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I fluffed out my hair and smoothed a hand over my slinky blouse and wide-legged trousers one last time before exiting the ladies’ room. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been so damned nervous on a date. Apparently, the little hiccup with Cora over my gender had delt my usual confidence quite a blow. I was used to wooing people with ease. Starting relationships was never a problem. It was just the keeping them that was hard.
But this was only the first date. We had plenty of time to figure out if this was even going to be a real relationship. Calm your tits, Io, I told myself, exasperated with the way I was acting. Remember who the hell you are.
I squared my shoulders and walked with confidence back to our cozy corner booth overlooking a small freshwater lake. Cora glanced my way and smiled. She looked utterly delicious in a short black dress with her pretty blue pixie cut slicked back and a bit of dark navy eyeliner rimming her big blue eyes. Slipping into the booth, I let out a pleased sound at the realization that our appetizers had arrived while I was gone.
Cora’s eyes twinkled as she watched me help myself to the calamari. I lifted a brow, pausing with my fork halfway between the platter and my plate. “What?”
She gestured at the food. “So...you’re not a squid shifter, then.”
I bit out a laugh. She didn’t know how close she was to the mark. Not that I cared. Kraken and squid were not the same link in the food chain. “What about you?” I said as she helped herself to some fried clams. “I can sense water magic on you, but you must not be a clam shifter.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do those even exist? I’m not a shifter. I’m a water nymph.” She snorted. “A really weak one.”
I couldn’t help the wide, enraptured smile that spread across my face. I hadn’t ever chatted with a water nymph before. The ones I’d met in passing had been kind of stand-offish and not a fan of animal shifters. But the term nymph included all kinds of different humanoid water beings who had been called by dozens of names over the centuries—like naiads, nereids, oceanids, that kind of thing. It could be that I just hadn’t met anyone who was the same type of nymph as Cora. Or, it could just be personality differences. Maybe she was just less of a snooty bitch than those others.
“Weak?” I mused. “So you’re not about to use some water-folk whammy on me to get me to do your bidding? I’m so disappointed.”
She huffed a laugh, her big blue eyes sparking with a bit of heat at the mention of me being under her control. “Unfortunately, no. All I can do is turn into water.” She waved jazz hands at me. “Woo.”
I just finished my bite of crispy squid and grinned at her. “Water? Like...just...poof, I’m a puddle?”
Cora laughed into her wineglass. We had maybe had a bit too much to drink while waiting for the food, but it wasn’t strong enough to effect a supe. Well...not enough to effect me. I wondered if maybe Cora was getting a buzz. Her cheeks were slightly pink, and I definitely hadn’t missed the way she looked at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. “Yep,” she replied to my nonsense. “That’s pretty much how it is. I just leave behind a pile of wet clothes.” She shrugged. “Though, it does come in handy if I need to get away fast. You know, down drains or through cracks or something.” She shuddered. “Though that can get real gross, real fast.”
I shook my head at her. “Do I even want to know why you’d feel the need to travel down a dirty drain?” The second the question was out, I knew I’d said the wrong thing. Cora’s smile faded and she shrugged. “I’ve had to get out of a few scrapes that way.”
The server arrived with our main course and we were quite until he left. I ignored my absolutely amazing looking surf and turf platter and reached over to cover Cora’s hand with my own and give it a squeeze. “Hey. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories. I should think before I speak. Or so I’ve been told a time or two...hundred.”
She shook her head and gave me a small smile, pulling away to dig into her own overflowing shrimp platter. “It’s okay. I don’t want you to feel like you have to tiptoe around me, Io. And...well, it’s to do with...things between us, so you need to know.” She took a breath and flicked her gaze up to meet mine, then away again. “I, uh. When I was a kid, my dad was a terrible person. Then he was gone. My mom re-married. Some successful corporate type—I don’t even know what he did for a living. CEO of something or rather company. I couldn’t have cared less.” A wry smile lifted one corner of her mouth. “Angry father-less teen, you know?” She sighed. “Well, mom thought he was just the best thing to ever happen to us. And I suppose to her, he was. All of the sudden we had financial stability, a man around the house. But...well, he always creeped me out. And he got creepier as time went by. When I was sixteen, he started making hints about stuff....”
Her hand tremored and she dropped her fork. Blowing out a long breath, she looked up at me, shoulders hunching like she was expecting me to be disgusted with her. “I...he didn’t ever physically do anything, but I had the feeling he was going to. And there were always the looks, and the comments when no one else was listening. I tried to tell mom and she accused me of being a whore. Of trying to...steal her husband.” She shook her head. “So, I ran away.”
