Chapter 13
I felt the moment Grace got back from her family’s house. I’d been growing increasingly impatient waiting for her, I was about to run out of fluid from fidgeting with my lighter so much. I felt like she needed me tonight, and I wasn’t there for her, and it was driving me fucking insane.
Almost insane enough to go after her. I hadn’t known exactly where she was—one of the obnoxious mansions in Auburn, presumably—but I almost felt like I could follow the panic I was feeling all the way to the source.
Grace shoved the door open and practically fell inside, kicking off her shoes and leaving them on the floor instead of putting them neatly on the shelf like she usually would, and threw her purse down on the side table.
I was surprised she didn’t rip the buttons of her jacket with how aggressively she tore it off as I hovered by the couch, debating what to do.
I really wished I knew more about women. Or just people in general. Just like last night, when I’d gotten the call from Rogue, I wished I was more alpha male and take charge when shit went south.
Grace’s anger felt hot and painful against my skin, but there was an undercurrent of something else too. Resignation, maybe.
Had her family found out about us? Would she even be here if they had?
She stepped into the living area, stopping next to the couch in her stiff pink dress that she seemed to hate, chest rising and falling rapidly, but her expression was totally unreadable.
For a moment, neither of us moved. The air crackled with more than just the unspent sexual chemistry that seemed to hang around us like a permanent cloud.
There was a new intensity between us that I’d never experienced before, and I forced myself to stay in place when all I wanted to do was throw Grace over my shoulder and take her to bed.
But then she burst into tears, and I came to my fucking senses.
“Shit, Gracie. What’s wrong?” I asked, crossing the room and scooping her into my arms.
She shuddered in relief and goddess , I could relate to that. Everything felt better having her close.
“The Elders,” she sniffed, the sound muffled as she turned her face into my t-shirt.
Elders? Had they found out about us? What else would upset her this much?
Then again, I assumed they had some kind of agathos jail where they chucked people who didn’t fit their restrictive mold.
If they did, that’s definitely where Grace would end up for fraternizing with a daimon.
Well, they could try. I would never let that happen.
“Come here,” I murmured, dragging her down to the couch on my lap and wrapping my arms around her waist. For a moment, she kept her head buried against the crook of my neck, silently sobbing as I ran my hand up and down her spine, letting her compose herself.
I knew fuck all about comforting people, but I’d gathered that Grace didn’t like to let anyone to see her in a state any less than perfectly put together.
Last night in the car when she’d been freaking out, wanting to go back and help that asshole who’d given her a black eye and could have shot her, her emotions had been all over the place, but she’d fought hard to keep her mask of calm in place.
After a few minutes, Grace’s hiccuping sobs slowed, and I listened to her take deep, steadying breaths before she lifted her head to look at me.
“My makeup is a mess, isn’t it?” she sniffled, blinking rapidly and looking up at the ceiling which seemed to be some sort of magic girl hack for stopping tears.
“It’s…fine,” I hedged. Grace would probably disagree, but messed up mascara and the concealer that had rubbed off her bruised eye wasn’t the biggest priority here. “What happened at dinner? What’s this about Elders?”
Even their title was creepy. Agathos made everything so weird.
Grace dabbed under her good eye with the heel of her hand for a moment, looking like she was trying to figure out how to answer my question.
“There are these things called outreach trips,” she began slowly. “There aren’t a lot of single agathos—and no women until me, apparently—but the ones who exist are assigned outreach trips by the Elders to remote locations where agathos don’t usually live.”
“They’re exiled,” I replied flatly.
“Yes,” Grace sighed. “That’s exactly what it is. I’m next. In a month.”
“Fuck no,” I growled, arms tensing around her like I could keep her with me purely by force of will. I felt like I could. Like whatever this was between us was strong enough to bend the universe to my will, even though I’d only just met her.
Grace looked back up at the ceiling, rapidly blinking again. “I don’t want to go. I told my parents no, but the Elders have already decided on it.”
I bit back the avalanche of criticism of the agathos that was threatening to spill out. It was obviously a subject that made Grace uncomfortable, and now wasn’t the time anyway.
