Chapter 20 #3
Cait looks up from her breakfast at me. Our eyes meet, and my breath stops. She smiles and waves. I return the gesture and then she turns her attention back to her breakfast. A delightful shiver runs from my head to my toes.
It’s just my luck that my bi awakening came from falling for a prim and proper chick who hates swear words. What the fuck is wrong with me? Cait would probably puke at the thought of a woman being into her. Plus, things were just starting to heat up with Guy.
That is before he admitted that he and Cait had a sort of thing.
Or maybe Cait would be really into being with a woman and I could find out just what those gamer girl fingers are capable of…
“Hey,” Guy says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.
I jolt out of my fantasy and force a chuckle. “Sorry, my mind was miles away.”
Guy frowns. “Thinking about the dracaenae attack?”
“Yeah,” I say. It’s only half a lie. Technically, I was thinking about hot lesbian sex because Cait had saved me from the monster.
“I should have stayed with you,” he says. “I could have blasted her back, at least. A big enough flame would have gotten Cait’s attention.”
“I told you to leave,” I say. “And I have that whole Beguiling Eyes favor that makes it hard to say no to me.”
“It’s hard to tell you no even without Beguiling Eyes,” Guy responds with a wicked smile.
“Where was everyone else, though?” I ask. “Cait and I were alone for a while.”
Guy looks embarrassed. “Apparently, they took a walk in case you and I got into it again.”
“Except for Cait?” I ask.
“Yeah, she wanted to finish getting the tent up.”
“Thank God for that,” I say.
“Look, about all that stuff with her…” Guy says.
I sigh. “Later, okay? I just don’t have the mental energy for that right now.”
Guy nods with obvious reluctance. “I’m getting breakfast. Want me to grab you a bowl?”
At that moment, Alexander walks up to me carrying a bowl of grains himself. “You’re eating?” I ask him. I’ve never seen the NPC eat even one bite of food in the days he’s spent standing around camp.
Alexander shakes his head and extends the bowl to me. “This is for you, Lauren.”
“Did he just call you Lauren?” Guy asks.
“Oh, yeah,” I say. “I guess Cait and Tara are the only ones I told. I told him my name and asked him to call me that instead of ‘traveler’ or ‘adventurer’ or whatever.”
I put a spoonful of the grains in my mouth and moan. Somehow, it’s even better than last time. There’s a little kick to it. “What’s different about this?”
I don’t expect an answer, but Alexander provides me with one, anyway. “I found some ginger root this morning and added shavings to the mixture.”
“Well,” Guy says, a hint of jealousy in his tone, “our token NPC is making himself useful. That’s not weird at all.”
Sylvia whistles and waves for us to join everyone by the fire.
“Okay,” she says once we’re all seated and paying attention.
“Dolius says that the Dardanus has another market day tomorrow. So, he can still make some money before heading to Thrace. We need to get him there before sundown so he and Cyrus have time to prepare. Because the road is likely to be more crowded today, and we still have an empusa to get rid of, that means we need to hustle.”
I almost forgot about the empusa. I just survived one monster, and now I have to encounter another.
Across the fire, Cait catches my eye and mouths, “Don’t worry.”
She’s right. The dracaenae had been a high-level fluke.
The empusa was the right level for a player like me, and it’s supposed to be a bloodless battle.
You just belittle her until she’s defeated.
Honestly, I feel bad for the lady. Having worked in customer service for as long as I had, I knew how much being verbally harassed sucked.
Guy gives my shoulder a comforting squeeze. “You can’t make me leave you behind this time,” he whispers. “No matter what you say.”
“Good to know you’ll be by my side as I lay the verbal smackdown,” I say with a laugh.
But Guy doesn’t respond jovially. Instead, he blinks, like I’ve just slapped him across the face.
“I know it’s not the same as standing up against the dracaenae, but she’s still a difficult monster for a level 3 cleric.
And I’ll be here for you when we face even worse.
Please,” he says, his apologetic eyes pleading with me for forgiveness, “trust that I won’t let anything happen to you. ”
I respond with a slow nod, not knowing what to say. I hadn’t realized my joke would hurt him. Apparently, he felt worse than I thought he had about splitting when the dracaenae attacked last night.
When I squeeze his hand to assure him all is fine, I feel his body relax.
He’s been pent up, half expecting me to break his heart this morning.
I glance across the fire at Cait. Her gorgeous emerald eyes burn right through me, but there isn’t a frown on her face, no hint of disappointment. Just intensity.
Guy’s kisses were lovely yesterday. I bet he’s great in bed, too. But right now, I don’t want to think about him; I want to think about her.