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Daphne stalled for a second, looking up at me with wide eyes, before turning to walk toward the door.

I followed.

Daphne opened the door and stopped short, stepping back into my chest. Piper and Sebastian were talking in the hall, and when Piper saw us, her cheeks colored with a deep blush.

She excused herself and scurried down the hall like she’d just gotten caught snooping where she shouldn’t. Sebastian shot us a grin and stepped through a portal a second later.

Daphne let out a low laugh. “Looks like Piper has a crush.”

“On Sebastian?”

“Didn’t you see her blush? I think she giggled.”

I twisted Daphne to face me with hands on her shoulders. “Yeah? And Sebastian is worthy of that reaction?”

Daphne raised an eyebrow like the answer was obvious. “I get it. I mean, look at him.”

A dark snap of jealousy lanced my skin. “Do yougigglearound Sebastian?”

Daphne let out that low laugh that I’d claimed as mine. “No. But objectively, he’s quite attractive. I wouldn’t be surprised if Piper had a thing for him.”

My voice hurt coming out around the tightness in my throat. “I don’t care. So long as you don’t.”

Daphne reached up and saluted me. “Whatever you say, Lukas.” She jumped out of my arms right as I reached for her, shuffling down the hallway and laughing again.

“See you later, baby,” I called, then grinned like a fiend when her stride seemed to falter.

A quick check at my watch and my grin widened. So few hours until I had her back where she belonged.

Chapter 21

Daphne

This was such a bad idea. I didn’t have bad ideas. I had really good ideas that didn’t have potentially world-ending consequences. Consequences like spending a night next to the man I loved acting like I wasn’t as greedy as an animal searching for water in the desert.

I was freaking out. As in heart pounding, stomach flipping freaking the fuck out.

I didn’t hear a word anyone said to me at the court dinner we had to sit through, my autopilot kicking on and holding conversations that I had no real part in.

Even someone making a crude joke about olive oil being as slippery as the goddess whose trees they came from didn’t faze me. It wasn’t even creative. Athena and our olive trees were old news.

Besides, something seemed to have my back, because they’d fled dinner minutes later, looking like the water in their stomach was bubbling with acid.

What was more important was the realization that I was suppressing the hell out of my feelings for Lukas since being back. Or maybe they’d just heightened after the explosion.

Whatever the cause, looking at Lukas felt like wrapping my hand around a livewire. My skin felt raw around him, sparking at each brush of his hand. Everything that he did sent my pulse skyrocketing, taking little moments and spinning them into something that held far more meaning.

Like my coffee. That wasn’t a secret. I’d visited the farm myself with Mia Ceres a few years back.

But Lukas had been keeping it stocked in the house while I was gone. He didn’thaveto do that. And that was the problem, right? He was only with me because he had to and was taking what he could get.

He didn’t need to pay attention to what I ate or drank or how I lived. But he did.

I was still holding strong to my promise to myself not to cross any lines though. All niceties aside, we had been friends. It could be a show of close friendship. Maybe he didn’t want anything more.

It was the same old doubt spiral I’d fallen down a million times.

A fun little moment of that spiral was the feeling that I was nowhere near as good at hiding my feelings as I thought. That everyone knew how painfully in love with Lukas I was and laughing at me. Knowing he’d never feel the same.