As if reading Lauren’s thoughts, Sionna raised a dark brow. “So if he isn’t what Ron and the tabloids told you he was, what is he?”
“Ummmm …” How to describe him? “He’s a smartass, through and through. He likes to annoy everyone, but also make them laugh. He’s impulsive, quick-witted, and curious. He can be self-absorbed, but he’s a surprisingly good listener when he tries. He’s generous and loyal and never shuts up, as far as I can tell.” Lauren frowned and considered the issue. “Maybe when he’s sleeping? Not that he sleeps much, honestly.”
Sionna’s brow arched higher. “You know this from firsthand experience?”
“Are you saying—” Lauren stared at her bestie, aghast. “Of course I don’t know! We’re not—he’s not—”
She cut herself off, unsure how to finish her own sentence, cheeks suddenly ablaze.
“He’s not your type?” Sionna nodded thoughtfully. “I can see that. Marcus Caster-Rupp—his best friend, right?—is much more handsome.”
Oh, Lauren knew what her BFF was doing, and she wouldn’t fall for that trick, not in a million years. Only— “Marcus might be more traditionally handsome,” she heard herself declaring fiercely, outrage in every syllable, “but Alex is approximately a million times sexier. Especially with that beard. And those eyes.”
Not to mention that purr of his, the one that raised every hair on her body and snatched the breath from her lungs.
At this point, both Sionna’s brows were practically levitating above her head. “So, in your opinion, the man you’ve spent over a month in close quarters with is very sexy. And has eyes. Also a beard.”
Lauren threw a throw pillow at her best friend’s annoying face. “Shut up.”
Catching it nimbly, Sionna grinned at her. “Nice aim. I see you’ve made progress in the Crone Arts while you’ve been gone.”
She would not hide her burning face. She would not.
Her best friend’s smirk softened. “I mean it, Ren. You seem …”
Oh, jeez. Lauren waited for Sionna’s verdict, skin prickling with discomfort.
“You seem more comfortable in your own skin,” Sionna finally said. “Less like you’re watching yourself and everyone else from a safe distance. I don’t know whether that’s because you left the hospital or because of your million-times-sexier-than-Marcus-Caster-Rupp charge, but either way, I’m happy to see it, babe. I’ve been worried about you for a long time now.”
As Lauren blinked at her best friend, belated revelation rounded her mouth into a silent oh.
How had she missed it all these years? In retrospect, it was beyond obvious.
Sionna might have created the Harpy Institute for Crone Sciences out of newly widowed grief and rage, but she’d also created it out of concern for Lauren. Because she wanted Lauren to engage with the world again.
No, more than that. She wanted Lauren to claim her own space in the world and defend that space.
And if Sionna was correct, maybe that prickle Lauren felt wasn’t entirely discomfort. Maybe it was excitement too. Maybe it was life.
Swallowing hard, she looked down at the threadbare edge of the couch cushion.
Either way, it was temporary. Once Gods of the Gates aired its final episode, she’d never see Alex again. Better not to dwell on her rioting thoughts, her rioting emotions.
Her rioting body.
Screw it. It was after noon somewhere.
Lauren got up from the couch and went looking for a corkscrew. “I’ll drink to that.”
APPROXIMATELY TWELVE HOURS later, the two of them were still ensconced on Lauren’s couch, swaddled in blankets and facing her television.
“I’m so horny,” Sionna groaned, and tossed another handful of caramel popcorn toward her mouth with only middling accuracy. “Why does this show have so many sexy actors? Fuck, it’s a fucking hotness cornucopia.”
She thought for a moment. “Not Jupiter, though. It looks like he has tiny biceps on top of his actual biceps, which freaks me out.”
Lauren snorted in agreement and continued gnawing on her Twizzler.
She’d intended to suggest a different show, but when her friend had proposed taking another stab at Gods of the Gates for their usual Bottom-Top-Switch debate, she hadn’t argued.
Her chest still ached a bit. Watching Alex on-screen helped, at least in the moment.
The scene switched to one involving Venus and Jupiter and Cupid, and Lauren chewed fast, swallowed her Twizzler, and paused the show.