"Do not interrupt me when I've got my tongue down a beautiful woman's throat. You hear me, dude?"
"Fuck you," Fin said, not at all disturbed by the massive silver weapon aimed at his forehead. The rest of the restaurant however … not so much. People were screaming or gasping, cowering against the walls, but nobody was moving. In the post-integration world, situations like this were fairly common. Since supes tended to be strong, nearly invincible in some cases, we handled arguments with force. "You're all bark and no bite."
Revel aimed her weapon at the floor and fired off a shot.
Oh dear.
Ziff was hissing now, his fur raised and his teeth bared.
I snatched a bite of bread, shoved it in my mouth, and then stepped between the two kitsune, both of whom had their orange ears pressed against their skulls, their teeth bared, tails swishing.
"Get your asses out of here before the cops or the NHSC show up," I said, snatching the bottle of wine by the neck and giving the two foxes one last look. Fin's brown eyes … Revel's green ones.
Fuck me, I had a lot of issues to sort out, didn't I?
Storming out of the restaurant, I took my wine, my bread, and my pet with me.
Fin and Revel, they could work their problems out on their own.
Me, I was screwed.
My magic and my tail binding, that all relied on getting Fin mated.
Apparently, I was only good at doing that for myself.
Well, maybe I just good at getting myself teased. I'd had a lot of kissing and no action.
So maybe, I had two big problems to worry about.
Ziff licking my earlobe was what woke me up the next morning. I was nowhere near ready to face the day though, so I yanked a pillow over my head and tried to go back to sleep.
Sadly, my little friend was having none of it and zapped me with static electricity to shock me awake. Little shit. He'd somehow learned that rubbing his back along my carpet vigorously enough generated the static needed to carry a shock when he touched me, and it was a trick he used way too damn often.
"Fine, I'm up!" I yelled at my little buddy, throwing the blankets back and burying him with them. Serves him right. "After the night I had, you'd think I might be allowed to sleep in, don't you think?"
The only response I got was a muffled chirping as Ziff fought his way free of the covers. Sighing, I staggered into the bathroom to run a cool shower in the hopes it might clear my head a little. Things in my life had all of a sudden become crazy intense.
First Mik kissing me … Mikhail freaking Ravena kissed me and I thought my panties would burst out in flames. Then Revel. Revel. The woman who I'd brought here as Fin's mail-order bride, turned out to be my mail-order bride. For fuck’s sake. For thirty years, I’d identified as a straight woman, but that kiss … it was going to take three ice-cold showers to wipe that from my mind.
And both in front of my exes. As if life wasn't complicated enough.
Ugh. I needed some space and some focus. Neither of which I held out much hope for, but a girl had to try, right? I doused my head under the cool water and prayed for a miracle today. Something, anything not related to my four—freaking four—current and former romantic complications.
My hair was so damn long it brushed the backs of my thighs when it was dry, and took forever to wash, but I just couldn't seem to bring myself to cut it. My mom had long hair; it was one of the clearest memories I had of her. So, despite the fact that it was totally inappropriate for my line of work, I kept it long. At least for now.
When I finally finished rinsing shampoo and conditioner out, I shut off the faucet and squeezed as much water out of the heavy mass as possible before stepping out into the bathroom.
"Holy fucking goddess tits," I swore, jumping with fright and almost dropping my towel when I saw the huge figure looming in the doorway to my bathroom. "Seriously, Mik?! Do you have a death wish or something? Who the fuck sneaks into a freaking assassin's house unannounced?"
Mik narrowed his eyes at me. "You were in the shower. I highly doubt you took your guns in there with you, and you also need a better security system. I'll have my guys install one today."
Well, he was right about the security system part, but I had brought my pistol in with me. Fit nice and neat behind the shampoo.
"Mik," I growled, clutching my towel tighter and really, really trying not to think about just dropping it and pouncing him like a vixen in heat. "We need to have a serious chat about boundaries. But not now, I have shit to do today."
"Shit?" he echoed. "Like what? We need to discuss what happened at the meeting yesterday." The way his eyes trailed down my body, it didn’t look like that’s what he’d come over to discuss. In fact, the only thing that looked to be on his mind right then was sinking his teeth into my neck and his dick into my cunt. Not that I would mind that, not at all. Maybe Fin and Riot had had some real fears about the vampire from the start? Not that I’d ever acted on them before now.
"Uh, no. No, we do not." I shook my head in denial. "Like I said, I have shit to do and you were not invited in. Isn't that some kind of vampire rule or something?"
Mikhail sighed and rubbed his hand over his jaw, shaking his head like he so desperately needed to clear it. "You watch too many movies, Thea." His words said one thing, but the tone of his voice said another altogether. I want you, Thea.
"Mik," I groaned. "Please, get the fuck out of my house. We can talk or whatever later. I've got to get Chris to his NA meeting." Lies. I had nothing planned for the day, but I sure as shit didn't want to hear more hurtful reasons about why kissing me had been an awful idea.
"Hmm." Mik nodded, his lush, kissable lips pursed. "You’re a good friend Thea.” I felt almost guilty enough to confess that I had no such plans, but then Mikhail turned his sapphire gaze to mine and stole my breath away. He seemed almost … sad, which was a strange emotion on a man so full of self-confidence. “I’ll come back later then." He started through my bedroom to the door then turned back to me. "Don't worry about locking up when you leave. My security team will be here during the day to install better locks and surveillance for you."
"I don't need better locks; do not send them over here!" I ended up yelling to thin air as Mik just waved a hand at me dismissively and left my room, slamming the door behind him. I did, in fact, need better security, but I wasn’t about to tell him that. Honestly, I’d put in a work order with the guild months ago for a new system.
Ziff chirped at me from the mess of blankets on my bed and did a little bit of a happy dance, which made me frown. Surely he wasn't starting to like my surly boss, was he?
"Ziff, just two nights ago you were trying to attack him. Remember that?" I squinted at my little friend who just chirped again and curled into a ball on my pillow. "Ugh, whatever. We need to go do something in case Mik actually does come back. I highly doubt the big, bad vampire appreciates being lied to."
Leaving Ziff to nap, I brewed some coffee and began the laborious task of brushing through my hair. When I was finished, my arm ached and my damp hair was tightly braided into two fishtail braids which hung over my shoulders. I may not actually be working today, but I always needed to be prepared.
"Alright little guy," I announced once I was dressed. I'd gone a little more casual today with ripped skinny jeans and a black tank top. Because the weather was getting cooler, I tossed on a cropped leather jacket and knee-high leather boots with a thicker high heel than I often wore. "Ready to go?"
Ziff opened one eye to peer at me, as if to say, "Go where?"