This level of sexy couldn’t be taught. Either you were born with it, or you died trying.
Dozens of gazes fell on me, assessing and dismissing me as a potential rival, as the women waited for him to blow me off and get back to teaching.
“You forgot your phone.” I held it up, pinched between two fingers. “Figured you might want it back.”
With the debt we owed Natisha hanging over us, our phones were our lifelines.
Ford was worth the astronomical debt we incurred with the vicious old fae, but I dreaded paying up.
Seven hearts.
Still beating.
Goddess.
“Excuse me,” Midas told the girls, then appointed one to continue the exercise. He raked his long fingers through his damp and wavy hair then loped over to me. “You didn’t have to bring it all the way down here.”
“I was in the neighborhood.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “Like two-thirds of the women in that gym.”
That dangerous smile of his turned predatory. “Jealous?”
“You’re the one with a raging crush on me.” I rolled a shoulder. “I keep you around because it’s cute.”
The flash of his teeth set my stomach quivering as he leaned in. “You think I’m cute?”
“I didn’t say you.” I pricked his princely ego. “Your crush.” I watched him deflate. “That’s what’s cute.”
A low growl rumbled through his chest, but the pint-sized bouncer jostled him aside for a better view.
“She’s really your girlfriend?” Eyes narrowed, she squinted between us. “Like for real?”
“Hadley Whitaker, this is Dani.” He squeezed her narrow shoulder, a quick flex of his fingers, but neither looked wholly comfortable with it. “She helps us keep out the riffraff.” He didn’t hesitate as he locked gazes with me. “Dani Freidman, this is Hadley, my girlfriend.”
The title from his lips pooled cold sweat in the small of my back. The coldest. Downright arctic. Antarctic.
Midas Kinase was my boyfriend.
Hecate be merciful.
“Hadley. Whitaker.” Dani’s mouth fell open. “The Hadley Whitaker?” She clung to Midas’s arm, her nails leaving crescents in his skin. “The next Potentate of Atlanta Hadley Whitaker?”
The clear view of her tonsils freaked me out a little. “That’s what it says on my underwear.”
Midas wiped a hand down his face, but he wasn’t quick enough to erase the beginnings of a smile.
“I’m your biggest fan,” Dani gushed, the tough shell around her cracking to reveal the little girl sheltered beneath all that life experience. “I didn’t recognize you, I swear, or I wouldn’t have hassled you.”
“No worries.” I tipped the brim of my baseball cap at her. “I’m incognito.”
That sounded better than a literal hot mess, given the steaming temperature.
“You’re badass.” She wriggled past Midas to stand between us. “I saw you fight a chupacabra once.”
Wincing at how that ended, with its head at my feet, I really wished she hadn’t. “I get that a lot.”
“I want to be just like you.” That tough outer shell hardened once more, protecting her vulnerable inner self. “No one would mess with me if I carried two swords like you do.”
“There’s more to being potentate than carrying swords.”
A vicious gleam made her eyes shine. “Like cutting off heads?”
“Yes.” I palmed my forehead. “I mean, no.” I rubbed the spot between my eyes. “That’s part of it, but it’s not the important part.”
“I would protect people too.” She left the duh unsaid, but I heard it loud and clear. “Would you, maybe, show me how?” She examined her grimy feet. “You’re busy and stuff, and way too important, but Midas helps out, so I thought you might come with him.”
With a kid this frank, I wanted us on the exact same page. “How to…?”
“Use a sword. Oh! Or maybe two swords. How long did it take you to learn? How long did it take you to get good? Did you cut yourself? A lot? Do you think I’ll cut myself? Will you make me sign a waiver? Am I old enough to sign a waiver? I saw Mom working a corner on Peachtree last week. I can probably bribe her to sign with a chocolate bar.”
“Breathe, kid.” I cut her off before she ran out of oxygen. “I’m working a case right now, but I’ll see what I can do after it’s solved.” I cut my boyfriend a sharp look. “Maybe I’ll start coming down here with Midas.”
“That would be amazing.” She bounced on her feet. “Do you mean it?”
“Cross my heart.” I made the gesture to seal the deal. “Mind if I borrow him for a second?”
“No problem.” She backed up a step. “I get it.” She made finger quotes. “You guys want to talk.”
Dani shot back into the gym, closing the inner doors behind her to give us more privacy.
“I like her.” I passed over his phone before I forgot. “She’s doesn’t take crap from anyone, huh?”
“Dani is my first line of defense.” He woke his cell to check his messages. “She’s a good kid.”
A wrinkle formed between his eyebrows, and he angled the screen so we could read the first text and then the second and then the third together.
>>You two have put me off long enough.
>>I expect you and Hadley at dinner.
>>Wednesday night.
When Tisdale Kinase, the alpha of the Atlanta gwyllgi pack, invites you to a family dinner to discuss your intentions toward her only son and heir, you accept. Unless you’re me. Then you fake the flu for a week. This gave me three days to relapse or think up a better lie.
“Does that read as attendance optional to you?” I angled my head. “That’s how I interpret it.”
“Hadley.”
“Fine,” I huffed. “Tell her royal highness I’ll see her then.”
Most Atlantans called Midas the pack prince
