Heart of Fire (Blood of Zeus #2) - Meredith Wild Page 0,19

a quick glance at the fancy parchment. “Apple tart,” I supply quickly.

She lifts her smile to the server. “Make it two.”

I lift my finger before he darts off. “To go.”

She lifts a brow and reaches for my hand. “In a hurry, are we?”

My attention snags back to the bar as I let her fingers curl against mine. “How’d they get in?” I mutter. “There’s a security gauntlet outside.”

“All hail the mighty hand of Veronica Valari. Where there’s the will of a demon, there’s a way.”

I pull her fingertips to my lips. I’m not oblivious to the flurry of activity that causes. The swift whip of cell phones around the room.

But none of it really matters. None of it comes close to the real focal point of my attention. The exquisite expressiveness of this woman’s face. The way her eyes get smoky as I linger my mouth over the sweet curves of her knuckles.

“Don’t I know it.” I thread the sentiment with a low growl against her cinnamon-scented skin.

Kara responds with a stare that nearly melts the world away.

I lean in, drawn even closer when she adds some sexy tinder of her own, biting the inside of her lip so only I can see. But the next moment, she’s stretching out her arms and pulling away with elusive grace, providing an even better shot for every camera lens in this place. I grit through a smile. She looks like we’re at home and getting ready to cuddle on the couch.

The image makes me chuckle.

“What?” She returns a smile.

“Nothing. You just amaze me, is all. How have you had a lifetime of nights like this, yet have managed to stay so…” I’m at a loss for words now. I finally surrender to the first thing that jumps to mind. “So you,” I finally blurt, inserting an awkward laugh. “I mean, your fortitude is already something else—but there are more depths to it than I ever imagined.”

Luckily, Kara seems to grasp my message, vague half poetry and all. “First of all, I’ll tell you that I’ve never had a night quite like this. And as for being ‘me’… Well, I don’t even know what that is yet.” As she confesses that part, she looks away. Teethes her lip more fully. “But I do know that more of me feels right when you’re near and touching me like this.”

And just like that, my heart is too big for my chest. The globe’s whole atmosphere isn’t enough to contain my feelings. “Only like this?”

She lifts her head back up. Our gazes entwine, full of too many meanings. I need hours to unravel her. A lifetime. Even then, it might not be enough. She’s like Dante’s layered inferno, only inverted. Every new circle I reveal of her is another step toward heaven.

I like that thought. A lot. While I know she can’t decipher it word for word with her abilities, she seems to pick up enough of it to like it too. But we’re torn from basking in it for too long. The waiter is back, bearing our dessert in to-go boxes. He pops them open long enough to show off the decadent tarts, each drizzled with sauces that promise perfect taste explosions.

“Oh, wow,” Kara exclaims. “Those look amazing.”

“And wait until you see where we’re going to enjoy them.” Her ogling of the desserts gives me space to scheme in the form of a fast text to Regina. She’s not surprised to hear from me. This date is already a social media conversation, one she and Sarah have been following with rapt interest since the moment Kara and I got here.

It’s an odd revelation, but their excitement is a welcome shift from Veronica’s intensity. Somehow I can feel her presence here, even though she’s nowhere in sight.

While I relax in the reprieve, I also respect its brevity. In the course of today alone, the woman has earned equal parts of my appreciation, irritation, admiration, and ire. Veronica absolutely lives up to her force-of-nature reputation. But with Kara looking so much better than dessert, I’m more eager to defy the queen mother—at least for another hour or two.

It’s time to get my sweet little demon alone.

“Hmm,” Kara coos in response to my playful smirk. “Somebody’s concocting a plan.”

“Yes, but I want it to be a surprise.”

She answers with an adorable smirk. “You know how to keep a girl in suspense.”

Fifteen minutes later, as I tug at Kara with one hand while balancing the dessert boxes with the