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Gideon did not knowwhat to do with himself.

He didn’t dare stand up, lest he embarrass himself in front of Marguerite and the entire restaurant. He had been solidly at “half-mast” for the entire evening, but the moment she brought his fingers to her lips, and he felt the flick of her tongue against his skin as she stole the piece of popcorn from him?

All hope was lost.

He needed some time and many mental images of death and suffering to calm himself down. His blood boiled in his veins. The little minx. The little harpy. She knew precisely what she was doing to him. And gods below, she was reveling in it!

The creature across from him was delighting in his abject misery!

He would ask what he had done to deserve such a tormenter, but he knew. There was a very, very long list.

She had removed her long coat and her hoodie and was sitting across from him in only a low-cut tank top. It revealed the luscious form he had wanted to crush against him in that alleyway. To pick her up by her narrow waist and throw her legs around his and take her as he had so adamantly needed to since the first day he had seen her.

But needing was not the same as having.

And no god or demon cared about what he needed and was denied.

He kept his gaze from lingering too long on her ample chest. Or the way it disappeared out of sight just a little too late for him to catch a hint of her undergarments. Modern female clothing was so much more revealing than it used to be.

He cursed himself vehemently as he downed the rest of his second martini. He motioned to the waiter to get him a third. They were not even at their main course yet—he had to be careful. It took more than the average amount of alcohol to leave him inebriated, but he was well on his way, and the night had only just begun.

The internal screaming he was doing nearly drowned out all the actual noise of the restaurant around him. It took every ounce of self-control not to flip the table, slam her over the bar, and rut her right then and there.

He honestly believed he might implode.

Taking a deep breath, he slowly let it out. Patience, preserve me.

* * *

“Are you all right over there?”Maggie smiled sympathetically at the pitiful man. Maybe she had pushed him too far. She’d ease off for the rest of the night, if only because it looked like he was going to burst a blood vessel in his temple.

He shifted uncomfortably.

Or burst a blood vessel somewhere else.

“All right, I’m being mean. I’m sorry.” She sipped her drink. “This is very good, by the way.”

“I’m glad you like it,” he grumbled.

She laughed at how disgruntled he was. “I’m sorry. I really am. I shouldn’t torture you.”

“I am honestly glad to see you have a little fun. Most of our time together over the years has been spent…with hardly such amount of humor.” He stared down into his third martini. “Given the choice, this harassment or witnessing you slip into a miasma of sadness until you cannot take it another day? I would take this any time.”

She smiled sadly and lifted her glass to him. “To better futures than our pasts.”

That shook him out of his foul mood. He studied her face for a long moment before warmth crept over his expression. When he smiled, there were slight creases in the corners of his silver eyes. He lifted his martini. “To better futures.”

Dinner came a few moments later, and she decided to instantly forgive Gideon for ordering for her. One, it really wasn’t that big of an offense. And two, the crab cakes were incredible. She tried not to make profane noises as she ate, as she really was trying to ease off tormenting the extremely-sexually-pent-up necromancer.

There was mean, and then there was animal cruelty.

“Okay, so, you were an old man hunting around Tibet, and then what happened?”

“Mh, yes, right.” He set his fork into his bowl of gnocchi. “Well, I found a man who had been dead for a very long time. We had a lovely chat. He made me tea. Which was remarkable, seeing as he was missing most of the flesh on his body at the time.”

She blinked. That should have horrified her. But she had found her father a corpse encased in gold and jewels and set free a skeletal vampire who had set the Vatican on fire. Not to mention the fact that her best friend was a revenant, and her other best friend was an undead rat.