Once Ghosted, Twice Shy (Reluctant Royals, #2.5)

by Alyssa Cole

You cannot keep wearing that which you have outgrown.

Dressing down is giving in.

On their second date, Likotsi had already been, as the youths say, ready to risk it all.

She’d thought that Fab had smashed their connection like a smartphone beneath a car tire, but all their data had been saved on a cloud drive somewhere, it seemed, and was happily downloading and ready to resume where they’d left off.

Likotsi stared at Fab, weighing her anger against her yearning, and though hope was a thing with feathers there was nothing insubstantial about it.

“Took you long enough,” she said, finally. Somewhere, the polite part of Likotsi’s mind chided her for blocking the flow of pedestrian traffic, but she didn’t start walking. She slowly adjusted the lapels of her coat and then the hem of each cuff. “Well. I’m certainly worth the wait.”

Likotsi looked as put together in person as she had in her photos, but her smile was much more becoming. There was a certain . . . regard in the tilt of her mouth, a mix of courteousness and insinuation. Like she would ask politely before giving you the best head of your life.

Fab tried to look cool and unfazed even though the way Likotsi was staring at her—like Fab was the most interesting woman in the world—had her at fazed level: SHOOK.

Likotsi adored things that took time and care to produce results that weren’t entirely necessary but added something special to the world.

“Finding a sexual partner is easy,” Likotsi replied. “Finding someone that makes you need to know more about them is not.”