Chapter Eight
“Okay, Yanez, you’re going to have to pick a lane.
Either be less charming. Or way more brooding and standoffish.
” She sounded insane. Gigi was very aware.
But her feet ached. It had been, as predicted, an incredibly long day.
A headache was threatening. And her jaw was throbbing, thanks to hours and hours spent smiling and gritting her teeth.
Nico, glancing up from the small oval dining room table, covered currently with stacks of antique looking books, pamphlets and even the odd scroll, surveyed Gigi from head to toe for a moment.
“You look like you could use a drink. Here.” He pushed her down gently onto the nearest chair, before ducking into the kitchen area, grabbing two glasses and a bottle of pinot gris from the fridge.
“You’d better get those shoes off and put your feet up.
” He advised. Pouring out the wine before resuming his seat.
“I was wrong. I thought you’d pick the brooding standoffish route.” Gigi grumbled, taking a large gulp of wine.
“Tough day?”
“The worst. I swear, if one more person, just one, tries to give me relationship advice, I will leap across the counter and throttle them.”
“So the news of our liaison is out, huh? And everyone wants details?”
“Details? No. That would have been fine. I could have played it coy and a little lovestruck. Sent them on their way with some innocuous details concerning our first date. No, instead I spent the entire day listening to everyone’s opinions on whether or not you’re good enough for me.”
“They don’t think I’m good enough for you?”
“Currently the family appear evenly divided. Half adore you. So charming. Handsome. Sexy. And that accent of yours is to die for. That you exude a little air of mystery but they can tell you have a good heart. Blah. Blah. Blah.”
“I’m almost afraid to ask, what do the other half think?”
“That you’re a broken loner. Carrying around too much baggage.
Completely unable to make any sort of commitment to a woman at this stage in your life.
Not bad or evil, just completely wrong on every level for me.
How they just can’t see us working as a couple.
Too different.” And how a large majority of that group were absolutely convinced Gigi was going to get her heart broken by Nico.
Which was beyond ridiculous, and downright irritating.
She was a grown up. She had four, no, five semi-serious relationships under her belt.
But her relatives appeared intent upon depicting her as some na?ve waifish innocent, and painting Nico the big bad wolf who would gobble her up and spit her out when he was through with her.
“Wow.” Nico blinked, taking a large slug from his own glass. “And you say half your relatives think that?”
“Yeah, it was a pretty evenly divided. I know they only want what’s best for me—”
“Clearly that isn’t me.”
“You’re not upset by what they said, are you?” Had she heard a tinge of hurt in his tone? Nico?
“Of course not.”
“It’s just they’ve known me my entire life. Watched me grow up. Even the ones who don’t think we make a good couple respect you. And they’re certainly impressed by what you’ve accomplished with the Five Alarm Bar.”
“Respect me?” Choked out Nico, beginning to laugh. “Thanks for the reassurance. Putting all that aside, did anything else happen today, related to our deity threat?”
“Nothing out of the ordinary. Same old, same old.”
“Perhaps I should call Darcy, find out if there’s any news?”
Gigi looked at Nico expectantly, then down at his phone and back up at him, smiling in encouragement.
“You’re not going to try and talk me out of it?” He groused. Still not reaching for his phone.
“I think you’ve resided here long enough to know by now that if Darcy had any news, you’d wake up at three in the morning to find her looming over you, sharpening a chopstick, whilst she smiled one of her chilling smiles, before proceeding to drop a crap ton of new problems in your lap before sauntering out with a jaunty little jig in her step. ”
“That actually did happen once. But she was holding an ice hockey puck and sharpening the edges. There was no getting back to sleep after she left.”
“No. Most people spend the rest of the night trying to work out how she got in to begin with, despite all the doors and windows appearing to be locked.” Gigi blew out a deep breath.
She was beginning to feel better, definitely more relaxed.
The wine was helping and so, surprisingly, was Nico, fetching her wine, and being all personable and chatty suddenly.
“So…” She surveyed the stacks of books, pamphlets and scrolls. “What’s all this in aid of?”
“Research. Athena’s Owls. Any legends or myths that mention deities in conjunction with doves and swans.
And I’m trying to compile a list of men who had glorious gory battle centric careers in ancient times and then abruptly disappeared with no explanation.
