jaw, and her eyelids fall halfway closed at the contact. I move my other hand to where her pulse throbs in her neck so that it beats against my palm, and she swallows as my mouth hovers in front of hers.
“Fuck it.”
And my lips are on her.
She sucks in a breath, her face cradled in my hands while I toe the hell out of this line. I don’t even know what I’m expecting—sparks or fucking fireworks or some revelation I’ll never recover from. A transformation, me and her different than before, savage and ripping at each other to get more.
But it’s just Avery. Smooth skin that smells like her body wash and a mouth I could spend some time on. Nothing existence-altering though.
Our lips are still mashed together when hers turn up, and I chuckle, still kissing her.
I keep a hand on each side of her face, pulling back. “Want to pretend this never happened?”
She nods, smiling, but when she tries to sit back, I hold her there until her cheeks warm under my touch and her eyes look lost in mine.
We have quite a few years left before I’ll need to drop out of their lives, so they don’t realize I’m not aging with them.
I’d rather not spend it in some awkward dance with her.
“I came back in here, and we watched the movie,” I tell her. “No weird kiss or anything other than a normal Chaz and Aves movie night, okay?”
I get another nod, another smile, and I let her go. She slumps back on the cushions, turning to the screen, and after a few seconds, she curls up next to me and rests her head on my shoulder. Roughing up her hair, I relax more than I have in a while.
It would be fucking fantastic if the feeling could last. If, after the shitstorm and the vague threat from Lydia, I could at least make it to the credits without the door flying open.
I jerk my head to the side as Kai strolls in, giving us a grin before he glances over his shoulder.
And then she walks through the door.
Pouty lips. Perfect ass.
Our eyes connect, hers widening when he hauls her to his side.
His hand splays out over her stomach, his mouth pressing a kiss to her temple. “Guys, this is Nyx.”
Fuck.
When Kai introduces us, she sticks out her hand and puts on a sham of a smile.
“Chaz,” she repeats. Her mouth forms around my name the way it did when she moaned with me inside her.
With that image front and center, I slip my hand into hers. “Nyx.” Then, for kicks, I tug her closer and kiss her cheek. “Like the goddess,” I whisper.
I pay little attention through the rest of the intros. They met at the coffee shop where she works, and she burned his macchiato or some shit. He’s been there every day since but only orders water. Blah, blah, Avery thinks the story is adorable and drags Nyx into the living room, insisting they stay for the rest of the movie.
That means the four of us are tucked in together on the couch. Me, the charge I just kissed, the chick I fucked in the back of a bar, and my other charge, who considers me a brother and is now dating the previously mentioned couch occupant.
Lovely.
A few jolts from Avery in, I tip my head back on the cushions, maneuvering around her head to see Nyx on her other side.
Even in profile, lit with the blue light from the screen, I catch the tension in her face, down her neck, and into her shoulders.
When she looks over, I don’t even pretend I’m not watching her. She acted like she didn’t know me, like my hands hadn’t been all over her, in more places than Kai’s—unless he’s figured out a way to have sex without triggering adrenaline. Her indifference shouldn’t bother me, but Avery’s overreaction to the movie cranks the furnace on my irritation. The light fuels my own overreaction to the woman I’m now in a stare-down with over the back of the couch.
Kai’s arm slides around her. She licks her lips, and my jaw ticks when she turns to him.
“You said there’s water in the fridge?” she asks. Kai starts to stand up, but she pats his leg. “I got it.”
She sure as shit does.
I wait for her to disappear behind the wall blocking the kitchen, and I stretch, purposely knocking my elbow into Avery’s head. She whips toward me, lips pursed.
“Beer?” I ask.
I get a curt nod.
As I get to my feet, Avery’s attention drifts back to the screen where, in about thirty seconds, the possessed-looking kid will start freaking out like he’s … possessed. Movie-type possession, that is. The darkness never really alters appearances that much; it just takes over and extinguishes the soul.
Kai kicks at my foot as I pass. “See if Nyx needs help.”
I sure as shit will.
When I round the corner, she’s pulling a pitcher of water out of the refrigerator. She turns around, slamming straight into my chest just as Avery screams from the other room.
Perfect timing, Aves.
Light floods through me, and my hands catch her face. She looks up as I tilt her head back, the heat pouring from my palms.
“Why are you here?” I ask softly.
Her eyes soften to honey-colored pools, the pitcher resting against my chest. “Kai wanted to watch a movie,” she answers, almost robotically.
Divine light—the most potent truth serum in existence. But I still follow up. “How did you meet him?”
“A coffee shop. But I’d seen him before at the bar where I met you.”
I should let her go, stop interrogating her. Except part of me wants to push further and find the right question to reveal that she’s really here to see me. Fuck, because having her be some nut, hunting me down and getting with my charge to get to me, is better than a random second encounter?
“You aren’t here to see me?”
Her head shifts from side to side. “No. I didn’t want to see you again.”
Words I planted in her head somehow manage to fucking spear me. Shit. She’s really dating Kai.
I feel the power start to fade and brush my thumbs over her cheeks. “You won’t remember this conversation.”
When I let her go, I back up a few steps.
Nyx blinks out of the daze and notices me standing near the door. All the tension returns to her. “Glasses?”
I point to the cupboard, crossing my arms while she pulls out a glass. She fills it, returns the pitcher to the fridge, and turns around in front of me. Her teeth work her lip to the point that I think it might bleed before I move around her to the refrigerator.
“He doesn’t need to know,” I say, grabbing three beers. “Actually, I’d prefer Kai doesn’t know how I really met his girlfriend.”
“I’m not…” She’s still facing away from me, but she turns over her shoulder. “We’re still feeling things out.”
An interesting distinction she felt the need to throw out there, and like a complete asshole, I smile. “Well, by all means then”—I slam shut the fridge and pass her without another glance—“feel away.”