Page 84 of Fake Dating a Human 101

“Don’t lie to me,” she said. “Seriously, Shayne, you look like you’re going to pass out.”

“Huh,” Shayne glanced down at himself again. “That’s strange. I feel fine.”

His faeborn-cursed tongue fattened and itched. He was quite focused on it, trying not to bite on it right in front of her, until he noticed the glisten of moisture in the corners of her eyes, and suddenly his measly tongue felt like the least important thing in the entire forest.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Lily…”

She folded her arms and waited, and for all her attempts to appear strong, he only saw how her ankles wobbled in her heels, how her fingers dug into the flesh at her biceps, how the tears threatened to escape the corners of her eyes. It was all rather baffling, and so like her. How could she still be pretending after all this time?

He exhaled a heavy breath, and he said, “No human would be okay after all that.” He nodded back toward the way they came. “Even fairies break under those circumstances.”

Her face contorted, just a smidgen. One of those glittering tears escaped, but she smacked it away in an instant. And even though his chest got all twisty watching her try to fight it, he smiled. How he’d missed her; every little quirk of her face, how she scrunched her nose, how she glared, how she folded her arms to show off her scrawny little human muscles, how she tried to stand tall when she was never going to be as tall as him, and how it all made her such a perfect person for him to obsess over.

But, alas, his lashes fluttered, and his arm flew out to catch the tree beside him. “Queensbane,” he muttered. He tried blinking the dizzy spell away, cursing that pesky little stab wound in his side.

“Shayne,” Lily warned. “I swear, if you die, I’ll kill you.”

He burst out laughing, and, oops, it made him lose his balance. He slid down the side of the tree and rested in the grass, taking note of the crossbeast out of the corner of his eye in case the creature quickly decided he was food in this state.

Lily dropped into the grass beside him, grabbed a hold of his shirt, and tore it open.

“Pfft. Don’t be so obvious,” Shayne said as he leaned his head back against the tree. “If you want to see my abs so badly, just ask, ugly Human.”

Lily ignored him as she studied the wound. She swore under her breath and tore the rest of his shirt to pieces, then reached around him to tie one of the strips around his middle. “This is really bad! Why didn’t you tell me before if you were in this condition?” It sounded suspiciously like scolding when she said it. “I’m not joking—I’m seriously going to kill you if you bleed out. Shayne, this isn’t funny!”

He was still grinning anyway. He reached up to touch her jaw, and she slowed her ‘undressing him’ attack, bringing her gaze up to his. Her eyelids were coated in gold dust, making her blue eyes sharp even in the darkness. He studied the silver decorations in her hair, the garland crown she wore, the stunning red dress, and the heels…

It was despicable. Unfit for her.

He reached up and removed the antlers from her hair along with the garland. The motions put his fairy brain into a spin, and he was sure he would pass out after all if he wasn’t careful. If he couldn’t keep himself together, he might not get her away in time, and that was the most important thing.

“What are you doing?” she asked—her voice was nice and raspy. “You need to hold still.”

“I don’t like these things,” he admitted, tossing the garland aside. “I want to see you in a bulletproof vest. And a cozy knit sweater. And in that adorable little Fae Café apron I designed that fits you so well.”

She hesitated. Then she asked, “All at once?”

He laughed. “Sure.”

Even though she was being all serious, the corner of her mouth tugged up just slightly. Then she shook her head. “Unreal,” she muttered. “You’re such a child.”

“I want to go home, Lily,” he admitted. Something about the way he said it made her stop her fussing with his injury again. “With you,” he clarified. He was sure he’d regret this conversation later, and that he wasn’t at all in the right state of mind to say such things. But maybe confessions were easier when it was dark, and one was bleeding out against a tree. “You know I’ve loved you since the beginning, right, ugly Human?”

Her throat bobbed. Lily kept her eyes down on his wound. “I told you to stop calling me that,” she whispered.

“Since the moment I made you laugh at your department fundraiser, I realized I liked being your fake boyfriend,” he added. “I know we were only pretending to date all this time, but it was never really fake for me.”

“Stop talking, Shayne,” she said. “I don’t think you’re with it enough to tell me these things.”

He thought about that. “Probably not. Don’t hate me for it later.” He knew she didn’t like him back, not the way he liked her, which was astounding considering every other female in the human realm adored him. What a rebel.

Lily finally lifted her eyes to his. “Why even bring up the topic of going home then? Why wouldn’t you go home?”

Shayne lifted his hand and splayed his fingers. She looked at his hand oddly, clearly not seeing the evidence, even though it was right there, clinging to his forefinger in a gilded statement that spoke volumes and felt as heavy as a brick.

She pushed his hand back down, because she didn’t get it.

Ah well. He’d tell her later.

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