10 - ATHENA
“You’re staring,” Zet pointed out unhelpfully, knocking his shoulder into mine as we chit-chatted with a group of B-list Titan suck ups. The spotlight roaches were crawling tonight, this was the twentieth to mention of putting in a good word with Supremae, as if I were the direct line to my boss.
Which was exactly why I barely paid attention. My focus was glued to Arachne and her Nymph companion. The only being she seemed to allow close . Lucky bitch.
“Owls stare,” I replied, brushing Zet off.
Why the fuck won’t the little spider turn around already?
Not that I didn’t appreciate seeing the dip of her onyx dress leading to that perfectly plump ass. Arachne had to know I was watching her by now. We’d been dancing around each other for hours. I even caught the friend pointing.
“How many bouquets have you sent now?” My friend asked once the leeches had moved on to annoy the next.
“Over a hundred,” I replied.
Zet choked on their champagne. “And not one response? You have to give up, Ath.”
Grimacing, I wished it were that simple. Failure wasn’t in my DNA. This was more than just a crush now, too.
I just needed the chance to prove whether or not this pull was the real deal. My instincts were screaming it was. As was my nature. But still.
Zet was right about one thing though, I hadn’t been taking the correct approach. Positive attention wasn’t productive. Gifts also weren’t acknowledged.
Arachne wasn’t like other femmes… Yet, I had been treating her as if she were…
“I’ve been going about this all wrong,” I murmured. Incapable of keeping the revelation to myself. “You don't woo a spider with honey and flowers when they prefer corpses.”
Zet was ogling me like I’d lost it, but I didn’t care. “What?! That’s terrifying. Have you had too much to drink? What are you doing? Where are you going?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll behave,” I said before winking and rifting myself beside her.
Arachne feigned a pout. My grin spread. It was becoming our routine at this point.
“You look gorgeous tonight, but you would’ve looked better on my arm instead.”
The friend gaped at my greeting, but my little spider didn’t move an inch. Her glossed lips were set in a firm line. Only her eyes narrowed before she quietly gritted out, “Why can’t you just take a fucking hint, Athena?”
Which was the perfect segue.
“No chance. There has to be someone you hate more than me in Idyll. It’s a big city. You’re ancient,” I was taunting her, sure, but I had to know. It was the quickest path to answers, too.
The friend cackled, raising her glass to me as Arachne’s jaw dropped. She wasn’t going to make it easy for me though. No, instead of responding, her head tilted as she inspected my outfit. Her skeptical eyes trailing from head-to-Spun-heeled-toe.
“Where did you get that set?” It left her lips in a growl and my grin widened.
“And here I was worried you might not recognize it,” I said, leaving her cheeks darkening significantly. She was rattled. I was turned the fuck on. “It cost a pretty penny to grab the first ever Spun drop, but I wanted you to dress me and your current flustering made it worth it.”
It was just a set of basic trousers and a button decorated jacket, but I’d stunned her. That much was clear. As her big lips wobbled, she was struggling with what to do, how to react.
I fucking lived for it.
There was no backing down now. This was it. Hook. Line. Sinker. Her and me.
I could count the number of times I’d been aroused in public on one hand, and this, right now, topped the list. Her ponytail was looking extra grabbable.
A nearby photographer’s flash ripped her back to reality and her eyes broke whatever trance we’d fallen into. Anticipating that would be the end of it, I raised my drink to my lips.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t.
Arachne’s claw-adjacent nails were digging into my arm as she dragged me toward the emergency exit, causing my gin to splash my face in the process. I mean, I wasn’t complaining. Just sticky.
In more ways than fucking one.
The Nymph friend looked more shocked by this development than me. But the last thing I saw before Arachne shoved me into the stairwell was Zet’s double thumbs up.