Even if I thought they were fucking dictators and all of the agathos were prisoners to a system they’d been born into and never given the tools to question.
“I’m not going to go,” Grace whispered, opal-colored eyes catching mine. “I’m not going to go,” she repeated more forcefully.
“Damn straight, you’re not going to go,” I agreed, leaning forward to press a kiss against her shoulder.
I didn’t know what her disobedience would mean for her or for us going forwards.
I doubted the Elders or her parents were going to accept that news lying down, but it wasn’t fucking negotiable. “You’re not going anywhere.”
If they wanted to fight her on it, they’d find out exactly what happened when someone tried to rob a daimon, because Grace was mine.
And no one took what was mine.
“Do you…” I hesitated for a moment, not sure how my question would be received, but needing to ask. “Would you consider running? Moving out of their reach?”
Grace sniffed, looking contemplative. “I sort of am out of their reach, it’s why I moved to Milton. They’re not going to snatch me off the street or anything, it’s not how they operate.”
I wanted to argue, but Grace knew her people better than I did. At the same time…I was worried her trust in the agathos to do the right thing was misplaced. Grace reached up, smoothing away my frown with her thumb, giving me a sympathetic smile like I was the one suffering.
She was too compassionate for her own good.
Her sadness retreated the longer we sat together, seemingly incapable of keeping our hands off each other, and that intense sexual energy that always simmered below the surface flared to life between us again.
It was frustrating that I didn’t know if it was our chemistry or her interfering goddess’ magic.
I’d never experienced anything like this with anyone before—this constant hum of sexual heat that seemed to turn into something crackling and alive the moment we let it.
And suddenly I was all too aware of Grace sitting in my lap, the way her breath fanned over my collarbone, the feel of her soft curves in my arms.
I’d been so good all day while we were snuggling under the blankets. I’d given my dick at least six internal pep talks when Grace’s limbs got a little too close, or when she laughed all husky, or looked at me like I was the most attractive guy she’d ever seen.
Daimons weren’t designed to be good.
I cupped Grace’s face with my hand, rubbing away the evidence of her smudged makeup with my thumb. Grace leaned in to my touch and I marveled at the way being near her always felt like exhaling after holding my breath for too long.
“I missed you tonight,” Grace whispered. “Like a lot. Like more than what is probably healthy considering I met you less than a week ago.”
“Oh, I definitely missed you more than any sane person would consider healthy,” I teased, guiding her face closer to brush my lips against hers. “I find I’m not very sane when it comes to you.”
“I don’t know what it says about me that I find that attractive,” Grace replied softly, looking up at me through thick black lashes, still wet from her tears.
“I guess we’re just as twisted as each other.
” I slanted my mouth over hers, brushing my lips softly against hers and pulling away, teasing her a little.
Grace always started off shy, but it never took long for her desire to overrule her inhibitions.
Surely enough, Grace’s mouth chased mine, her grip on my shirt tightening.
Every time I kissed Grace, it felt like the first and the last time.
There was a thrill that never stopped feeling new, but the edge of fear that this might be it.
That whatever this tenuous thing between us was would disappear from under me, or she’d realize that I was a daimon who probably had blood on my hands, and run as far as she could in the other direction.
I slid my hand up Grace’s smooth leg before gripping the back of her knee and guiding it towards me, encouraging her to straddle me. Her hands slid experimentally down my chest before working their way under my t-shirt, stroking the abs that I was definitely clenching for maximum impact.
“You’re so hard here,” Grace murmured innocently, running her fingers over my stomach.
I grunted in agreement, definitely able to think of one place I was harder at that moment. Not wanting to terrify her with that organ, I discreetly adjusted myself as my mouth moved down her neck, drawing out those soft needy noises I loved so much.
“I want to touch you,” I murmured against Grace’s collarbone, my thumb rubbing the crease of her hip and thigh.
That was a tremendous understatement. I wanted to rip her clothes off, spread her out in front of me and feast on her pussy until I could say for certain if it tasted as sweet as the rest of her.
She probably wasn’t ready for that.
“Where? Under my panties?” Grace whispered, eyes adorably wide. This woman would be the death of me.