Nothing concrete or useful yet, I’m afraid. Are you hungry?”
“Goddess, yes. I missed lunch.”
“Me too. Good. Let me clear this stuff away and I’ll set the table.”
“You made dinner?” People always seemed to expect Gigi to cook, but here Nico was, first breakfast, now dinner.
“It’s just a steak salad, with some chimichurri sauce. Nothing fancy.”
It looked fantastic, as he set a plate in front of her. And tasted even better. Coriander, parsley, garlic and just a hint of cinnamon teased her palate. No wonder he was horning in on all her recent catering gigs.
She noted the expectant look Nico sent her way as he dug into his own meal. “It’s good. Really good.”
“Thank you. But I was actually wondering if now would be a good time to talk about our magic? What you said about knowing each other’s strengths and if we can identify any weaknesses struck me as a good idea.”
“Let’s start with you then. You’re a treasure hunter? What does that mean exactly?”
“Hunting instincts honed over five generations. We’re taught to listen to our gut from the cradle.
Studying the seas and the weather. For me in particular, silver items call to me.
Similar to a ping on a radar scope. Our blood is hyper-oxygenated, meaning I can hold my breath for extended periods of time.
And changes in pressure don’t tend to affect me.
Physically I’m strong. Plus, I’ve trained with swords and blades since I was an infant.
And currently I’m cursed by an ancient ring that seems to want to remake me into its golden haired bitch.
” He poured them both some more wine. “Okay, your turn.”
“Sure. Though mine’s a little harder to explain.”
“Don’t dumb it down for me, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay then. I’m an Elemental Balance Mage.” Gigi flashed him a smile, stopping there. Liking the way his light toffee eyes turned a darker amber in sudden frustration. There was just something about winding this man up that was proving too amusing by half.
“Okay. I think I’m going to need the pleb version after all.”
“Everything natural and unnatural is made up of matter. Composed at a fundamental level of elements in in unique amounts that come together in gas, liquid or physical form to create something.”
“You know what everything and everyone is made up of?”
“Essentially, yes. When my magic first made itself known in fits and starts in my early teens it was a little daunting, a lot overwhelming and above all else, incredibly confusing. Baking became my way of taking control. And I liked the challenge of creating something. Though really it took a lot of higher learning before I truly began to process and comprehend the information coming my way non-stop from every direction and learnt to control and quiet it.”
“Higher learning?”
“I have dual PhD’s in Quantum Mechanics and Molecular Fusion.”
“You’re a rocket scientist?”
“Not at all. I just have a very good understanding of the behaviour and nature of matter at a scale below atoms. Oh, and I’ve been studying self-defence for the last year.
My teacher is very impressed with my knee to groin technique.
Plus, I’ve been working on my ability to split and re-combine existing matter, such as the contents of those syringes and an attacker’s stomach contents.
The latter can get messy, but is proving effective as a means of immobilising any threats whilst they deal with the queasiness. ”
“Shouldn’t you be in a lab somewhere, putting that big brain of yours to better use?”
Oh, the judgement. “Rather than fill people’s lives with joy by creating sugary treats? I don’t know, Mr Treasure Hunter slash Master Swordsman, shouldn’t you be off on the high seas finding lost civilisations and the like, rather than tending bar?”
“Touche.” Nico acknowledged with a wry look.
Huh, was he conceding she’d finally won a point? Stubborn man.
“Okay. We’ve officially launched this partnership and swapped our secret squirrel agent powers, now what?”
Gigi stifled a yawn. “Some of us intend to clean the kitchen and go to bed early, since we were up half the night dragging dead bodies around and dealing with stubborn jackasses who don’t appear to have enough common sense to know when to come in out of a tropical storm.”
“No. I’ve got this. You’ve been on your feet all day. I’ll clean up.”
“Whoa. Who are you and what have you done with the real Nico Yanez?”
“This is merely my way of thanking you for providing me with a bed and shelter in my time of need. Don’t go misreading my intentions or in any way getting attached.”
“Attached?” What the hell did he mean by that crack?
Yanking open the dishwasher, Nico began loading it. “With or without this curse I don’t do love or relationships. So you need to remember all of this between us is just pretend.” Straightening up Nico chanced a glance her way, expecting to see resentment or outrage brimming in Gigi’s eyes.