I swallowed a sip of wine and did my best to keep my expression neutral and open. Even though I really wanted to go tentacled and start strangling people. “I’m sorry.”
She shook her head again, with conviction this time. “I’m not. I got out of there, and sure, things were hard and scary for a couple years, but who knows what kind of life I’d have if I had stayed. Even without that asshole in the picture.” She stabbed a shrimp and chewed it with a vengeance. “Brier found me living on the street five years ago—when I was eighteen. He gave me a job and helped me get an apartment. And life is so much better now.” She swallowed and met my eyes. “But I’m still...I don’t know. I was afraid of men—any men—for a long time after I ran away. Out on the street, it was men I had to be most careful around. And guys in suits...this is so dumb, but one time he cornered me, and he was wearing this fancy suit, and all I could see was his ugly tie and I thought I was either gonna die, or wish I was dead. It was close that time, and I think that memory just...stuck. So for a long time I’d have like, panic attacks around businessmen.” She huffed out a bitter laugh. “Have you ever heard of something so stupid? Businessman phobia?”
I shook my head. “So that’s why you got so upset when I showed up in the coffeeshop as a guy in a suit.” I felt terrible. And here I’d been mad at her for her reaction.
She snorted though, surprising me. “What? No. I mean, sometimes it still bothers me a little, like it will catch me off guard and I’ll get sweaty palms or have to take a deep breath or something, but...no. I serve businessmen all the time in the shop. I still get scared when I’m around guys, but I have little coping strategies to use when I have to interact with strange men. And there’s the big counter between us, and a panic button underneath that will bring Breir and the cops running.”
I arched a brow. “Then what in the world did I do to make you so angry that day?”
She flushed and looked down at the table. “I looked up and you were suddenly just there, and you were just so....” She finally met my eyes. “My gods, Io, you’re just ridiculously hot no matter what body you’re in. I wasn’t ready for that. I didn’t even know I could find some strange, intimidating, corporate bossy type attractive. It freaked me out so bad. And so I shut down and tried to get you out of there as fast as possible so I could go have a mental crisis in the backroom in peace.” She put her hands in her face, mortified.
I blinked at her, then broke out laughing. “I thought you hated me,” I snorted. “I spent forever trying to figure out how I’d offended you. Because I had planned on telling you who I was and asking you out. But you just...obliterated my ego.”
She sat up, smiling now, shaking her head to herself as she spoke between bites of her food. “Oh, Io. I’m sorry I’m so awkward and silly.”
I cut that bullshit off immediately. “You’re not silly, for fuck’s sake. Don’t you ever apologize to anyone for how you react. Especially me.”
She blinked her wide blue eyes at me. “Okay. I’ll try.”
I nodded, pleased with the promise. Cutting into my steak, I tilted my head to glance at the beautiful woman as what she had told me rattled around in my head. “So,” I said innocently. “If you don’t like men, and you have such a hard time dealing with them, how is it that those two idiots at the coffee shop don’t bother you? You didn’t seem scared of either of them. And they seem to think it’s their gods given duty to protect your virtue.”
She rolled her eyes. “Those morons. Well, Brier was the one who saved me, you know? I was terrified of him at first, especially because...well, you know.”
Because he was a goblin, she meant. A scary-looking man from a species who literally ate little girls like her for dinner, once upon a time. I huffed. “Because of his long hair, right? Freaking weirdo.”
She chuckled. “Right. But anyway, he was just so patient. And he really acted like he couldn’t give a crap less if I chose to tell him off and starve on the street or come inside for hot food and a shower. Made me think he probably wasn’t going to try super hard to do anything to me. He grew on me.” She shrugged. “And Zuberi came along a while later. I was doing a little better with things by then. And he was almost as pathetic as I was, at first. Brier hired him...well, I guess that’s Zuberi’s story to share, not mine. But he had his own issues, so I think it helped me trust him, ’cause he was like me, in his own way.”
I watched her eat for a while as I enjoyed my own amazing food. But I just couldn’t help myself. “So,” I said, leaning back and pushing my empty plate aside in favor of my wineglass. “Which one of them are you in love with?”
Cora choked on a bite of salad, and I leaned over to pat her helpfully on the back. “What?” she said, eyes watering as she looked at me in shock. But her face was beet red.
“Well,” I said easily as I leaned back with one arm along my side of the booth and sipped my wine. “They’re really protective of you. And you were a young girl with no good male role models in your life. It’s only natural, I suppose.”
She rolled her eyes at me. “You think I’m in love with one of those morons and yet you still asked me out on a date?”
I shrugged. “My parents are poly. Lots of people are. It’s been a while since I attempted something like that, and fuck did it fail spectacularly. I think they’re both still living in the house I bought us right before they dumped me. But, eh, my parents make it work just fine.”
