“Thatwas your sister? So not a girlfriend?”
“No. Not a girlfriend. I’m all yours.”
She’s trying not to look pleased by that. She’s failing. She shrugs a shoulder and leans against the bar. “Good. We still have so much training to do before I can set you into the wild.”
“Like what?”
“Like…” She stares off across the bar, lapsing into thought. “We need to work on your emotional literacy.”
“I’m listening.”
“We’ve been playing for…what? Four months?”
“And two weeks.”
“—And there’s so much I don’t know about you.”
Oh. No. I feel my shoulders get tense. “You know plenty about me.”
She makes a sweeping motion with her hand. “I know your hard limits and soft limits. I know what you like in bed. But I don’t know anything aboutyou. Dorian. The man.”
It’s by design, I want to tell her. I hoard my secrets the way a dragon hoards gold.
The bartender slides over our drinks,finally. She takes a slow sip from hers. She’s staring at me, thoughtfully. “Tell me something about you,” she says.
I think about it. “I finishedKnot My Alien Mate.”
She blinks. “You did? Without me?”
“I did. Without you. And the subsequent six sequels.”
She laughs. “No fucking way.”
“I had to. You left me on a cliffhanger.”
There’s that sly, Dove smirk. “Yeah, I guess I did, huh?”
Her hand slips over my thigh, painfully reminding me of my own, aching cliffhanger, and I fight back an erection.
“Hey.” The bartender (go away, can’t you see we’re in the middle of something?) appears in front of us and nods towards our group. “You guys with the birthday girl?”
Dove pulls away from me (fuck you, bartender). “Yeah, why?”
He reaches into his back pocket, pulls out a folded slip of paper, and hands it over to Dove. “Some guy dropped this off for her earlier today. Said to give it to her before you left.”
“Thanks.” Dove takes the paper and gives me a questioning look. “Mysterious…” she says, wiggling her fingers. She takes her drink and I follow her back to the corner table.
They’ve pulled up two extra seats. We only need one. I sit and Dove takes a spot perched in my lap. Her body fits perfectly in mine and I’m glad to have a drink in my hand. Otherwise, it’d be too tempting to slide my hand up her dress and…
“O,” she says. She leans forward (the curve of her ass pressing into my hips) and extends the slip of paper towards Ophelia. “Check this out. I think Brody left it for you.”
Ophelia takes the paper. She unravels it and everyone gets quiet, leaning in, interests piqued as she starts to read it out loud:
“Dear Ophelia, I know how much you like a challenge. So tonight, Seeker, your present is a game of hide and seek. if you want me…you’ll have to find me. I’ve left riddles inside Christmas ornaments in the key places across the city and—oh, my God! A scavenger hunt! It’s a scavenger hunt!” She lets out an excited, high-pitch squeal that momentarily silences the bar. She takes a deep breath. “Okay, okay…here’s the first clue. It’s a riddle.You’re so cold, yet you melt on my tongue.”
Ophelia’s mouth twists into a thoughtful frown. “So cold,” she repeats. “And yet…”
Carver snaps his fingers. “Got it,” he says. “It’s a?—”
