Nina smacked her lips in understanding. “So you’re hot for this dude.”
“So unbelievably hot.”
“And he knows?”
“No. And if you tell him . . .” She’d what?
“You’ll what?”
“Use really big words when I squeak my protests shortly before dying of humiliation?”
Nina draped an arm around Mara’s shoulders, pulling her close. Mara let her head rest just above the vampire’s armpit. “We’re doing a girlfriend thing here, aren’t we, Short-Shot? You know how I feel about that shit. It’s enough with Wanda and Marty and their bullshit girl-talk. I’m not sure I want to add another chick to my ‘don’t rat a bitch out’ list.”
“Please?”
“Do you know what happened to Harry, and does it have anything to do with you?” Nina pressed.
Oh, God. “Like did I, with malice, turn him into a werewolf?” Nice subterfuge, Mara.
Nina’s eyebrow rose as did her level of suspicion, Mara was sure. “Patience. I got like twelve point two seconds left of it. Like with anything. Do you know how he was turned, or did you have something to do with him turning into a fucking werewolf?”
“What would make you ask me that? Me. Quiet, geeky lab rat?”
“Because you’re a quiet, geeky lab rat.”
Mara did her best imitation of a scoff. “That you would even consider such a thing.”
“Makes me?”
“Mean and scary?”
“And in-fucking-tuitive?”
She slapped her hands on her thighs in exasperation. “Oh, my God, Nina! What is it with you lately? It’s like you’re everywhere these days. Quit rooting around in my conscience or whatever you do. Just knock it off. It’s spooky.”
“It’s called fine-tuning my vampire superpowers. It helps. Like now, when I can tell some shit’s gone down that involves you and your wicken-schtick. I just don’t know how the two add up—yet.”
“My wicken-schtick? That’s not even a word, Nina.”
Nina twisted a loose strand of Mara’s hair around her forefinger and tugged her head downward, forcing Mara’s eyes upward to meet hers. “It’s your lady-garden, and you’re stalling.”
Mara was astounded at just how fine-tuned Nina’s emotion readings had become. She lifted her chin, tightening the hold Nina had on her hair, making her eyes wide and her expression vulnerable. She was hoping for the “Thumper” look. “You can read my wicken-schtick? I feel violated.”
“You wanna feel beat the fuck up?”
“No. But thank you.”
She released her hold on Mara, setting her upright. “I can sense that your lady parts are involved in this, in that Harry makes your libido turn to mush. Your blood was pumping a mile o’ fucking minute, and your heart might’a pushed its way outta your chest given another couple of seconds. And that scream? That whiny shit wasn’t from a chick who’s detached and hardly knows the guy. It was one of those, ‘please don’t mess up his pretty hair or pop his perfect nose off his face.’”
“You think his nose is perfect?” Mara rather thought it was just a little hooked to the right, which only made her want him more.
“I think something really bad’s gonna happen to you.”
“I don’t like bad things.”
Nina leered at her, flashing her fangs. “I do.”
“What a relief. Somebody has to like them. We couldn’t have the bad things left unloved. It would leave an imbalance of far too much good.”
Nina planted her hands on Mara’s shoulders, clamping them with warning fingers. “Quit dickin’ around.”
Oh, there was going to be hell to pay now. No one in her pack was ever going to let her forget this once word got around. In fact, she could be prosecuted by the council. If only her excitement hadn’t overruled filling her supply bin.
Mara put her cheek to Nina’s cool hand and closed her eyes. “We’re friends, right? We have nothing in common, that’s true, but I’d like to think that because I’m related to your best friend, you’d take a hit for me—back me up, so to speak.” Caressing Nina’s cool skin with her very hot cheek, she smiled up at her while she toyed with the strings to Nina’s hoodie, tying them in a neat bow, giving the strings a pat.
“Why are you throwin’ shade, Mara? Just say it, for the love of.”
How do you just say ‘I made a werewolf baby potion because no one else seems to want to have babies with me but myself’? How?
“One last chance. I’ll ask again. This happened how, Mara?” Nina prodded, picking Mara’s cheek off her hand to jam her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie.