Page 132 of Fanged Embrace
“It’s nothing bad, Hunter dearest.” I wagged a finger in her direction, tossing a strand of red hair over my shoulder. “Just a few heartfelt words for each of you.”
“You mean a few, final digs before we can all escape,” Dylan muttered under her breath.
“Something like that.” I snapped a finger in her direction. “Thank you for volunteering, Dylan, we’ll start with you.”
Her eyes bulged and she stood straighter with a jolt. “Wait, I?—”
“What is there to say about Dylan?” I began, waving a hand around the crowd. “We all once knew her as the goth chick in the corner. The silent spy who could disappear without a trace. She was cool, calm, and collected—always.” I paused for emphasis, before lifting a contemplative brow. “Or was she?”
“Dear god.” Dylan pinched the bridge of her nose. “Can we not? Seriously, Jordan, you don’t have to?—”
“What Dylan wouldn’t admit to the rest of us,” I continued with a flourish, “is that she was, in fact, rather lonely. And that all changed one day when I had the brilliant idea to marry her off to our enemy’s daughter.” I gestured lovingly at Amara, who blew me a kiss. Dylan groaned into her hands.
“The two hated each other at first, I’ll admit.” I cleared my throat. “But what started out as an icy union soon, ahem,blossomed, into a beautiful romance.” Dylan looked close to bashing her head on the wall at my corny reference to her flower garden.
“And the rest, as they say—” I clasped my hands to my chest, fluttering my eyes at the scowling vamp. “Is history.”
“Greeeaaat,” Dylan drawled, windmilling her hand to hurry me up. “Let's move on now, thank you.”
And move on I did, targeting Maxine and Leah, and letting everyone in on the fact that since building their new houseboat, Maxine had—not once, not twice, but three times at that point—nearly set fire to the entire contraption by leaving her curling iron plugged in.
“I told you that in confidence!” Maxine jumped to her feet when I was finished.
Leah turned accusatory eyes on her featherbrained partner. “Isthatwhy there are scorch marks on our bedroom floor?!”
Before Maxine could make amends my gaze was already gliding past her, settling on River and Laurie. River raised a challenging brow and Laurie looked back and forth between us in anxious anticipation.
“River…” I began with a sigh. Then shot her a congratulatory thumbs up. “Good job.”
“What?!” Amara butted in, hands moving in a blur as she signed out her complaint alongside her chatter. “You can’t rag on the rest of us and let her get off unscorched.”
“Fine, fine.” I lifted a placating hand. “River, for the past few years I honestly thought you’d decided to be celibate or something. Then I realized you were just waiting around to find someone as unhinged as you are—looking at you, Laurie.”
“Uh… thank you?” Laurie titled her head to the side while River huffed out a laugh into her hands.
“And now for the happy couple…” I turned my eyes on Hunter who sunk deeper into her seat. Caden whistled loudly in the corner and Hunter shot him a glare while Addison patted her wife’s leg with a placating smile.
“Jordan,” Hunter gritted out, looking ready to fling a fork at my head. “I would implore you not to say anything damning in front of my wife.”
“You can’t pick a fight on your wedding day, Hunter. Be civil.” I shook my head with a sly smirk and tossed my hair again. “Anyway, did you all know that when Hunter first met Addison, she was so convinced that she’d get in trouble for having a crush that she went out of her way to hide it from the rest of us until it spiraled wildly out of control?”
Hunter huffed out a breath while Ethan snickered behind her. Even Addison couldn’t hide her muffled laugh.
I nodded somberly before continuing. “It all came to a head when Maxine’s snooping proved fruitful and we all had to suit up and roll out to save Hunter and her secret girlfriend before they both got their asses handed to them by a rogue faction of insane, fancy elves.”
Hunter dropped her head back with another loud groan and I shot her a fanged grin. “Oh, and there was also the time she shoved Addison under her desk?—”
“All right, that’s enough!” Sky butted in beside me, bumping me out of the way and rescuing Hunter from another mortifying retelling of the incident at High Stakes headquarters. “I think that just about covers all of it, thank you Jordan.”
She silenced my protests with a surprise kiss, before a loud shriek had all of our heads snapping to the left.
Sigrid was squawking in horror and the source of her terror emerged from her handbag a moment later in the form of a very disgruntled-looking pigeon. It fluttered out of the bag and swooped away across the rooftop while Hazel and Hilda erupted into loud, maniacal cackles of glee. So, that’s what they’d been up to.
While Sigrid pressed a hand to her heart, heaving breathy inhales to recover from the shock, Sky met my eye with pursed lips. Both of us attempted to hide our smiles, lest we set a bad example for the twins, but our efforts were useless considering everybody else was already laughing as the poor pigeon flapped away across the cityscape.
Sky leaned in to whisper in my ear, lips tilting up at the corners, “I guess they really do take after their aunt—unrelenting, but impossible to stay mad at.”
“You love it.” I turned my head to peck a kiss on her nose, and Sky coiled her arms around my neck.
“I do.” She smiled back at me, wide watercress eyes just as beautiful as the day I met her. “I loveyou.”
I tucked blonde hair behind her ear, happy—exhilarated really, and still in awe at the simple fact that she was mine. “I love you too.”
She leaned her head on my chest, and I tightened my arms around her. I looked around at the family we’d forged, at the ragtag group of people I called my closest friends. We had all changed, we’d all grown, and we all learned to open our hearts to the kind of love that would last forever. Every single one of us had played our part perfectly, and the future was looking impossibly bright.
That’s all for this group of friends. But don’t worry, I’ve got two exciting offers for you!
Want another romance with two strong heroines who challenge and cherish each other? Check outNot On The Resume:
Cameron Bell doesn’t need saving. She needs her schedule followed and her coffee just right. Simple. But then Elliot, her much younger, maddeningly charming assistant, walks into her office—too stubborn, too tempting, and far too good at slipping past Cameron’s walls. Elliot is the only one who sees beyond the Ice Queen reputation… and Cameron hates how much she likes it. Letting Elliot in is dangerous. But losing her? That might just destroy Cameron completely.