She blinked at me, face red and her fingers clenched in her napkin. I somehow managed not to grin. Oh, I was so right about this. But did she even know it?
“You’re ridiculous,” she managed, picking up her wine and chugging it. “Zuberi’s like...way too angry to even think about romance. And Brier wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole. He’s committed to being a lonely old man.”
I tilted my head, tasting the subtle fluctuations in her aura. Hmm...Brier, probably. But of course that idiot would think the girl only liked him because she had sort of hero worship going on. As if she couldn’t possibly just have feelings for the goblin for no good reason.
I waved it away. “I shouldn’t tease you. Sorry.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “And what about you? If we were to really try to make this thing between us work, would you...expect to see other people?”
I set my wine aside and took her hand, running my finger over the back. “That would depend entirely on what you wanted, love. These things can’t be all about one person’s needs.”
She huffed. “Sorry. I don’t mean to be so closed-minded. It’s just...well, my mom definitely wasn’t monogamous, but that wasn’t because she was poly, it was just because she was a gold-digging slut.”
I winced. Right. That would leave a bitter aftertaste, wouldn’t it? Not that I cared. I couldn’t even manage one relationship. I wasn’t about to go actively looking for more. “I think we’ve gotten way ahead of ourselves,” I said with a lopsided smile. “Maybe we should just see if you can survive my clingy, arrogant self, not to mention a long-distance relationship, first, shall we?”
She deflated a bit at that. “That’s right. You’re not here permanently, are you? Just for this one job?”
I pressed my lips together. I hated that I had killed the mood, but at the same time, it wasn’t like that was something we could just not discuss. “Yeah. But the good news is, I can travel pretty much whenever I want, in between jobs.”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. Then she pinned me with those curious blue eyes. “Hey! You completely side-tracked me when I was going to ask what you are. You did that on purpose!”
I smothered a laugh. “Busted.”
She gave me a fond, tolerant look that I was rapidly coming to enjoy. “Spill it, lady.”
I took a deep breath and set out to ruin my night. “Half-fae,” I said, tucking my hair behind an ear so she could see the prominent point on top—not as tall and sharp as my full-blooded family, but definitely not human. “And...half-kraken.”
I watched her face do the thing most faces did when I announced that, moving through a range of emotions, from confusion, to disbelief, to a bit of wide-eyed fear. “Kraken? I’d heard that there was a kraken shifter living in the U.S. But...she’s rumored to be the last of her kind.” I nodded along with what she was saying, and she gaped at me. “She’s your mother, then. You’re...oh holy Poseidon, you’re Kaimana Lionheart’s daughter?”
I waited patiently as all the color drained from Cora’s face, then slowly returned. “Yes.”
“And...you’re half-fae so...oh my fuck.”
My smile was a bit more strained this time. “Mmm, yeah, I get that a lot.”
Her hand waved erratically in the air. “But that means...you...you’re a Silverleaf fae. You’re...royalty?” She choked off an unhinged laugh. “Of course you are. I mean...look at you. I am so dumb. Oh gods.”
I sighed and reached out to grab the flapping hand, bringing it down to the table and giving it a squeeze. “Hi. Look at me, Cora. I’m just Io. Same as I was five minutes ago.”
She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. “Right. Yeah. Sorry. I just...but your family....”
I sighed. “This is going to be the thing that breaks you, isn’t it?” I’d seen it a million times before. I managed to get past all the other barriers, then bam, my parentage rose up to bitch-slap me right out of the running. No one—except the gold-diggers and opportunists—wanted the burden of dating someone like me. All that pressure and responsibility.
My family and godparents were the ones who had ended the civil unrest and saved the country. They were the reason why the gods were—mostly—banned from earth and demons weren’t running the show. They were the reason supes and humans were no longer murdering each other in the streets and tearing their own world apart. And each of my parents also ran their respective clans.
So, yeah. No fucking pressure or anything.
“Cora?” I said calmly. “It’s okay. I know it’s a lot.”
She shook her head for a few long seconds, utterly mute as she clutched my hand. Then she finally found her voice. “I’m not...why would you want to be with me? I can’t be good enough for a Lionheart.”
