Page 42 of Magpies & Mayhem
“I know you are,” I answered, straightening from the stone wall and stalking toward him through the darkness. “It’s one of my favorite things about you.” I stopped in front of him.
His expression flickered through confusion, irritation, disbelief, and amusement before he shuttered it, raising his gaze to the stars above us and heaving a breath before locking eyes with me again. “I’m not afraid of dancing.”
“Prove it.”
He cast a harried glance back the way he’d come. “What? Like, here?”
“Right here.”
“There’s no music,” he hedged.
He couldn’t fool me. “You can still hear the music.”
Jordan huffed a disbelieving laugh and cocked his head at me, pursing his lips like he was trying to school his features. But he lifted his hands to take one of mine and brace the other on my waist. “This is what you want?”
I beamed at him as he led me through the beginning steps of a popular modern waltz.These well-bred rich boys and their formal educations. I could see the appeal of including dance lessons at those fancy schools. “Yes,” I answered, taking a deep breath of his smoky vampire scent and holding it in my lungs. After a few moments of rote steps and enjoying each other’s presence away from the crowd, Jordan finally began to relax. He seemed to find solace in the solitude of the moonlit garden, his shoulders loosening and his expression softening. His hands gripped me a little tighter.
“What is it you like about dancing?” he asked quietly, studying my face as he spoke.
I gave him a cocky grin. “The showmanship of it,” I answered. “It’s a very dramatic form of courtship, don’t you think?” A gentle shrug punctuated my question as he walked me in a large circle on the manicured lawn.
“Courtship?” he repeated.
I shrugged again. “Iampart bird.” Was a simple dance too much to ask? At least I wasn’t some animal that fought for dominance as courtship. “You see now? This isn’t so bad, is it?”
His fingers tensed on my back as he quickly glanced toward where the reception was winding down. “It’s not so bad, no, away from all those eyes.”
My words came out before I even processed the thought. “What if I wanted you to claim me in front of all those eyes?” Joshua thought the family would blow up over him bringing Ahmed, but so far, at least, that hadn’t happened. I was a little jealous of their seemingly easy acceptance of my brother’s choice of date. Maybe it could be just as easy for me and Jordan. What if I was overthinking everything and it could just be simple between us? I’d always pictured myself with children, but was that because I wanted them? Or because my society expected me to have them? What if my family just accepted him because I—my brain stuttered on the L-word, and I chose something safer—wantedhim?
His gaze warmed and grew intense as our paces slowed, but then he shook it off, his eyes growing guarded. “You didn’t seem to be having any trouble with a lack of dancing partners. I suppose the dryad could give you any number of nice sticks.” He pressed his mouth into an unhappy line and stared over my shoulder into the garden, as if he were unaffected.
My laughter bubbled out of me. “Are you… jealous ofRafe?” The idea struck me as absurdly funny. He didn’t respond, and my jaw dropped. “Jordan, he’s aplant.” A really lovely sentient plant, of course, but… a plant, nonetheless.
“And I’m avampire!Doesn’t that take me out of the running just as much?” We both stopped dancing, holding each other in the moonlight while he tried to calm his agitated breathing. I watched the frustration and pain and denial flicker across his features, wanting to answer carefully, so that I could be sure I spoke the truth to this beautiful man with ink-colored eyes who had been so thoroughly broken.
“No,” I said slowly. “I don’t think it does.”
“Why?” One word, spoken like a retort, not a question.
“Because you make me… happy,” I settled on. Maybe Elara was right, and happiness was all that mattered. Even if it couldn’t work in the end—if he couldn’t grow old with me and I couldn’t live forever with him—did that mean we should throw away the potential of what we could have? I felt that I would be ruined either way, so why not take my happiness while I had it? Jordan wasn’t my type—at least superficially—but he fit me. He didn’t let me push him around. He wasn’t put off by my crazy. He rattled my screws in the best way. I felt whole when I was with him.
Jordan didn’t move—I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing—and it seemed like the gears in his head were stuck as he stared at me, stunned. He opened and closed his mouth quickly. “Sidney, I—” His expression was torn, and he never did finish his thought because shouts echoed from beyond the garden wall. He stiffened, turning toward the sound, his entire demeanor shifting in an instant.
A group was running, thundering across the grounds like a herd of elephants, then a singular shout and a thud like someone had been tackled. More shouting and cheering, then raucous laughter. I narrowed my eyes because those voices sounded familiar.
“Sidneyyyyyy! Sidney, where aaarrre youuu?”
I was going to kill my brothers.
“Put me down!” shouted Sam angrily, the oldest andsupposedlymost mature.
“I love you, man.” That was Aaron.
“Dude, you’re just drunk.” That sounded like… Ahmed?
“We should get matching tattoos,” replied Aaron.
“What if she’s hiding?” asked Joshua.
