“Nah, I won’t smoke.” He was silent for a moment. “Well, maybe.”
I laughed, swaying into him to nudge his arm with my shoulder. When he grinned down at me, the artificial light from the streetlights sliding over his hair and making his yellow eyes gleam, my insides throbbed with dizzying warmth and excitement.
In that moment, it had nothing to do with how proud and happy I was over what I’d achieved tonight. How everything felt like it was finally clicking into place, and I was actually forging a new life for myself.
It had everything to do with him.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Greid
“How’s it looking?” I asked, trying to keep my head perfectly still as I watched the TV.
I was sitting on the floor in front of the couch and Beryl was behind me, perched on the edge as she messed with my hair. She’d told me she wanted to put it into space buns. Obviously, I couldn’t say no to her.
Getting to feel her small fingers running through my hair was just a bonus. My face spikes flexed in a gentle, continuous wave from the pleasure. Her warm thighs were bracketing my sides, and I had my arms hooked over them so she wouldn’t have to spread her legs stupidly wide for me to fit between them.
I didn’t want to move, ever. This was heaven.
She grunted, trying to secure one of the buns. “Your hair is really slippery.”
I chuckled. “Slippery?”
“It’s like, the most perfectly conditioned hair I’ve ever seen in my life. You could side-gig as a model for shampoo commercials. Do you use hair masks?”
“Yeah, sometimes I’ll do a hair and face mask.”
“Can we do them together?”
I grinned. “Yeah, of course. I also have those really good pimple patches. Not that you get pimples.”
“I get pimples. I’ve got one right now.” She leaned down until her face appeared right beside mine and pointed at her chin. “See?”
My breath caught as I turned my head, my eyes almost crossing as I tried to focus on the little red pimple on her chin from so close. Her mouth was right there. Clearing my throat, I said, “Oh.”
“That means my period’s on its way,” she said with a sigh, leaning back and raking her fingers through my hair again.
I quickly tried to catalogue what was in the millions of boxes in my Room of Shame. “I might have a hot water bottle you can use when you get it.”
“Thanks, Greid,” she said with a smile in her voice, squeezing my shoulders before returning to my hair. “Sure you’re not bored sitting there? This is harder than I thought it’d be.”
“No, I’m fine,” I said quickly. Please don’t stop playing with my hair. “Totally comfortable.”
“Good. Oh shit, I missed what Ashi just said.”
I focused on the TV. “She told Huna that she’s going out for dinner with her girlfriends, but she’s actually going to meet Golir for a sexy rendezvous.”
Beryl huffed in annoyance. “How does Huna not realise she’s boning Golir like, all the time?”
“Because he’s too busy boning Loty and conspiring to take out Marish with her.”
We hadn’t finished Our Neighbours the Humans yet, but we’d decided to watch Gloom Falls while we hung out before Beryl went to work. She’d been working at the bar for almost two weeks now, and she loved it more and more with every shift. I could see her confidence returning and growing, and I knew she liked having a routine, even though her shifts were at different times depending on the day.
I was really proud of her, but she didn’t need me to tell her that. She knew it. She was proud of herself too, and that was what mattered.
“Okay, they’re probably gonna be messy and uneven, but I’m just gonna do it.” Beryl gathered one side of my hair up and started securing it again. “I’ll make your hair all greasy if I keep playing with it like this.”
“I don’t mind. We can do the masks later if you want, when you get home, so I’ll wash it then.”
“Sounds good.” She tied up the other side and fussed with them for a bit. “Okay, let me see.”
I shifted around in the cradle of her legs to face her, and Beryl’s face lit up.
“They look really good.” She reached out and adjusted one. “A little uneven, but they suit you. You look pretty.”
My ears fluttered wildly as I grinned at her. “Thanks.” I bobbed my head side to side so they’d wobble, just to make her laugh.
She did. And then she cupped my face in her small hands and leaned in to kiss my cheek.
We both froze. My hearts started pounding, sweat beading under my arms as my entire body grew warm. I went light-headed for a second, but maybe the space buns were just too tight.
Quickly dropping her hands, Beryl sat back as her freckled cheeks turned bright pink. “Sorry, I-I shouldn’t have done that without asking you—”
“It’s okay,” I croaked, resisting the intense desire to clutch her legs and beg her to do it again. “I…”
We stared at each other in silence. My breath caught in my throat when Beryl’s green eyes drifted down to my mouth.
Oh fuck. Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck—
“Greid,” she said hoarsely, one of her hands slowly lifting toward my face again.
The doorbell made us both jump violently, and Beryl dropped her hand with a little laugh, eyes darting to the living room door.
Nooooooo!
“I’ll get it,” I rasped, unfurling from the floor and trying not to stomp as I left the living room.
Whoever the fuck it was could go to hell. Had Beryl actually been about to kiss me? My legs were a little shaky and my hearts were still rabbiting in my chest as I yanked open the front door, already scowling.
I blinked in shock at the sight of my mother and sister on the front step, dread creeping into my gut. Oh god, no.
“Why such a thunderous face, kushka?” Mom was already bustling inside and presenting her cheek for a kiss. “You aren’t happy to see your mother?”
“Mom,” I sputtered, kissing her cheek in a daze. My eyes drifted to my sister as she swept inside, still occupied by her phone. “Kiti. What—”
“We were in the neighbourhood and thought we’d stop by,” Mom said airily as she shed her coat and held it out to me. I took it automatically. “You haven’t visited in so long. Not even when Nuni won his latest contemporary architecture award for the nesthouse in the—”
“In the Blackgrass Building. Yeah, I know,” I grumbled, glaring at my sister as she dumped her coat over Mom’s in my arms. “I was busy. And he’s already won, like, fifty awards, so I doubt he even cares about them anymore.”
Mom tutted, peeling off her gloves and dropping them carelessly on the console table. “You should still support your brother, kushka.”
“I texted him,” I muttered, dumping the coats on the little chair next to the table. “And he replied with, ‘thanks, d-bag’.”
Kiti snickered, patting my cheek as she sauntered past, making me scowl at her. “You are a d-bag.”
“Takes one to know one.” I immediately cringed after saying it, hoping Beryl hadn’t heard from the living room.