Page 81 of Welcome to Fae Cafe

“They’re still watching us,” Cress said immediately. “And isn’t this what humans do on dates?”

“This isn’t a real date though,” she pointed out. She stole a glance over her shoulder when he wasn’t looking, but she still couldn’t see anyone following them. It was the first moment she wondered if he was making it all up.

Cress sniffed the air when the mall’s coffee shop came into view.

“I know what we should do next.” Kate tugged him toward the hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. “You should try your warm milk this way. Your assassin friends can’t get enough of it.”

Five minutes later they sat at a table in the mall aisle, and Cress sucked the foam off the top of a latte. He stuck his tongue into the liquid first, then smacked the tabletop and growled. “It’shot!”

Kate slapped a hand over her mouth to keep back a burst of laughter. “Give it a minute.” She dragged the latte over to herself and blew on it lightly. “You’re so impatient,” she added. When she was satisfied it wouldn’t send him tearing through the food court, she slid it back.

Cress finally took off his sunglasses and set them on the table. He eyed the latte for a moment. Then Kate. Then the latte again.

“Try it!” Kate chuckled.

He reluctantly brought the cup to his mouth and took a small, careful sip. His eyes widened. He began to chug. Kate’s face changed as he kept drinking and drinking anddrinking.

“Um… maybe you should take a break—”

Cress slammed the empty paper cup on the table between them and shouted, “That is thebestwarm beast’s milk I have ever tasted in my entire faeborn life!”

Kate covered the blush on her face with her hands as people’s heads turned. “Seriously, how did you fool an entire police department into thinking you were one of them?” she asked through her fingers.

Cress reached across and pried her fingers away. She realized he was grinning, and her heart performed a strange flip. His mouth curved sweetly over his shapely teeth. It was the first full smile he gave her. “I’m putting on a show, Human,” he said. “For the stalkers.”

Right.

The ‘stalkers’.

Cress leaned back in his chair, his beautiful smile not budging an inch, and Kate could have smacked herself. He wastryingto embarrass her.

“Wow. You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” She pointed to her red cheeks.

“Very much.”

“You’re seriously evil.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“What’s your plan? To embarrass me to death?” Kate folded her arms, trying to calm the flush in her face.

Cress tapped the brim of the empty latte cup. “If I make you like me, Human, maybe my next enchanted kiss will stick.” He reached for the paper bag of cookies and pulled two out. He passed one to Kate first, then took one for himself.

“Ah. So, you’re trying to make me like you by forcing me to buy you a ridiculously overpriced coat and shouting random things in public while people are watching?” Kate asked doubtfully.

His crisp smile returned. Kate couldn’t have looked away if she’d tried.

“Well, I don’t need you to lose your whole human mind over me. I just need you to become smitten enough to make you want to do as I wish. Smitten enough for me to convince you to leave this city forever if I decide you must.”

Kate’s smile faded. “I’m not leaving Toronto.”

“You might have to, Katherine Lewis.”

“I won’t. And why don’t you just speak my name in the way needed to enslave me since you know it so well now?”

Cress’s jaw slid to the side. “It’s forbidden and cruel to enslave another living being. You should not have done it to my brothers, and I should not do it to you.”

“You were going to before.”

---