“I could do it again.”
“Yes.” His hand slid under her top, his fingernails massaging her skin. His other hand moved up her thigh, rubbing her through the stretchy fabric of her sports pants. His magic whispered across her skin like a warm summer breeze.
She moaned, deep in her throat, losing a grip on her plate. Kai caught it one-handed before it hit the ground. He shoved it hurriedly onto the table, then returned that hand to her back. He tugged her shirt up, lifting it over her head.
“Kai,” she protested, her words nearly dissolving before they left her lips.
“Hmm?” His voice buzzed against her bellybutton.
“We’ll be late for the Games.”
“Plenty of time,” he said, kissing down her stomach. His tongue teased the waistband of her pants.
Oh, to hell with it! She grabbed hold of his shoulders and pushed him down onto the sofa.
* * *
“Your pancakes are cold.”
Sera looked at Kai, who was leaning leisurely against the puffy arm of the sofa. Deep breaths purred inside his chest, and he returned her glance with a satisfied smirk. He did look a tad guilty about the pancakes, though.
“They’re fine,” she assured him, taking a bite. “Just as good cold as hot.”
“And you?”
“Sorry?”
“Are you fine?” he asked.
“Yes.” She leaned in to kiss him, a smile on her lips. “Though maybe a bit too relaxed to fight any monsters at the moment.”
“So basically you’d like me to work you up into a frenzy, then unleash you on the monsters?”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she said, poking him in the chest.
He kissed her finger. “I would dare a lot of things, sweetheart.”
“The Magic Council—”
“Forget them,” he said. “This has nothing to do with them.”
“Blackbrooke was on your case about me, and that was before we slept together. He would have an aneurysm if he found out about us.”
“Let him. I don’t care what he thinks.”
“Could he pull you as my coach?” Sera asked.
Kai said nothing. But his silence told all.
“That’s what I thought. We can’t tell him, Kai. We can’t tell anyone.”
He looked at her. “Do you trust me, Sera?”
“I trust you to have my back in a fight,” she said, smiling. Her smile died on her lips as a cool, expressionless mask slid across his face.
“That’s not what I mean.” He expelled an exasperated sigh. “After all we’ve been through, you still don’t trust me. Not really. Not completely.”
“I…” She opened her mouth, ready to lie, but decided he deserved better than that. “I don’t trust easily.” Her secret was too dangerous. She looked up from her clasped hands, meeting his eyes. “And neither do you.”
“That’s true. I don’t trust easily,” he agreed. “But you’re not a very good liar, Sera. I see right through you, through that hard and tough exterior. You’re sweet inside. Gooey even.”
“Gooey?” she said, coughing.
“You heard me, Miss Badass Mercenary. I know you, and you’re no revolutionary. Whatever secrets you’re keeping locked away inside, they don’t make you a threat to the Magic Council. The Council has nothing to fear from you until the day they go after someone you care about. You fight hard for the people you love.”
“Yes.” She skewered a piece of pancake onto her fork. “I do.”
“Good. You’ll need that fighting spirit today at the Games.”
Sera’s phone buzzed across the table. She ignored it.
“Are you going to get that?” he asked.
“No.”
“Care to elaborate?”
“No.”
He folded his hands together and stared at her. Sera lasted about two seconds beneath the dragon’s stare before she cracked.
“There’s no point in checking. I already know who it is. One of my two stalkers.”
“There’s another one now? Besides Finn?” His face betrayed no emotion, but the bolt of magic lightning that blew up the toaster on the counter behind him was pretty much a dead giveaway.
“Technically, Finn was the second,” she said, picking up her phone with a heavy sigh. “The first is Cutler. He keeps messaging me, asking me to go out with him.”
“Let me see that.”
“No.” She sat on the phone, then, before he could do so much as arch an irked eyebrow at her, she said, “I have this hunch about Cutler.”
“That his parents are bribing the Magic Council with large sums of money to keep him out of a mental institution?”
“No.” She stopped. “Wait, huh? Is that true?”
“Sadly, no.”
“So you were being playful?”
“Roar,” he said, his face deadpan as he clawed the air like a kitten.
Sera snorted, thankfully this time without milk in her mouth. “Ok, my hunch. I’ve been running into Cutler everywhere since we arrived in New York. Macy’s, Trove, the fighting arena…”
“All the places that the photos Finn sent you were taken,” Kai finished for her.
“Yes.”
“You think Cutler is working for Finn,” he said. “That he’s one of the mages in Finn’s cult of crazy.”