The Selection Shenanigans

4. The Day Cupid Got High

4

The Day Cupid Got High

Anton’s smile—or what passed as a smile for him—faded as soon as he figured out that not only had Alex and I crashed his private office, but we’d also been getting up to naughtiness in his sanctum sanctorum.

Oops.

Bad call, Alex.

Then again, my boyfriend had told me he loved me for the first time, so basically, he could do no wrong.

Since a skosh of bad judgment and poor timing had yielded a heap of tender feelings and a memory not to be forgotten, I wasn’t apologizing for crashing my archenemy's office.

And since the best defense was a good offense, I started firing. “So Anton, what has you all hearts and smiles?”

He blinked. He looked… Wow, he looked taken aback. Like I’d found him out.

Oh. My. God.

Hearts and smiles. Whoa. I’d meant it as a euphemism for happy. But…but… Anton’s in love.

He scowled at me. “Says who?”

I really needed to keep my thinking voice inside my head. I hated when that stuff slipped out into the world without my permission. Then again, the circumstances were extreme. Cupid must have gotten high the day he zapped Anton with a love arrow.

I was always in it to win it with Anton, so I barreled forward with confidence. “Totally obvious. You have a glow.”

He blinked again, then turned to Alex. “I’m glowing?”

I sneaked a peek at Alex and found him trying not to laugh. The man was biting his lip, he was trying so hard. He cleared his throat. “Not literally, but you look, looked, happy when you walked in.”

Anton scrubbed a huge paw of a hand across his face. “It’s kind of wonderful. And kind of terrible.” He shot us both a dejected look. “I don’t think she’s interested.”

He had it so bad that he’d forgotten for two seconds that he hated me with the burning passion of a grease fire in a fried chicken joint.

Which had my squirrel brain headed down so many paths. What kind of woman inspired such passion in a guy like Anton? What did she look like? What did she sound like? What planet did she come from? Could she take him back with her to a galaxy far, far away?

Alex crossed his arms, a sure sign that he was as uncomfortable with a lovestruck Anton as I was. “Have you asked her out?”

How the guy who took forever to ask me out made it sound like it was the simplest thing in the world to do, I didn’t know.

The look of dejection Anton had worn swerved dangerously into sad puppy dog territory. I could not see mean Mr. Clean as an adorably heartbreaking canine. Noooooo.

“I want to,” he replied. “I just…” He let out a huge groan. “She’s too good for me.”

“Well, duh.” Oh, shoot. I definitely said that out loud. But, I mean, duh. Anton was Anton.

Sure, there was someone for everyone out there, but that didn’t mean Anton. It’s possible I was tapping into my darker side, but this was mean Mr. Clean we were talking about. He was darkness.

“What Mallory means is that when we care about someone, we want to be the best version of ourselves for them. And sometimes, it seems like that best version will never be enough. But if she cares about you, it will be.”

My insides went all melty. Alex might be two parts grump, but he was ten parts sweetheart—regardless of what every other person who knew him might say.

“Who are you? And where have you buried Alex?” Anton turned to scowl at me. “I blame you.”

“Whatever. He’s not wrong. Also, he has a girlfriend. Do you?”

The bald i***t needed a little plain speaking. He had the look of a guy who would wallow in his apartment, order lots of pizza, forget to shower, and then emerge a decade later with a pizza-paunch, wondering why he’d never found love.

“I’d like to skewer you with a dull blade and watch you freak out as your blood pools all around you.”

“Yeah, what’s new?”

Anton had always wanted me dead. Since day one, literally, of my life as a Society vamp.

I’ll never forgive him for sending me on my way with a business card and instructions to call if I felt a murderous rage coming on. Seems fine, right? No. No, it wasn’t. I’d been hungry and had no way to feed myself. And if I’d called, I’d have been disappeared. Quietly, with no fuss, no one to object to the “cleaning up” of an accidental vampire who was so broken she couldn’t even feast on the red stuff. (Ewww.)

