Page 23 of Demure
A full smile spread across Aodhan’s face. “You really are smart for a human.” He leaned toward her. “I came here on a personal study to try and figure out why Fae magic is weakening and see if there is anything that can be done to preserve ourrace. While intermarrying is part of our magic weakening, the pace of the weakening has begun to accelerate, and I suspect it is something more than just genetics thinning the magic in our blood.”
Sierra couldn’t hide the look of surprise on her face. “And you can find that out in Dublin?”
“Yes, you have some of our ancient texts here. But you act like they are the holy grail or something, so I often have to wait for the one I want to see to be on display—or sneak around after hours.”
Sierra laughed, thinking of all the times she had been looking for Aodhan in the library and had been unable to find him anywhere. “I knew you were up to something suspicious at the library.”
To her surprise, Aodhan smiled back, marking perhaps the first real smile she had seen on his face. Something in her wished she could take a picture to save the moment, but she quickly brushed off the intrusive thought.
“Of course, the humans who work in the library are often very bright, and that has caused me to be here longer than expected,” Aodhan elaborated.
Sierra thought back to when she had first seen Aodhan on Tinder. “How long is that?”
“Almost a year now.”
“Oh wow, and you just now decided to get a job at the library?” she joked.
The smile fell from his face. “I wanted to try things the right way first. But then when I realized how difficult it was to get around the librarians, I knew I would have to figure out another route.” He leaned toward her. “It's partially because of you, you know. I never thought of getting a job at all until I met you, and you mentioned you worked at the library.”
Sierra rolled her eyes. “If you get caught sneaking around at some point, please don’t spread around the fact that I inspired your crime spree, that will truly ruin my reputation.” She was joking; it wasn’t like she had a reputation in Dublin to ruin in thefirst place, and her reputation in America was already non-existent.
“Don’t worry,” Aodhan said, brushing his hand lightly across her cheek. “Your secret is safe with me.”
The words hung in the air between them, and Sierra knew he meant that in more ways than one. Suddenly, she remembered she had one more question she had been wanting to ask him. “So, why Tinder, and why did you kiss me outside of the pizza place?”
Aodhan broke eye contact to look away, hanging his head slightly. “I joined Tinder because…well…I was lonely, and I wanted to look for someone…” He trailed off, grimacing at something he left unsaid. “With the kiss, I…I don’t really know how to say this, but I like you, Sierra. Not just like, I feel drawn to you for reasons I can’t explain. I know I didn’t go about courting you the right way, and I feel bad about it. But I would like it if you would give me another chance.”
Sierra tapped her chin with her finger, a mischievous look on her face. The past twenty-four hours had made her realize that while she had been angry at Aodhan and annoyed these past few weeks, she hadn’t really hated him. And the reality was, she hadn’t thought of him as her enemy since the day she had seen him at the pub the week before. She had already decided during this conversation to give him another chance, but he didn’t know that.
“Another chance, you say?” She kept her face straight, but internally, she was laughing at the fact that he had actually used the word ‘courting’ in a sentence. He really was from another realm.
She’d forgotten, however, that Aodhan was able to feel her emotions because a smile spread across his face as he said, “You’re feeling pretty proud of yourself, as well as a sense of resolve, so I’m guessing that means you have decided to give me another chance?”
She nodded. “I have. But listen, honesty is really important to me. So, if we are going to give this,” she motioned between them with her finger, “Another try, you have to be honest withme.”
He set his hand on her forearm. “Sierra, I promise you. I cannot lie, and going forward, I won’t attempt to obscure the truth from you in any way, okay?”
She smiled, setting her hand on his. “Thank you.” She glanced down at her phone, noticing it was almost midnight. “It’s getting pretty late, and I have another seminar tomorrow. But I don’t work at the library, so maybe we could have that coffee afterward? Start over with the date you were late for?” She rose from the couch, and he followed, reminding Sierra of their height difference as he towered over her.
“I’d like that.” He smiled. “And I promise I will arrive on time, okay?” Sierra laughed as she led him to the door even though she was pretty sure he could just shift himself out of the room if he wanted. Just before he exited, he turned to brush a strand of her hair behind her ear, leaning in to kiss her cheek. “Until tomorrow, Sierra.”
Sierra grinned like an idiot, watching as he walked down the hall toward the stairs. She didn’t close the door until he was completely out of sight, unable to stop smiling at the memory of his kiss.
Chapter Fourteen
The next day, Sierra was pleasantly surprised to find Aodhan outside of her building waiting to walk her to class in the morning, as well as waiting outside when her seminar for the day finished. He really had been serious about being on time this time, something that made Sierra chuckle to herself as they made their way through the small Dublin streets to Sierra’s favorite coffee place, which had shelves of old books along the wall as well as decorative branches and lights hung from the ceiling. Having a coffee there was truly a relaxing and satisfying experience, though it was also a cute place for first dates—if you could ignore all the other women trying to take pictures of themselves at the best angle possible.
Due to her skin condition, Sierra had never been one for pictures; rather, she avoided them whenever possible unless they were required for her school ID badge or driver’s license. Of course, she had a few images on hand from family events, and it was one of these images she had cropped for her Tinder photo.
Because of her severe lack of images and the fact that she didn’t really enjoy telling others about her life, Sierra didn’t have any social media profiles other than Facebook, which her ‘friends’ had forced her to make when she was 15 and had logged intomaybe five times over the years—until she had found herself lonely in Dublin that is. Even when she did log in she mostly just scrolled through her feed mindlessly, never posting, liking, or commenting on anything. Basically, it was safe to say that Sierra was as off the grid as was possible in the twenty-first century, though Sierra was starting to think that she might have met the only man who was more off the grid than her.
“So, tell me about your family,” Aodhan said as they began their walk to the coffee shop.
Sierra grimaced. “I don’t know what there is to say, really.”
Aodhan looked at her apprehensively, “I heard your phone call that day, you know.”
Sierra knew exactly what day he was referring to, when her mother had just screamed at her and hadn’t let her get a word in edgewise. Now she knew that with his Fae hearing, he had likely heard every word. At least he probably didn’t know Spanish. “My mother and I…we’ve never really gotten along,” she volunteered hesitantly.
