Surprisingly, Rhylan was the one to knock on our door and as soon as I heard his voice, I shoved Cressi towards it and jumped in bed to cover myself with pillows and blankets.
“Good morning,” Cressi opened the door wider and adopted a sexy pose.
“Good afternoon,” Rhylan grinned and stopped to admire her from head to toe. “You look ravishing,” he purred and leaned against the door frame, only inches from her.
“And what do you normally do with a ravishing woman, Rhy?” Cressi’s fingers hung over the curve of his bicep in a way too comfortable position.
“Whatever she asks me to,” Rhylan smirked and placed his hand nonchalantly on her hip, like it was the most normal thing to do under a door frame.
“She is very hungry at the moment, and knows a place where they make the best avo burgers,” my friend replied.
I would not invite people to something like that, I couldn’t even imagine what an avocado burger must be like. Is it a half an avocado with a patty? Sounded gross. But effective, as my sister continued. “Good company is scarce around here…”
With that, she had a very old fae male on his knees. Even I could see, from far away in the bed, that Rhylan’s pupils dilated and were in not for her occupying most of my field of vision, I knew the bulge in his pants must be higher than a kite right now.
He didn’t even say anything, he just removed his hand from her hip to grab her own and practically dragged her out of the room. Avocado burgers it is then.
I remained in bed, cuddled in blankets until Cressi’s message arrived.
I think I forgot my pink lipstick and we are already in the car. Can you check?
Signal received, path clear, let’s go.
I leaped out of bed and ran to Rhylan’s room, opening the door abruptly. It looked the same as in the morning, as though no one had even stepped foot inside, no sign of someone occupying the space or personal things on the shelves. Nor in the wardrobe. Or the dresser. No shower gels in the bathroom, no toothbrush, no shoes.
I forced my mind to remember whether he carried any luggage in the forest, but I just couldn’t think. I had been too shocked and distracted to even think about Rhylan’s wardrobe or needs.
An hour later, I had scanned every inch of the room to no avail. I checked the nightstands, under the bed, even behind the headboard for some kind of secret compartment but found nothing. The fae changed three different designer outfits in a day and didn’t even have laundry.
I sighed and returned to my room, disappointed and feeling the failure.
The first item of our plan,finding Rhylan’s secret and blackmailing him into releasing Ansgarhad been a bust.
I texted Cressi back to let her know I couldn’t find her lipstick or any of her cosmetics no matter how hard I tried and went to the kitchen to search for something to eat and wait for my friend to be back with the fae.
A few hours passed and I still heard nothing, even though I messaged her three times by the evening.
Day 3
Cressi arrived home at four in the morning, after ignoring all the texts and DM’s I'd sent throughout that day. I went crazy thinking the worst, not knowing if Rhylan had done something to my friend and hating myself for throwing her in the deep end of the situation.
To my surprise, as soon as she opened the door she jumped into bed and shook me awake — not that I'd managed to sleep very well — and started telling me everything they'd done throughout the day and how amazing and knowledgeable Rhylan turned out to be.
A thousand internal alarms started sounding all at once, and the more my friend told me about the fae bastard, the more I panicked.
“Cressi, all this was supposed to be for his distraction, please do not get too excited about the guy,” I tried to warn my friend but she ignored me.
Part of me relaxed at seeing Cressi safe, and I knew she understood the danger, she was the smartest woman I knew, so I decided to relax and let her have an adventure. After all, how many people could say they met a faerie and went clubbing together.
Rhylan wanted a distraction for whatever reason, and Cressi turned out to be just that, his entry ticket to the most exclusive venues in the entire city. As long as she didn’t mind babysitting him and enjoyed the company, and she remained safe, I couldn’t protest too much considering I had brought the male home without second-guessing.
Day 4
Rhylan, Cressi, and I enjoyed a late breakfast in the garden. Well, they enjoyed it, I bitterly chewed on my food and stared at Rhylan with a threatening gaze, communicating to him that my friend was off-limits.
Not that Cressi did anything on her part to reinforce the message, her hands were all over him and she even served him orange juice while he buttered her toast. All this back and forth flirting made me sick to my stomach, so I kept my serving to a bowl of granola and some pecan nuts, chewing slowly and struggling to swallow the crunchy pieces.
Neither seemed to mind and Rhylan even cracked a few jokes about my behaviour and tense state. Fortunately, Cressi immediately defended me and retorted.
