Page 43 of Merciless Heir
“Are you okay, Kingston?” asks Zoey, who is way too sweet for black-hearted Magnus, but she loves him anyway.
I just shrug. “Mother’s up to something.” I shake my phone, then grab my drink, finishing it. “She’s full of dire warnings about how I have to do this right.”
And then there’s Sadie. Hot, difficult, intriguing Sadie. A woman who won’t leave me the fuck alone, not even when I sleep.
I’m going to have to do something about that.
Like get this job done and dusted as soon as I can. And yeah, get her to sell the shit out of the heirloom so it won’t remind me of her.
I order another drink and tell my family to leave talk of quests and dead fathers and manipulative mothers alone for the evening.
I’m a little drunk when I finally leave, the liquid warmth of the booze making me feel loose as the world loses its sharp edges. I could get a car home, but I need some air and though it’s spitting fat drops of rain here and there, I start walking.
The hour is late and I stayed past when my brothers left. I stayed and flicked away all and any unwanted attention that came my way from a few willing women. They weren’t my type.
They weren’t Sadie.
I shove my hands in my pockets as I turn onto East Sixth street and falter.
A strange coldness grabs the base of my spine.
I’m not alone.
Someone is following me.
Chapter Twelve
Sadie
“Normal people,” Kingston says as he turns like he knew I was there the entire time, “just say hello. Or call.”
“Dinosaurs make calls.”
His mouth twitches and heat streaks through me, the now-familiar pull to him swooping through my system. “It’s not all texts and emails.”
“No, it’s phone calls and carrier pigeons.”
This time, Kingston laughs and he leans against a wall, the cold intermittent rain giving the city a shine, giving him one, too. And he takes me in, his mouth soft, generous, and the most sensuous thing I’ve ever somehow managed to turn down.
I don’t know if that makes me an idiot or smart.
There’s a softness about him, not just his mouth; all of him. “Are you drunk?”
“No. But I’m human.”
“Are you?”
“I had a few drinks. Why are you following me?”
“Not following,” I say, keeping my distance from him because to do anything else would be me launching myself at him and claiming that kiss I denied earlier…something I can’t do. I’m not that self-destructive. “Looking.”
Kingston nods, like he knows.
Of course he does. I’m good but I’m not magic. I came after him when he left for reasons I don’t understand. And I sat at a bar opposite the one he was at, near the window, working and watching to see what he did next. I could have gone in to the one he was at, but this man has an uncanny ability to know I’m there. Like he’s tuned in.
He’s smart, and he’s someone who is highly aware, but it’s like he’s got a special radar for me.
Like the one I have for him.