Chapter Sixteen
“He doesn’t have opposable thumbs.”
“I’m aware.”
“And a different one every day? Where does he get them from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Doesn’t it drive you nuts?” Nico was staring at Canary, currently sitting on the coffee table, his dark purple coat glossy, his tiny nose twitching.
The glittering square cut solitaire diamond necklace he was rocking glittering brightly in the afternoon sunshine. “You do realise that’s a real diamond?”
“I had a suspicion.”
“It’s got to be worth upwards of two million dollars. Do you think he stole it?”
Gigi handed Nico a cup of green tea before taking a seat across from him.
If they’d been a real couple she would have sat beside him on the couch, snuggled into all that warmth he exuded.
Heavens, why couldn’t she get warm? The only time she ever felt normal these days, well, not normal, in fact, overheated if anything, was in bed with Nico. Nope, don’t go there.
She was having to work surprisingly hard at keeping her and Nico’s interactions compartmentalised.
In public she played the besotted girlfriend role.
Chatting effortlessly. Laughing with him.
Reaching out and touching him without having to think about it.
Take his hand. Leaning in for a kiss anytime that sexy sparkle in Nico’s gorgeous eyes flared, demanding some kind of acknowledgement.
Then there was the booty hook up arrangement they had going. Easy, perhaps too easy to switch off her brain as soon as the bedroom door was closed, shedding her clothes, stripping Nico, though he was generally way ahead of her. Falling onto the bed in a tangle of limbs, lips and heat, blessed heat.
Shivering slightly, despite the blue sweater she was wearing on this gorgeous sunny day, Gigi clutched her warm mug of tea tighter.
Trying not to, but completely failing to not overthink the hardest part of their current arrangement.
How to act when it was just the two of them alone, not in the bedroom.
Not lovers. Not faux girlfriend and boyfriend.
In fact, no claim on him at all, except their business partnership, to expose and destroy a couple of Lurve demi-goddesses trying to use them as vehicles to wreck chaos in the Sanctuary and help snatch a sun powered up baby about to be born any day.
“So you think my magical construct poison detecting bunny, without opposable thumbs, is a secret elite cat burglar? Breaking into impenetrable security vaults in his spare time? How would he abscond with his ill-gotten gains?”
“That’s easy. He’d just swallow everything and regurgitate it later. For that matter, he doesn’t even need thumbs to access a vault, he could just open his mouth and yak up some kind of metal dissolving solvent, melting the door away.”
“Sounds like you have the mystery solved.”
“Except without thumbs how does he put the damn necklaces on?”
“Annnndd we come back full circle to, I don’t know where the jewellery comes from, or for that matter, where it goes. It just is. And speaking of ongoing mysteries, any luck with your fire-touched powers?”
“I’m beginning to think I’m the dud in the family.” Nico holding up his left hand, displaying a dark red recent burn that he’d added to his collection.
“Nico. For the love of the Lady, please stop playing with fire. The researchers have been pretty clear that being considered fire-touched has nothing to do with being immune to actual physical fire.”
“Copper—”
“No. It’s useless comparing yourself to your sister. She had a blast of Ixchel’s power that somehow triggered her Goddesshood. She’s levelled up way past being fire-touched.”
“I’m just frustrated. And I really don’t like that those conniving blinkered power hungry vain cows appear to know more about what I’m capable of than I do.”
“Maybe Aunt Patricia will have something for us at the meeting tonight. Our last one before the big day tomorrow. We’re ready, right?”
“Certainly from a catering perspective there won’t be any complaints. Talking of tonight’s meeting, would you do me a favour and speak to Nell?”
Yeah, Gigi could think of a million other less painful things to do than talk to Nell at the moment.
Sticking her hand in a blender being on the list. Nell wasn’t acting like her normal self these days.
She was impatient, short tempered and angry all the time.
Issuing threats if anyone so much as glanced at her pregnant belly too long.
In fact, she was kind of acting like Darcy.
“If Drum can’t calm her down, I don’t think I have a hope in hell of getting her to mellow out.”
