So, despite the bright light of day, I was in the dark as he drove along. Still, I didn’t mind. Although we were all adjusting to our new normal, this little slice of normalcy was pleasant. Well, as normal as it could be going on a date with the man I had been developing feelings for and trying to deny the entire time.
When he first asked me out with all those journalists’ lights flashing and the barking of the detectives in the background, Ithought I was imagining it, that it was a hallucination from my concussion or the other trauma I’d gone through that day. But no. It had been real. And even though I was in the car with him now, it was still hard to believe that it was actually happening.
After all, I had technically conned him when we first met, and I wasn’t rich by any means. At least not compared to any of the great families. I wasn’t refined. I wasn’t a debutante. I wasn’t a shifter. I wasn’t demure. I wasn’t like any of the matches that had probably been suggested to him for a mating contract.
But that didn’t seem to matter to him, so I decided not to let it matter to me. I liked Paul for his kindness, his bravery, for the way he looked out for the people around him, for the way he bantered with me and accepted me for who I was.
It didn’t hurt that he was also hot as fuck.
And speaking of banter, we did exactly that until we pulled up to a fancy afternoon tea place. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of that, until we walked inside and I realized they had an oyster bar as well as crab and lobster available.
“Have as much as you want,” Paul said once we were seated at an upscale table, not a single booth in sight.
I think I’m in love?
For the first time in, well,ever,I ate as much expensive seafood as I could stomach, and it wasn’t even at an all-you-can-eat place! It was quite the gluttonous experience, and I grew self-conscious and was worried Paul would be grossed out, but when I looked over at him, he looked pleased as punch.
And that was when I remembered he was a freakingwolf shifter.Not only could he keep up with my voracious consumption of delicious sea boogers and bugs, but he could likely triple it and not even be uncomfortably full.
Hell yeah.
I definitely felt fancy andveryfull afterward, but much to my gratitude, Paul didn’t seem in a hurry to go. I knew I could have just asked him if we could sit around for a bit while I digested, but it meant a lot that I didn’t even need to.
“So, what’s it feel like now that the secret is out?”
I finished sipping the wine I’d ordered. I wasn’t the biggest drinker, as I didn’t really like how it reacted with my medicine, but the place was just so fancy that it called for nursing the few ounces of rosé I could handle.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, you no longer pretending to be a precognitive psychic and showing the world how incredible an empath can be.”
I was grateful for my full coverage foundation concealing just how much I was blushing. Normally, I could handle compliments with a thank-you and a witty retort, but normally compliments came from people I didn’t have a raging crush on.
“It’s interesting, that’s for certain. I got some emails from previous clients who were livid about me deceiving them, and I just went ahead and gave them refunds because they were right. And then there were a few who messaged me because they were curious how I could have known so many things if I wasn’t a traditional psychic.”
“I’ve been there myself. When you first told me the truth, I was sure it was a trick, because there was no way you could know all those things you’d said about me at our first meeting if you weren’t psychic.”
Man, thinking back to when I’d first laid eyes on the man was almost like an entirely different lifetime. I’d clocked that he was handsome right off the bat—I would have had to be blind not to—but it had been that incredibly tight-laid brick wall of protection that had intrigued me. It was crazy to think there wasn’t a single brick between us now. He was open as a book,and I did not take that lightly. Him trusting me so much still made me want to be a better person, but now I felt like I was actually in the process of doing so.
“Obviously, I now know there are many different powers oracles can have, but at the time, I struggled to wrap my head around it.”
“I mean, that could have also been because we were being chased by bloodthirsty criminals at the time.”
He chuckled, silver notes of amusement dancing up above his head and ascending through the ceiling. I liked to think that whoever sat at the table after us would also be able to feel the gentle hum of his mirth.
“You know, that might have had something to do with it. How is the Whisper, by the way? I think she mentioned something about branding one of us?”
Now it was my turn to laugh. “No, that was a brandingdeal.Apparently, she has been wanting to open a community garden in a derelict section of the park around her parts, but she hasn’t been able to make the right connections. Obviously, it’s a bit more difficult to do in her position. So, she reached out to me, the empath everyone’s talking about right now, and wanted to know if I would be interested in putting my face on it so it would get approved.”
“A dryad wanting a community garden. Who could have predicted that?”
We were both grinning at this point and it felt sogood.
“She does play pretty close to type, doesn’t she?”
“She does. I’m just glad she didn’t hold getting burned so terribly against us. For a while there, I was afraid all of her talk of an alliance had been turned to a crisp along with her that day.”
“Nah, she’s almost fully healed anyway. It’s not like she’s human,” I answered. “If she was, she’d still be in intensive care.”