Page 13 of Lovesick Gods (Lovesick #1)

Mal had another early day planned. He almost considered stopping at Pronto for coffee, but it wasn’t near the history museum where he was headed to meet Dom for recon. Even with the off chance of running into Danny again, he would only be reminded of what hadn’t happened the night before.

What had happened was motivating, to say the least. Danny, all swagger and determination, voicing what he wanted without a single stutter, and then taking it, while Mal was only too happy to oblige.

Getting him that vulnerable, that wanton—what was Danny thinking?

But Mal didn’t care, as long as it meant frequent amorous encounters for the foreseeable future.

He still stopped for coffee on his way to the museum, but at a place he liked well enough when he was in a hurry. Needing the caffeine, he got a coffee for Dom too—extra hot—and headed for the rendezvous point.

The Olympus City History Museum was small but still located in a bustling neighborhood far from Mal’s sphere of influence, which meant he had to keep a low profile. The last thing he needed was for someone to catch sight of him and call in an anonymous tip less than three weeks before the theft.

Ball cap drawn down tight on his brow, glasses in place, today Mal wore jeans, a T-shirt, zip-up hoodie, and canvas jacket.

He blended in without anyone giving him a wayward glance as he headed for a building a couple blocks from the museum and nonchalantly turned down an alley to make his way up the fire escape.

He waited on the rooftop only five minutes before Dom showed up.

“That mine?” she said without greeting.

Mal nudged the extra coffee closer to his friend. “If you want.” He was already half-finished with his own.

Dom claimed the cup from beside him with a grunt, which was as much a thank you as she ever offered, and sat in the unoccupied space.

The output for the building’s heating system made a nice bench, the fans ensuring that cool air wafted up on Mal’s side and heated air on Dom’s.

Mal knew all the best ways to keep him and his friend in good spirits.

With a hoodie on as well, Dom hummed at the offered warmth from the coffee as she pulled her hood back, revealing the prominent burn scars on the side of her face.

They skimmed the line of her cheekbone and went up into her hairline, making it impossible for anything more than peach fuzz to grow there.

Fire people were generally resistant to hot temperatures, but not even an Elemental was completely immune to burns. Dom was susceptible to her own fire as soon as it spread beyond her palms.

She’d taken her scars in stride when she first got them as a reckless teenager. Shaving that side of her head from then on, she let the top and left side grow long, almost as dark as Mal and Lucy’s but rigidly straight, with a streak of firetruck red to match her eyes.

She was broad-shouldered, as tall as Mal, and far more muscled. Some assumed it came from the excess fire in her veins, but Mal couldn’t imagine her any other way, even if she hadn’t been an Elemental. She’d been twice his size when they met in Juvi before either of them Awakened.

When they first formed the Titans, they’d played around with various names for each other, not caring if the gods they chose were Titans in mythology—Hephaestus and Hermes weren’t after all.

But when Mal suggested that Dom go by ‘Icarus’, she’d laughed and said, “Flew too close to the sun? Pal, I am the sun.”

She’d been Helios ever since.

Their view was a straight shot to the museum and the surrounding alleyways, streets, and neighboring buildings.

While Mal had schematics already, physical recon was a must in the weeks leading up to a heist in case anything like a new traffic light or sudden sale of property threw everything into chaos.

Something as simple as a shop being unexpectedly open or closed could mean a botched getaway.

Mal and Dom would do this same surveillance next week, then the day right before the heist. It was a peaceful sort of monotony Mal shared with her only, never Lucy.

Lucy would have gotten bored. Talked too much.

Distracted him. With Dom, they might make a change of plans after watching for a while, especially if they saw anything out of the ordinary, but small talk was rare.

They’d known each other too long to ever ask how the other was ‘doing’, at least not in blatant terms. That only came up if something seemed off.

Today, the tell came from Mal. He really should have noticed it himself before it became obvious—the tap of his finger on the side of his coffee cup, his other hand drawing patterns on the vent beneath him.

He had the view so committed to memory he might have been able to walk right in through the front door of the museum from his current location blindfolded.

So he let his mind wander. To Danny. To last night.

To tomorrow night and what wonders it might bring…

“What’s got yer panties twisted?”

Mal pulled his stray hand up to join the other around his coffee cup. “Don’t know what you mean.”

Dom huffed. “That’s not yer nerves before a heist kinda twitchin’, Frosty. That’s yer sorry case ‘a blue balls face, up in yer head thinkin’ about some hot piece ‘a ass that got away.”

