ten million dollars in his tailored shirt and impeccably fitted slacks. As the ocean kicks up a stronger wind, his shirt gets plastered across his broad pecs and the ridges of his abs. His hair lifts away from his face, giving the firelight free rein over his bold features. Just when I thought he couldn’t captivate me more than usual… For all those reasons, I can’t stop staring.
“Oh, my my my.” All too quickly, Rerek’s knowing murmur breaks into my reverie.
I shake my head, pushing off another schism of discomfort. Rerek is a lot like our unofficial brother. Because of that, he’s never actively messed with Hollywood, though the town has done just fine in the chaos department all by itself. Still, no creature that’s helped with centuries of human catastrophes should be so urbane about it.
“My my my what?” I ask, still struggling for a semblance of charm.
“Just commenting on perceptions, darling. Your lust is dripping like wax from a dungeon candle.”
“Oh dear,” I mumble, beyond glad that Jaden still has Maximus’s ear.
Rerek wiggles his toes through the sand but frowns when a new gust scatters the grains onto his black pant leg. “‘We are asleep until we fall in love.’”
I laugh, buying myself time for an acceptable reaction. Why do I feel so strange and violated, when Maximus and I are on every mortal magazine cover and every immortal watch list?
But there’s no time for time for processing that. Thankfully, at least on the outside, I’m able to maintain a show of serenity to match Rerek’s. Past a calm smile, I reply, “I had no idea you were a Tolstoy buff.”
My masquerade is successful, if his short chuckle can be believed. “Little one, whom do you think kept the man company when he told the literary elite to fuck off?”
“Oh, goodness. Well, that must have been a fun feather in your cap.”
“Leo didn’t need any help from me,” he assures. “The man already had a head full of demons by the time I showed up.”
“Yo, R-dog. I’m empty!” Jaden interjects, hoisting his tumbler in emphasis. “And thirsty.”
“And that just won’t do.” Rerek struts over to my brother and links their elbows. “What do you say we find something sinful to imbibe or inhale?”
“Might want to check everyone’s pulse while you’re at it,” I remark. “It’s pretty dead in there.”
Rerek scowls. “Well, that just won’t do,” says the man who gladly cops to half the world’s insanity.
I’m happily diverted as soon as Jaden disconnects from Rerek and pulls me into a hug. “Thanks for showing up. I mean it.”
I smile into his shirt, which smells like ocean and smoke. “Thanks for the invite. I mean that too.”
He winks and flashes the smile that’s landed him a thousand magazine covers before he disappears into the darkness between here and the house. I watch their shadows in the gloom and then their silhouettes against the wide cement stairway up to Rerek’s living room. Since the pocket doors are all open, the party music flows out our way. It’s a pleasant mix with the ebb and flow of the waves and random spark pops from the fire.
Maximus presses his torso to my back. His hands around my shoulders and his lips to my ear, he offers softly, “Beach blanket for your thoughts.”
A smile melts the last of my tension, especially as I follow his pointing finger to a pile of big velour squares that Jaden and Rerek left behind. “Well, now you’re talking.”
“No,” Maximus counters while helping me spread out the top blanket in a spot upwind of the fire’s smoke. “Now you’re talking. What’s going on?” He finishes the question by pulling me down into his lap and pressing a tender hand to my face. “We came here to unwind. So far, you’ve only been pretending to.”
I dig into his train of thought by doing the same to his forearms, playing with the alluring hairs between his elbow and wrist while organizing my thoughts. “Rerek can be unpredictable. He puts me on edge. I guess Jaden thrives on that kind of thing. Me, not so much.”
“The guy seems pretty easygoing.”
I attempt a laugh. “Easygoing isn’t how I’d describe a full-blooded chaos demon, even on his mellowest day.”
Maximus absorbs the revelation with shocking calm, though the slight lift of his brows is oddly comforting.
“All right. That’s starting to make a little sense now.”
“In what way?”
He scoops his hand to my nape and rubs there, as if we’re just enjoying a Sunday picnic