I stood and joined her on her side of the booth, unobtrusively signaling for the check. No decadent dessert tonight. And I was really looking forward to watching Cora enjoy something ridiculous.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I didn’t mean to shock you.” I slid my fingers under her chin and turned her head, forcing her to meet my eyes. “Cora, you are absolutely good enough. More than good enough. It’s me who’s not...easy to be with.” She opened her mouth, but I cut her off, willing to offer her anything if it meant we didn’t fail again. What was a few white lies in the face of the opportunity to be with Cora, even for a little while? “Listen. I’m not sure how long I’ll even be in town. And around here, no one really knows me on sight. I’m just another tourist. Can we just have this? For a little while?” I kissed the tip of her cute little nose. “Can you pretend I’m just some woman off the street and focus on having fun? A fling? It doesn’t have to mean anything. We can just enjoy ourselves while it lasts. No worrying about family or status or any of that nonsense.” I took both her hands and lifted them to kiss the backs, one after the other, my eyes glued to hers as I went ahead and just broke my own damned heart. “I can even stay female, just for you.”
She blinked at me then, pulling back as if she was coming out of a trance. “What? I...I mean, yes. We can do that. I’ve never...well, I haven’t had many relationships, and even fewer...flings. It’s okay to just...see where things go. I’d like that. But...why would you stay female? That doesn’t seem right. Wouldn’t it be like...I don’t know, shutting out a big part of who you are?”
Her perceptiveness surprised me and warmed my heart. But I shrugged as if it meant nothing. “I know how you feel about men. I want you to be comfortable. To have fun.” I want you to never be afraid. To love as much of me as you can, for however long it lasts. Until my heart gets shredded yet again. But I didn’t say any of that.
She swallowed and squeezed my hands. “I’m not going to ask you to be someone you’re not—or to be half of yourself or whatever. I’ll just have to get to know male you like I’m getting to know female you. That’s all. It might take me while, but I want to try.”
I closed my eyes, something like pain and pleasure burning through me all at the same time. “Okay,” I breathed. “Yeah, okay.” Then I dared to move in, pressing soft kiss to those sweet lips.
Cora tasted like water magic, cool and sweet like a fresh stream. And she felt like living possibility cradled in my arms. It was really fucking hard to stop kissing her and remember we were in public. I released her, my inner monster absolutely delighted at how flushed and breathless she was.
“Your check,” the waiter said with a polite throat clearing. I grinned when this just made Cora blush harder and look like she wanted to crawl under the table to die of embarrassment.
I paid for dinner, since Cora was too flustered to fight me on it. Then I led my new, wonderful...girlfriend?...out of the restaurant and to the car. The ride to Cora’s apartment was short. She lived a block away from the coffee shop, which made more sense after hearing her story. Brier had found her something close to work, where he could keep an eye on her. The sneaky bastard.
I walked Cora to her door like a good date But those limpid blue eyes begged for more, so I pulled her into another soul-stealing kiss. Her hands fisted in the light fabric of my blouse, wrinkling the expensive silk beyond repair, but I just egged her on, sliding my hands down to grip her ass through her little black dress and press her closer, sliding my leg between hers as the dress rode up. She moaned into my mouth at the friction, and at the exhibition we were putting on for anyone who walked by the dimly lit entrance. My entire body sang when she didn’t pull away, her small, soft hands sliding from around my waist up to cup my breasts, thumbs running over my nipples through the thin fabric of my shirt and bra. Thank the gods I’d left the ultra-padded monstrosity at home and opted for simple, unlined satin. Her touch seared right through the nearly non-existent barrier.
I came up for air with a dark chuckle. “Oh, not so innocent and shy now, are we?”
She blushed hard, but gave me her best attempt at an evil smile. “Well, it’s just a fling, right? So there’s less pressure if I mess things up. Might as well go for it, even if I have no clue what I’m doing.”
The reminder of how this was supposed to be nothing—just a fun side trip, a lark. Made my heart ache. But I smiled for her anyway, loving how she was coming out of her shell.
I pressed a few more short, pecking kisses to her soft, swollen lips before pulling back again. “Cora, I really, really don’t want to. But I’m going to leave now. I don’t want to rush this too much.”
She opened her mouth to protest, but I cut her off with a sharp kiss, pausing to bite her bottom lip playfully. “Oh, no. When I fuck you for the first time, I’m going to do it right. All the magic and preparation you deserve.”
She gave me a disappointed pout as I drew back and headed to the car. “I might actually die, from this, you know?” she called after me, her voice husky and breathless.
I laughed. “You won’t. But you’ll definitely enjoy it more for the wait.” And it would give me time to wrap my tentacles around the fact that this wasn’t supposed to be as deep and meaningful as I suddenly wanted it to be. I should just turn right back around and engage in something hurried and off-hand, just to drive that point home, rather than making plans. But damn it, Cora deserved to be spoiled. Treasured.
“You’re leaving, Io,” I muttered to myself as I walked away. “You’re leaving now, and in a week or two, tops, you’re leaving the state. Stop fucking trying to fall in love, moron.”
Then I got in my car and left.