“Don’t be a stranger, sweet Cookie,” he said, his tone managing both indulgence and reprimand at the same time. “I just wanted to swing by and give you an invitation.”
He reached for me where I still stood tall by the table.
He wore a designer black T-shirt and a pair of washed out jeans that hugged his powerful body. His muscles rippled on his toned biceps, so enticing and beautiful that I felt my knees going a little weak.
A sexy laugh lit his amber eyes to golden.
Without turning my head to check, I already knew how the girls in the hall were reacting to the Academy’s golden boy.
I tried not to lick my lips like the others.
“An invitation?” I asked in a cool tone. My pulse, however, sprang up as if on a racetrack. “What invitation?”
He wrapped his arm around my waist, and a wave of murmurs spread among the supernaturals and Olympians alike.
This was bad. They’d all just witnessed how Héctor had kissed me right before Axel’s arrival. That shockwave hadn’t ebbed yet from either the east or west wings of the Hall of Bridgewater, and now this.
“To a party tomorrow night,” Axel said.
“You didn’t tell me about a party last night,” I accused.
He grinned, and my stupid heart fluttered again as my stomach did a flip at his stunning white teeth.
“So I’m here to deliver the invitation in person,” he said.
“This is overkill,” I whispered to him.
Despite playing it cool, though, I was super excited about a party since I’d never been to one in all my life.
“Who’s hosting the party?” I asked like a good negotiator, when all I wanted to do was press my hands against his cut chest and trace them down his taut muscles.
The Demigod of War looked deliciously sexy, and he smelled damn good with his woody perfume mixed with spring rain.
I tried not to inhale him deeply, but I leaned a bit closer to him.
His eyes brightened to molten gold.
“Me, of course,” he said. “It’s a fourth-year pre-graduation party, held in the demigods’ lounge. Few are invited and fewer have VIP status. You can bring as many friends as you want, and all of them will be included as VIP guests.”
The girls at my table let out shrieks of exhilaration.
Well played, Axel.
But I restrained from rolling my eyes. I wouldn’t act like the old Marigold who used to buttheads with him, who stood up to him and challenged him at every turn. He was mine now, so I wanted to protect him, especially in public.
The demigods were still competing to court and win me, even though we’d decided playing it slow was no longer an option.
Ever since learning part of the truth about myself last night, I’d carried some shame that I was a she-monster who needed to feed sexually. I felt like a fucking sexual vampire, but the demigods didn’t mind. They didn’t mind it one iota.
And I trusted that they would guard the secret of my heritage even tighter than I would.
I glanced at my friends, sorry that I couldn’t share any of this with them. Knowing my secrets wouldn’t do them any good anyway. It would only put them in danger.
They looked at me, laughing with me, never knowing I wasn’t one of them.
“We’re Mari’s friends,” Circe called to get Axel’s attention. “Can we all go to your party?”
“Marigold has the tickets. She decides,” Axel said, inserting an envelope into my pocket, before pulling me tightly against his chest. “I missed you, Cookie.” He dipped his head and slanted his mouth over mine.