Raven said, “Stop talking. Also, don’t call me old-looking.”
“I didn’t say that. Did anyone hear me say that? I was only saying–”
“You were only saying too much.Stop.”
He lifted his hands.What can you do?Looked to Tenny and wagged his head.She’s hopeless.
It was stupefying, really, how much Tenny had come around in a short span. Nearly dying for him went a long way, apparently.
Miles cleared his throat, and said, “Die Hard’s gonna be on tonight. Maybe we can–”
“I’m curious, though,” Devin interrupted, gaze still fixed on Toly. “About your financial solvency.”
“Christ,” Raven swore.
“Have you got any funds set aside,Toly? A nice little nest egg? Or are you as skint as you look?”
Raven folded her napkin and slapped it down on the table, gathering breath for a nice arse-chewing – but Toly laid his hand over hers on the tabletop. Lifted his head, and finally made eye contact with Devin, his expression chilling in a way that would have given anyone else a case of cold gooseflesh.
Devin only grinned.
Toly said something terse-sounding in Russian that she didn’t understand, but which sent Tenny’s brows shooting up.
Devin’s head tipped to the side, and he hummed a moment. “Fair enough,” he said, finally, and dug into his food. Then: “Miles. What’s new with you, young one?”
And that was that, apparently.
Toly hadn’t spoken the rest of the meal, not that she’d expected him to, and Tenny and Reese had invited Devin to have more drinks and trounce them at cards for a while. When they’d stolen upstairs, Tenny had already been griping loudly.
Now, Raven found herself in the rare position of worrying that her family had embarrassed her in front of her boyfriend. She’d never introducedanyof her family, save Cass, to a boyfriend before. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
“What did you say to him?” she asked. “I’ve never seen him back off like that before. I’m genuinely impressed.”
He regarded his reflection another moment, then turned and slouched back against the edge of the dressing table. Tapped his fingers on the wood, blunt nails ticking out a rhythm that wasn’t nervous, but considering.
She felt her shoulders drop. “Oh. You don’t have to tell me.” She attempted a smile. “I thought it might come in handy the next time I needed to shut him up, but–”
“‘She could crush me anytime she wanted or needed to.’ That’s what I said.” His expression was firm, defiant even, but his cheeks flushed dark with self-consciousness. “I said, ‘It’s not possible to get the best of her, so don’t insult your own daughter by suggesting I could ever defraud her. She makes her own choices, and I’ll be here until I’m not longer one of them.’”
Raven stared at him.
Let what he’d said wash over her.
“Oh.”
Tried to get her brain back online so she could tell her legs to work, so she could get up and go kiss him.
She wet suddenly-dry lips while he watched her, blushing, waiting for her reaction.
“Yes, well, that…”
Her phone rang.
“Bollocks. Who’d be calling at this time?” she griped, but was glad for the interruption, really, because how did she respond to that kind of declaration in a way that would reassure him?
She dug her phone out of her hoodie pocket, and felt a jolt zip through her, top of her head to the outer edges of her little toes, when she saw that it was Melissa Dixon calling.
“Ian,” she lied, getting unsteadily to her feet. “I’ll be right back.”
