The Edifice

26. Boozy Bisexuality

OLIVIA

I drink more than I was expecting to.

Maybe it's because I need something to do with my hands or simply to try and reconnect with Lee. He doesn't make it easy, uptight bastard that he is. Excruciatingly slowly, however, he perks back up.

We stumble our way home through the train system. Rather, Lee does the stumbling, as my cheap Target high-heels fall apart minutes into the walk to the station. Instead, Lee hoists me onto his back like I weigh absolutely nothing.

"Are you stronger because you're a little bit demonic now?" I ask amicably over his shoulder, hooking my chin into the crook of Lee's neck as he sways us both down a flight of stairs. His skin is comfortingly hot against mine.

"Somewhat," Lee responds. His green skin seems to shift in tone as the streetlights and neon shop signs flash past.  Shadows cast by his horns play across his face, inhuman but not unbeautiful. "Magic does strange things to your body. Usually it reflects the talents of your patron. Katy isn't particularly strong but she's very famous and that's like meth for a succubus. You could have more power than me for all we know- let's get you on the weights at home."

Lee stumbles as he talks, awkwardly extracting a cigarette from his pocket while trying to balance me atop him.

Against my morals, I lean forward and take it from him, bringinging the cigarette up to Lee's lips so he can light it. My stomach twists as I feel his lips brush my fingertips with a hunger I know isn't for me.

Lee breathes deep and I feel his body sag beneath me in relief. It's impossible to keep my drunk thoughts from drifting back to every inch of us touching, each shifting movement impressing on me how thin this dress is.

"I never was one for weights. I'm a runner," I ramble, frowning as the words leave my mouth. "Every... every time I feel myself getting anxious, I usually do four miles- Ouch!"

Lee reaches back and pinches my leg, prodding the wiry muscle of my calves. He lets out a low whistle. "Damn. Did they get rid of therapy on Earth since I left?"

"You're saying I need therapy?" I ask, incensed. I take his cigarette back off of him, waving it before his face like a carrot. "And what's this? A healthy coping mechanism?"

He tries to swipe it back off of me, but I curl up on his back beyond his reach.

Easy as it is to dodge his groping hands,  my victory is short-lived.

Instead of reaching again for the cigarette Lee reaches back and swings me off of him by the thigh,  barely softening the fall with his grip. We both stumble hard against the wall of the train station, Lee leaning over me in some playful attempt to be threatening.

"That's enough, Livvy," he says with a smile.

He grabs one of my wrists tight, but I hurridley slip the cigarette between my lips before it can be confiscated. Beneath the acrid smoke that filters through onto my tongue, I can taste the whiskey and wine he was drinking.

Lee goes very still, looking down at me as I take my very first drag of a cigarette as though only just realising the position we're in. His body presses indecently close to mine.

For the very first time, as his eyes drift lower to fixate on the cigarette in my lips, lower still to his amulet hanging down between my breasts, it strikes me that he wants to kiss me too.

Perhaps it's the alcohol. Maybe the proximity of our bodies for the last ten minutes. God knows, maybe it's the damn cigarette.

Lee releases my wrist, the hand travelling instead to cradle my waist with a tenderness I wouldn't have imagined from him. Our faces already inches apart, he dips his head in even closer, grip sliding lower down my body to rub a thumb down my hipbones.