Chapter 14 The Fae High Lord #2
She tilted her head to the right, a move I was beginning to suspect meant pity. “Oh, honey. The bartender has a heavy hand with the Tito’s. How many vodka tonics?”
“Three? You just looked so sophisticated drinking them.”
“I drink them for the low grams of carbohydrates, and I’ve only had two all night.”
“It’s just a lot, okay? Just everything, it’s been a lot. Getting kidnapped by high fae seemed on-brand for today.”
“Wait, she was serious?” Nicolai asked Clementine. “She thought we were literally fantasy-movie creatures?”
LIT-trill-lee. He said it so British. I’d always wanted to hear somebody say it like that in real life.
Clementine told him, “Nico, darling, dealing with you is enough to make anyone question reality and their sanity.”
He smirked. “Bit of a relief, actually. That crack about fairies had me worried.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I said, still bending over and breathing hard. The world felt unsteady. Maybe I should put my head between my knees. “I asked if you had wings.”
Clementine rubbed my back, bare where my dress’s straps crisscrossed over my spine, and glared at Nico. “Oh, yes. We have another topic to discuss while we’re back here, hidden away from the crowd.”
I glanced up.
Clementine had turned toward Nicolai, her posture aggressive, chest puffed, center of mass forward on her toes like she was about to grab his shirt collar and haul him down to her face. “…Motherfucker.”
Nico flicked his gaze at her and held his drink away and higher, like she might grab his own drink and throw it in his face. “Clemmie!”
“Why the fuck did you lie to me, dj?vul?”
Uh-oh. I swiveled my head to watch.
“Jeez, Clemmie. No need to go Swedish on me.”
“You two? Two years of dating? Fan ta dig.”
“Wow.” His eyes stretched wide as he drank from the squat glass he held.
“Nico,” Clementine snapped.
“Sorry about that,” he said with a sigh breathing through his words. “It seemed better to keep our story consistent.”
“I’ll expect to hear the real story, the whole story, from you, tomorrow.
In the meantime, it’s past one in the morning.
You should take Lexi home. I think she’s had quite enough of us tonight.
” To me, she said, “I’ll see you in the afternoon for coffee, shopping, and strategy.
And you’re cut off from alcohol. Only water or club soda for the rest of the night.
Don’t make me inform the bartenders, because I will. ”
Clementine darted into the crowd, leaving Nicolai and me hidden away from the chaos.
In the gloom, Nicolai’s fingers found my chin, lifting my face to look into my eyes. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. It’s just kind of overwhelming,” I admitted. “I pattern-matched wrong. But you-all are really tall.”
Nicolai nodded sagely. “I think someone mentioned that.”
He caught my hand in his, lifting my knuckles to his lips and brushing them, his breath warm on my skin.
Every time he kissed my hand like that, my heart stuttered, not in fear, but in wanting to move closer to him. “You don’t have to do that. No one can even see us back here.”
“I know.” He looked down at me. “But you never know who’s watching.”
Yeah, Caesars likely had CCTV and security cameras throughout the nightclub. They couldn’t be too careful about things that could get them sued.
Nicolai sighed. “I shouldn’t have tried to fool Clemmy. She’s known me too long.”
“Do you think she’ll narc?”
“No. She likes you.”
“Are you sure? She’s never even smiled at me, not even once.”
“I don’t think she can. The Botox, you know. And the nipping and tucking.”
“I think she just doesn’t like me.”
Nicolai lifted one eyebrow. “I’m worried she’ll try to steal you from me.”
“Oh, does she prefer girls?”
His eyebrow drifted down. “Clementine prefers privacy, but I think she’s private about men, probably. Or mostly.”
He kissed my knuckles one more time, this time looking down at me.
Far down. He was really tall. I was eye-level with his chest, his broad, barrel chest. I hadn’t been that far off the mark, thinking there might be something unearthly in how tall they all were.
My other hand moved, and I didn’t stop it. I reached up and slipped my fingers along his smooth jaw, cradling it.
The flashing lights from the kinetic chandelier and the dance floor reflected in his eyes like blue lightning arcing in his irises.
He didn’t move for a moment, and neither did I, while the music blared around us and the nightclub’s lights strobed.
In that moment, one of us could have swooped or reached or crushed.
But Clementine might have come back.
Or someone else might have interrupted.
Or things might have gone wrong.
So I didn’t.
He whispered, “Next time, suspect me of being a dragon rider or a fallen angel, something that can fly.” Nicolai leaned down and whispered over the thumping music. “Actually, I can fly, in my Bombardier Global 8000.”
Yeah, okay. They were just rich. “But does it breathe fire?”
“No, but it can fly us to Italy in ten hours and has lie-flat seats with lovely pillows for a nap.”