Spoiler Alert (Spoiler Alert #1)(22)
His chest hurt, and he forced himself to inhale slowly. Blow out the breath in several extended beats of his rabbiting heart.
Olaf came then to remove their plates, decrumb the tablecloth, and top off their water yet again. After he left, they sat without speaking and waited for dessert.
“You were worried you’d bore me to tears talking about your work,” she finally said. “But you had it exactly backward, as it turned out.”
She was watching him from across the table, her hair a silky wash of red-gold, her skin speckled with constellations, her wide mouth tilted at the corners. That wry, gorgeous smile caught at him, a hook towing him places he’d intended to avoid.
He wanted to make a different decision, though. He did.
“I’d like to go out with you again.” It was a sudden rush of words, tumbling forth like the landslide she’d mentioned earlier. Mindless. Inexorable. “Dinner, if you want, or something else. An art gallery, or a museum, or . . .”
What would hold the interest of a woman like her?
How could he hold the interest of a woman like her?
Could he maintain control of his narrative and date her?
“Better yet, we can go to an indoor water park.” He winked at her, forcing a confident grin. “I’m always happy to show off my hard work at the gym.”
Eventually, if all went well, if he decided he could trust her, he would let her dig further beneath his surface. In the meantime, he would entertain her the best way Well-Groomed Golden Retriever Marcus knew how. It could work. It would work.
For the first time since he’d met her, April appeared stunned.
Her lips were parted, her eyes wide, her body motionless. She didn’t make a sound, not one, before Olaf arrived in a burst of terrible timing to lay their desserts before them.
He disappeared quietly, and then it was just the two of them again.
She bit her lip, eyes downcast, and Marcus knew. Without her needing to say a word. He waited anyway, prepared to absorb the blow.
The answer was as clear to her as it was to him, evidently.
How could he hold the interest of a woman like her? He couldn’t. He didn’t.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” she began, her voice quiet and reluctant, “but I don’t think that’s a great idea.”
And there it was. The kick to his chest he’d expected.
“Okay.” He didn’t say more. Couldn’t, not through the ache beneath his ribs.
“It’s just—” She hesitated. “It wouldn’t work. Not under the circumstances.”
Even though he hadn’t asked for more of an explanation, it seemed she was giving him one anyway. He just hoped she was kind enough to cushion the blow, rather than saying it outright: You’re too shallow and stupid for me.
And how could he blame her for thinking that, when she’d spent almost an entire meal in the company of his public persona?
“I, um, write Gods of the Gates fanfic,” she said, her cheeks suddenly rosy. “Including some stories that are . . . kind of explicit.”
Now he was the one startled into stillness and silence. She wrote fanfiction? Sexy fanfiction? And given both her Twitter handle and the photo she’d posted, her OTP must be—
“I write almost exclusively about Lavinia. And Aeneas. So you can see how it would be a little weird to date you, after devoting hundreds of thousands of words to you—” She paused. “Well, not you, really, but an Aeneas who looks like you. Anyway, after devoting hundreds of thousands of words to a you-looking Aeneas falling in love and, um—”
Fucking.
The word she was looking for was definitely fucking.
“—being intimate with Lavinia,” she finished.
Hundreds of thousands of words about Aeneas and Lavinia. Which meant she wasn’t a short-timer or a newbie. No, she’d been posting for a while. And he’d be willing to bet her fics were as intelligent and incisive as she was, which meant she wouldn’t go unnoticed on AO3 by the Lavineas community.
He’d almost definitely read her work, then.
She might even—no. He’d know if she were on the Lavineas server. Somehow, he’d know.
Still, he had to ask. Just to be certain.
“I’ve read fanfic on occasion,” he said slowly. “Out of curiosity, what name do you post your stories under?”
Her teeth had sunk into her lower lip again, and her flush had washed away her freckles. On the tablecloth, her fingers were clasped together tightly.
She released her lip. Exhaled.
Then, with clear reluctance, she finally answered his question.
“I’m Unapologetic Lavinia Stan,” she said. “Don’t tell anyone, and don’t read my fics.”
Lavineas Server DMs, One Year Ago
Unapologetic Lavinia Stan: No matter what LavineasOTP might argue, I firmly believe that you can’t call your fic a “slow burn” if they bang in the first chapter. That’s a violation of all known slow-burn principles and subject to various penalties, including—but not limited to—major side-eyeing by yours truly.
Book!AeneasWouldNever: I was a bit surprised too. To be fair, however, it’s an arranged-marriage AU. For succession purposes, they have to sleep together. The slow-burn part can refer to the emotional ties they form, maybe?