“No. I think you should talk to her about these non-stop chills you’ve been experiencing. Even now I can see your shivering, your lips are turning white.”
“It’s not that bad.” Though she didn’t believe that, something was wrong with her, and Gigi could tell by Nico’s expression that he wasn’t going to let this go. “Tell you what, I’ll talk to Nell after the baby shower is over and everyone is safe and well. Okay?”
“Fine.” Nico wanted to push it. He was worried. And not just about Gigi’s health. He was a little concerned, it had been five days, spending every minute within a ten foot radius of the woman, and he wasn’t the least bit weary of their boundary restrictions.
Every day he looked forward to working side by side with Gigi as they geared up in preparation for the baby shower extravaganza.
All the while they chatted. And being a certified genius, Gigi knew something about an amazing array of subjects.
Nico, who’d never had any formal education, instead being home schooled by his legend hunting mother, had learnt a surprising number of things over the past week and a half.
Especially when it came to the combination and separation of elements.
He'd never take baking soda for granted again.
Not only had they talked. Gigi was funny.
He found himself laughing more in the past five days than probably the last decade.
Fuck, he’d gotten grim. And once the dust had settled, and he’d solved Matias’s mental reset issue and Copper had been found and returned to the present, he hadn’t let any of it go, had he?
Not trusting the good times to last. On tenterhooks.
Preferring to be watchful, reserved, and not get caught on the back foot, again.
No wonder his jaw and neck muscles ached all the time these days.
And the thing about it all that worried him the most?
How easy it was to be in a relationship with Gigi, pretend or not.
Being with a woman who was self-sufficient was a shock.
Gigi didn’t actually, he realised, need him for a damn thing.
Her business was an unqualified success.
She had plenty of social options if she wanted to go out.
Though she seemed just as happy to stay in reading recipe books and laze about on the sofa.
No, the one and only thing Gigi needed Nico for was when they were alone together in her bedroom.
It had been hellish not to rush her every night once dinner was over.
Being polite. Acting the gentleman. Offering another drink.
All the while every cell in his body was demanding that he sweep the woman off her feet, carry her into the bedroom, close that blasted door and strip them both naked.
He craved her, and not just physically he was beginning to realise. He looked forward to making Gigi smile, making her laugh. Looked forward to the appearance of that tiny furrow on her brow when she was detailing her future expansion plans for her business with verve and can-do enthusiasm.
And there was the crux of the problem. Was he getting too attached?
Gigi had been pretty clear this was a no strings nightly stress relieving fuck arrangement.
But really, how genuine was she being? Oh, he didn’t think she was faking the nightly multiple orgasms. But what about their faux daily public appearances?
The smiles and the easy going conversation didn’t feel that different from when they were alone, except there was more casual touching, and kisses for the viewing pleasure of her friends and family.
And he didn’t think he was the only one finding the boundary getting blurry.
Touching her arm casually even when they were alone.
Pulling her in close and giving her a squeeze when she had an attack of those shivers she just couldn’t seem to shake, and all he could do was offer body heat as a remedy.
Bloody Hell, Gigi DeWitt was turning out to be the best, by a mile, girlfriend, fake or real, that he’d ever had.
Though he was really only comparing her to a decade worth of fleeting one night stands that didn’t really count, and his year long relationship with Kristiah.
Who’d proven beyond high maintenance both in and out of the bedroom.
Emotionally draining and so very needy, demanding and controlling all his time and attention.
He’d been flattered. Fuck, he thought he was in love.
Kristiah had had him so twisted around he’d proposed to her, and she’d unofficially accepted.
He'd mapped out an entire future with her in his head. They’d get married.
Buy their own boat. Hunt down treasure for him and archaeological digs for her.
They’d raise a family on the boat, just like his Mama and Papa had done with him and his siblings.
Except the more he thought about their relationship now, in hindsight, with mature eyes, he couldn’t make Kristiah fit into that fantasy.
Even if she really had been nothing more than a slightly more mature rather gung-ho archaeologist and not a devoted follower of a power hungry high Priest, and not exactly human, there had been something lacking between them.