Signs of Cupidity (Heart Hassle Book 1)

“I’m sorry, you’re a what?”

  “A cupid,” I repeat.

   The guys just stare at me. They’re all sitting down in their chairs while I stand. It’s nice not to have to strain my neck to look up at them as I talk. I told them everything.

          I explained all about becoming a cupid and being in the human realm. I even explained my growing loneliness and bitterness, and then how I entered this realm. I go into great detail explaining my encounter with the fae prince and how I turned physical. Including the magic he hit me with that must have somehow transferred to the guys when they grabbed me. It’s the only explanation I can give as to why they claim to be able to sense me.

I even admitted to how I first came to this realm and stumbled upon their island. I tell them everything, right up until I crashed on their island. They didn’t speak at all the entire time. This is the first time any of them have spoken, and it’s to question the first thing out of my mouth—that I’m a cupid.

   Sylred takes the lead first. “So…you died, probably as a human in this other realm, and became a cupid.”

  “Yes.”

   “Cupid’s aren’t real,” he says slowly, as if I’m daft.

   I raise my brows at him and wave a hand at my body. “Clearly, that’s incorrect. I can assure you, we’re very real. Everything I told you is true.”

   “We’re having a hard time wrapping our heads around this.”

   “I understand. Cupids are always invisible entities. We exist in the Veil. We’re not ever physical. Whatever the prince did to me, he pushed me out of the Veil and when I fell into the physical world, I became corporeal.”

   “So that’s why you kept talking about not eating food before,” Evert says.

   “And why she didn’t know what cold was,” Sylred points out.

  I nod. “Yeah.”

   “And why she seems to be generally bad at flying, and running, and walking, and…standing,” Evert says with a smirk.

   I scowl at him. “Okay, I think that’s enough.”

   I try not to look at his bare chest as it flexes with laughter. I fail, and he catches me looking and cocks a brow at me. Dammit.

Then, slowly, I watch the smirk fall from his face until he’s flat out glaring at me.

“What?” I ask with confusion. I don’t like this sudden change in him.

“Wait a fucking minute. Did you…are you using your cupid powers on me? So that I want you? You using your fucking magic on us, Scratch?” he yells.

I shake my head adamantly, nervous at how furious he looks. “No. I swear. I haven’t used a single power on you guys. I wouldn’t do that, anyway.”

Sylred crosses his arms, his own face wary. “Why not? Seems like if I was held captive, I’d use whatever power I had to get free. Is that how you got us to trust you?”

“No. I haven’t used it, I swear.”

They don’t look like they believe me and I hate Evert’s change in demeanor toward me. He’s always had an easy, flirtatious way with me that I’ve come to love. But now, he’s actually looking at me the way Ronak first did. My heart breaks a little.

“See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you guys!”

“We’re trying to process,” Sylred says.

“You’re trying to figure out if I’m lying.”

“So?” Evert snaps. “If you’re a fucking cupid, and you can do all that shit you said you can do, then why wouldn’t we wonder? You could be fucking tricking us right now, using your wiles on us.”

I can’t help the nervous bubble of laughter that pops out of my mouth. “Wiles?”

Evert’s scowl only darkens. “You know what I mean. Don’t fucking play with me, Scratch. Did you use your magic on me?”

“No!” I snap.

   Ronak has his arms crossed as he stares at me, his face unreadable. Before, it would have scared me or pissed me off. But now every time I look at him, all I see is his face in the forest, when he jumped in front of me to block the attacks from the beasts.  

   “So when you did your duty as a cupid, you…spread love?” Sylred asks.

   “You make it sound like a disease. The god Eros created cupids to do his dirty work. He doesn’t want to keep up with everyone these days, so we’re his minions. But it’s not just about ‘spreading’ love. That’s the goal, but everything that comes with desire—flirtation, longing, craving, anticipation, lust, sex… It’s all important, and I cultivated it all. Well, for the most part. Sometimes. Usually.”

   “Unless you were too bitter and jealous, you mean?” Evert asks.

   I shrug. “Yeah, pretty much.”

   “You wanted in on the action, Scratch?”

   I narrow my eyes. “You would too if you had to watch people for as long as I did. I had no one to talk to, no one to touch, no one to touch me…”

   I feel the sexual tension rise in the room as my words taper off. My talk of intimacy sets them off, and it’s awesome. I like to get reactions from them. I’m reaction-deficit.