We’d basically hated each other ever since.

Stupid Anton.

Stupid Anton with his less than military-perfect posture.

Stupid, stupid Anton with his sad, melty brown, puppy dog eyes.

Ugh, the muscle-bound jerk looked downright pathetic. I felt the Anton-specific ice surrounding my heart crack a teensy bit.

“Oh, good grief. Who is it?” I probably wouldn’t even know her. There was a vast network of enhanced humans living in Austin, and my exposure thus far had been limited. Given how many of them were criminals, bat-guano crazy, or just intensely unlikable, who could blame me for not making an effort to meet the locals?

He leaned against the wall as if without its support he’d fall to the ground in a heap. “Akira.”

“Oh.” Dang it.

And now I might have to like a very small part of Anton. The part that would fall for a strong, intelligent, and generally amazing woman like Akira.

Alex didn’t look exactly shocked. Oh, no. There went the twitchy lips. Alex had already known, the sneaky son of a gun.

“’K, you have excellent taste in women, so there’s that going for you.” Anton glared, but I ignored him and kept going. “And other things. I’m sure you have other things. For example, Akira might be into extremely large men with Arnie-sized muscles. Stranger things have happened.”

Oh, wow. There was a hint of glowing amber in his irises. I had never seen Anton lose control to the point that his eyes bled magic.

I was a terrible person. Not generally, just in regard to Anton, but still.

Quietly, I said, “I’m sorry.”

He shook his head, but the glow subsided. “Why are you two in my office?”

“You’re supposed to be in Chicago debriefing.”

A look of distaste crossed his face. Interesting. Anton wasn’t fond of the Chicago hub. Or perhaps Alex wasn’t the only one unhappy with how Chicago had handled their cornhusker neighbors.

Maybe it was time to give Anton a break.

“Whether I’m in Chicago or the North Pole, my office is never a good place to get frisky with her.” Implying that it was cool with any other woman?

Really? Did he think with his freakishly large arm muscles? Because his brain sure as heck wasn’t doing the heavy lifting if he thought I’d let some floozy get anywhere near Alex.

No break for Anton.

“Enough.” One word from Alex, and Anton shut his mouth faster than a vamp jonesing for blood and high on caffeine. “I needed to share something important with her and it was the first empty office. That’s the end of it.”

I scooched closer to him.

“Right.” Anton’s gaze didn’t stray an inch in my direction. He was back to looking uptight, angry, and all business.

“You have fifteen minutes?” Alex asked. When Anton nodded, Alex turned to me. “Can you head to my office and call Star? She might have a lead on how we can reach out to the FG community.”

It seemed the menfolk wanted to talk about Chicago without my delicate ears present. Honestly, I wasn’t sad to miss that talk. It had been difficult to see how it was all affecting Alex. Granted, I’d been distracted by the shiny of a new case and the possibility of meeting an honest-to-goodness fairy godmother—but I hadn’t forgotten.

On the bright side, my excitement had in turn distracted Alex. And I knew him well enough to know he appreciated it.

The familiar feel of his three-day scruff on my lips as I kissed his cheek made my heart happy. “I’ll be in your office whenever you’re done here.”

And it wouldn’t be fifteen minutes.

Both Anton and Alex were troubled by the recent happenings. They needed to talk about it, process it, and hopefully, together, they’d reach a place where they could walk away from it emotionally.

Alex was getting better at leaving the past in the past, but he still struggled with feelings of responsibility and guilt. The could-haves and should-haves weighed heavily on him.

It was frustrating, because I hated to see him hurting, and yet it was also one of the many reasons I loved him. He cared about other people deeply.

I slipped out the door without a word to Anton, because he could suck it. Redeeming qualities aside, the sum total of Anton still landed firmly in the realm of “would I really be sad if you fell off the edge of the world? Eh…”

While my boyfriend got his head straight, I’d be busy making things happen. I had a witch to call, a fairy godmother to track down, and a get-my-boyfriend-naked plan to create.