Damn Dom for knowing Mal so well. He could deny it, and they’d volley back and forth a while longer, but that would only aggravate them both and accomplish nothing; once Dom had her mind set on something, she wouldn’t let it drop.

“Fine, you got me. Think I feel like doing kiss and tell about an almost , Dom? Had the start of a good time last night, got interrupted, and likely won’t see him ‘til tomorrow.”

“So there’s a next time planned, huh? That’s new. Who with?”

It never failed to amaze Mal how much Dom and Lucy could have in common despite their varied personalities—like nosing into his love life. He weighed his options, but he didn’t see a point in hiding this development from his friend like he planned to avoid it with his sister.

“Zeus,” he said and took another sip from his coffee, wishing it was the same drink Danny had ordered him yesterday, which had tasted almost as delicious as the man himself.

“Bullshit,” Dom said, causing Mal to tilt his head at her.

“His idea.”

“ Fuck . You don’t think that’s gonna bite you in the ass?”

“If I’m lucky.”

Dom snorted. She sipped her own coffee as she turned back to the museum. “You have yer fun, pal, but once we pull this heist, he’s gonna be pissed.”

“More than likely. But it’ll be a fun ride along the way.”

“You been wantin’ some ‘a that since he showed up last year. He as good as you hoped?” She raised an eyebrow, nudging for details.

Mal didn’t do details, but he couldn’t resist admitting, “Better.”

“Nice. You be careful though.”

“Worried he’ll turn me soft?”

“Worried ya already are. Least for him. Not like anyone else you been with. Knows what you do, who ya are, doesn’t agree with it, but willin’ to fall to his knees anyway, huh?”

Mal refrained from saying that he was the one who fell to his knees last night. “Your point?”

“Nothin’. Better make sure it stays just fuckin’, is all. You tend to get…fixated.”

“That’s rich coming from you.” Dom’s true love was and always would be the flames, often to an unhealthy degree, more like a pyromaniac than an Elemental. “I thought someone told me once that if I wanted to fuck Zeus so badly, I should drag him into a dark corner and have at it already.”

Dom shot him a pointed look with a knowing, manic grin. “Didn’t think ol’ Spark Plug would actually go for it. Yer in trouble, pal, and you know it.”

Downing the last of his coffee, Mal considered then resisted icing it into crumpled dust. “Only thing on my mind is what he’ll look like flushed and begging on my bed. That all goes to hell come the heist, fine by me.”

“Right.”

Mal bristled at how little faith his friend had in him to mean that. “You got any other pearls of wisdom for my sex life?”

Dom shrugged. “Give it to him good, Frosty. Zeus is wound way too tight. No wonder he wants some ‘a you. Yer wound tight too.”

It was no use talking to Dom about these things. “Focus on business for now. Plenty of days left for something to go wrong. I need you at your best.”

“’M I ever not?”

Mal knew better than to comment on that.

“We seein’ the kid later?”

Mind going straight to Danny again, Mal had to remind himself that Dom didn’t know Danny’s identity or how young he was beneath that cowl.

She meant their youngest crew member. “Soon. Hart’s working on amplifiers for both of us, as requested.

Planning to add an order for a new comm system while I’m at it. ”

“Comms?” Dom said with a twist of her lips.

“If we get separated during the job, I need to know where you are. Need to be able to give orders, make snap decisions. It’s just an earpiece.”

The sneer didn’t waver. “All this tech junk…”

“You mean like the amplifier you asked for?”

“That’s different.”

Mal kept his eyes focused on Dom to avoid rolling them. “Plus we needed that delivery system for the gas Lucy picked up. Priestly is an invaluable member of the team.”

“Not sayin’ he isn’t. Just think it’d be more efficient if we brought the kid into the field once in a while, instead of keepin’ him as second string.”

“Working from the sidelines isn’t second string, just means he’s more useful where he is. He isn’t an Elemental, remember?” He also had no interest in armed robbery unless his hand was forced, which Mal had no intention of doing.

“Gas,” Dom grumbled, switching to something else to complain about. “Be easier if I just torched the guard.” She snapped her fingers and a tongue of flame hovered above her hand.

Mal shot out a blast of cold and turned the flame into a block of ice that clattered at her feet. “And bring Zeus and the OCPD down on our heads harder than ever? That’s not the kind of heat you want.”