   “Anyway, as soon as I strengthen my wings, I’ll be on my way and get out of your hair. I’ll go find love, make some friends, eat as much as I can, because food is seriously amazing, and I’ll do…whatever else people do when they’re alive. So…are we good here? I’ve told you everything,” I say, starting to walk towards the door.

        I really want to escape Evert’s suspicious anger and go explore their garden more. I could look for that Red Wings plant Sylred told me about. That stuff is super yummy.

   “Prove it,” Ronak says, stopping me in my tracks.

   I look over my shoulder at him. “What?”

   “Your story doesn’t change anything. You’ve had plenty of time to come up with a story. Just because you’ve told us, doesn’t mean we believe it. We need proof.”

   “You want me to prove it to you?”

  “Yes. Unless you can’t.”

   I look at him warily. “Fine. But you can’t get mad.”

   I turn and walk toward him slowly, my bare feet soft against the wood as I take deliberate steps. My long pink hair is in soft waves over my shoulders and reaches to the small of my back.

        I’m still in Evert’s shirt and nothing else, and I’m acutely aware of my bare back and the way my cleavage can be seen from the top of the loose ties at the tunic. My blue eyes lock onto Ronak as I prowl closer, because for once, he’s not the predator. He’s the prey.

   I stop when I’m right in front of his chair and position my legs between his. I lower myself onto his lap and lift my hand to stroke along his cheek and jaw, finally touching that scruffy beard I’ve longed to feel.

        Slowly, I allow shivers of flirtatious desire escape from my fingertips. The power comes out of my fingers in silvery wisps, nearly translucent. Ronak freezes, reacting just like he did when I hugged him. But this time, I can see smoldering embers in his black eyes. I lick my bottom lip, and he follows the motion, making heat boil in my belly.

   I lean in closely, our mouths nearly touching. It’s so quiet that all I can hear is my own drumming heartbeat. Then, with exquisite slowness, I loose more power in one long, sensual Lust-Breath. It steams out of my mouth in pink tendrils that wrap around him and then disappear.

   The embers in his eyes instantly erupt into hot, out of control flames, and I feel his erection spring to life beneath me. The intense smell of arousal floods my nostrils, making my own eyes dilate with yearning. He makes a low, guttural groan that turns my insides into putty. But I wait, not once breaking eye contact with him. I feel the heat coming off of him as his cock grinds into me.

        Then his mouth comes for mine. But just before he can make contact, I jump out of his lap. He’s out of his chair so fast that it knocks over and falls to the floor with a crash.

He reaches for me, but I anticipate the move, so I leap out of the way before he can grab me. “Uh uh uh,” I reprimand him, wagging my finger coyly. “You’re still Not-First, remember?” I hurry to the other side of the room so that the table stands between us.

I can see that it takes everything in him not to chase me down. I have to hand it to him. The guy has self-control—I gave him quite a bit of Lust.

I quirk a brow at him and put my hands on my hips, just because I know it’ll infuriate him. Ronak is breathing heavily, the evidence of his desire obvious in his pants. He’s trying to control himself, but I can see how…hard it is. Ha!

   “You asked for it. Lust-Breaths. Flirt-Touches. And if I still had my bow and quiver, I could shoot you with a Love Arrow, too, but I wouldn’t do that to you. Anyway, there’s your proof,” I say sweetly, waving a hand toward a very lustful Ronak from across the room. “Have fun with the after affects of that.”

Evert laughs at Ronak’s expense. “Oh, shit. No, you never did that to me. I would’ve seen it. Your power is visible,” he muses, more to himself than to anyone else.

“I told you.”

“That was awesome. How you feeling?” Evert taunts.

“I’ve heard a cold bath will help,” I tell Ronak with a wink.

   With that, I turn around and saunter away, swaying like a badass with a nice ass. I’m so caught up in my hip action that I forget I’m not incorporeal anymore and I can’t go through walls. I smack face-first into the wood.

          ‘Ouch,’ I say, rubbing my face.            

           Totally embarassing. What a way to ruin my exit.

           I dart to the door, throw it open and flee outside.

As soon as I reach the garden, I hear the guys start laughing hysterically.

      I soothe myself with the knowledge that I’ve left Ronak with a raging hard-on that won’t wear off for a good while, not to mention a good knock on his pride. That’ll teach him to mess with this cupid. Plus, it showed Evert that I haven’t been using my powers on him. I can’t help but smile.

   Cupid: two, Wall: one. Cupidity at its finest.