Page 113 of A Taste of Bliss

“Well, not for long if he’s been acting like that towards you,” I respond immediately. “You fully have my support in slapping him, but let me talk to him first?” Maybe there’s some sort of explanation for his behavior.

Dericia smiles at me with a bemused expression, like she thinks it’s a waste of time, but she’ll allow it. “I love how you always want to see the best in people, Bliss. Don’t ever change.”

Amelia makes a gagging noise. “Ugh, grab a yearbook why don’t you?”

Dericia and I laugh and hug each other. We throw our arms around Amelia too, planting kisses all over her. “Yuck, gross. Get off me,” she mumbles, even as she hugs us both back.

“I’m hungry,” Amelia announces as we finally release her, immediately standing up. “I cannot sit in this chair anymore.”

Dericia shrugs. “We can take a break.”

Amelia nods and looks at me through the mirror. “Plus, Bliss, you need to get ready for your date.” She grins.

A blush creeps into my face at the mention of it.

After Grim shared a little about the investigations and checked that I was okay, he asked if I wanted to meet him for a late lunch. Nothing fancy, just grabbing something from one of the food trucks and finding a little place in the grass to sit and eat. A little festival picnic.

“I’m pretty much ready, just need to change,” I say. I couldn’t help but put on Wrath’s—no, Pisces’—hoodie earlier. It was too cold and his overly large hoodies are the comfiest things ever. A thought occurs to me, and I sniff his hoodie. Amelia and Reese both look at me like I’m insane, but I take another sniff. The hoodie doesn’t smell like Pisces. Don’t get me wrong, it smells good, but not as good as Pisces’ scent. I laugh.

“I think the Voracious Maw boys disguise themselves with cologne,” I explain to Reese and Amelia, holding out my sleeve for them to smell.

“That’s actually genius,” Amelia says, laughing.

We gossip a bit more as my sisters help me pick out an outfit.

About fifteen minutes later, I’m headed out the door, Dericia swatting me on the butt like she’s a coach and I’m a football player. “Go get him,” she says excitedly. I know she and Amelia want me to hook up with Grim.

Even though I fed off Wrath two days ago, I still feel relatively good. I know my powers will start to droop and I’ll need to do something soon, but do I do it with Grim?

I’m certainly not going to feed off Pisces again.

Even though I can’t help but recall how he felt, what his tongue was capable of.

I mentally shut out that memory and attempt to lock it down and forget about it. We are so not going there again.

Grim’s waiting for me by a food truck selling chocolate-covered strawberries with all sorts of toppings. He grins as he sees me, and I let him wrap me up in a tight hug.

He laughs into my hair as I tighten my arms around him.

He steps back and looks me up and down. “You look gorgeous, Bliss.” He gives my ribbon a slight tug. I found another white ribbon in my suitcase. Even though the last time I wore a white one I was attacked, I have higher hopes today.

“Thank you,” I say, allowing myself to look him up and down as well. I can’t lie to myself. I definitely like what I see, but butterflies swirl in my stomach, and even though all the movies and romance books make it seem like butterflies are good, I know they’re just a bit of anxiety.

But they settle down the more we walk around and talk about what food to get. By the time we order from a mediterranean style food truck, I feel much more comfortable.

We find a quiet section of the festival grounds with a grassy area, shaded by nearby trees. Grim’s brought a blanket. He unfolds it, whipping it out in the air so it settles gracefully across the grass. We each give it a few tugs at the corners to smooth it out and sit down with our food.

“So, Bliss is your given name?” Grim asks as he spears a bit of meat with his fork.

“Yeah,” I reply, a smile coming easily to my face. “I think my mom was a bit high on drugs when she delivered me. Thought she was being funny.”

“So your parents knew you’d be a succubus?”

I stop myself from laughing, remembering that sometimes Made fae don’t always know the ways of Born fae. “It’s part of the prenatal care. Fae parents have a test performed to see what type of fae they’ll be giving birth to.”

Grim nods thoughtfully and laughs. “That actually makes a lot of sense. Same as finding out the sex, I suppose.”

“Um, so what are you?” I blurt out then hide my mouth behind my hand. “Sorry, I just haven’t been able to place your scent, and Taser won’t talk much about you.”