Dashing devil 5 bold beg.., p.13
Dashing Devil 5: Bold Beginnings, page 13
Chapter 13
Daisy floated the team’s lunch over to the long table everyone, including her, ate lunch and dinner at most days. At first, she hadn’t liked the fact that she was expected to share her meals with everyone else, but it wasn’t long before she realized that the reason she wasn’t more homesick or lonely was because of this rule.
Besides, except for their obsession with the gorgeous idiot, everyone was pretty okay… for Heroes.
Today’s lunch was an assortment of sandwiches, a bowl of pre-sliced fruit, and a fresh veggie platter. She’d opted for simple, after going all out the day before. She reached the table to find everyone but Hope and their ridiculously good looking giant already gathered. Silvie was in the seat to the right of the head of the table with Mindy, Tinker, and Kayla seated on her side, in that order.
The seat to the left was left empty, with Raev, and Laura sitting in the chairs down that side. The seat next to Laura had likely been left open for Daisy. She wanted to sit next to her friend and as far from the ever-distracting doofus as she could.
“Yay!” Silvie cheered upon seeing Daisy approach.
It had taken some getting used to, seeing Silver in casual clothes after seeing her on the viewscreen in her Hero costume so often. Still, every woman present—save for Kayla—dressed in a way intended to draw a certain amber pair of eyes, so she had gotten used to it.
“I’ve been so hungry since I came home,” the effervescent ball of silver-haired sunshine bubbled, “I can’t believe I had three pieces of that amazing cake you made yesterday, Peaches.”
“Nope, definitely not Peaches,” Daisy sighed as she set the platters down.
Silvie was relentless when it came to giving everyone around her a nickname or term of endearment.
“Sparkles?” She tried again.
“Nuh-uh.” That Daisy would refuse any nickname that Silvie came up with was a matter of course; she couldn’t let herself get too close to these people. But Sparkles? Really?
“Back to the drawing board,” Silvie pouted with a sigh of her own before perking right back up. “Oooh! Greek veggie pitas… one of my favorites. You get the humus just right! I had a Mediterranean Veggie Pita while I was in New Eden and it was just so terribly bland. It made me miss you even more,” Silvie gushed before scooping one of the sandwiches up off the tray and putting it on her plate.
“Uh-huh.” Daisy rolled her eyes while looking down to take her seat, not believing she even crossed the Boyd-obsessed woman’s mind while she’d been separated from him. “Well, I’m glad you like my sandwiches, SIlvie. But have to admit I’m surprised you are in such a good mood… I expected a lot more pouting.”
“Why?” Silvie’s head did that little drop to the side thing as her silver-flecked blue eyes projected confusion.
Daisy wasn’t sure what there was to be confused about. “Because you just got home, but Boyd almost immediately disappeared with Hope and they haven’t reappeared for going on a full day now, duh.”
“Oh.” Silvie released one of her signature bell-like giggles. “No, silly. Not only did I totally expect it, but I’m over the moon for them. They have a lot of time to make up for and totally deserve it. Besides, I always feel my Darling’s love. These days, I’m never far away from him. Although…” and her lips started to press together in the pout Daisy had expected to see, before suddenly springing into a devilish smirk, “being away wasn’t any fun because we couldn’t have sex.”
The silver-haired bombshell pushed a finger to her lips in thought for a moment then grinned and bubbled, “Yeah, so as far as reasons to miss being home go, if this” she held out a flat hand at forehead level, “is sex with Boyd, then this,” she held up her other hand at chin level, “would be your cooking. Really not that much of a difference, if you think about it. That’s how good your cooking is.”
“I missed your cooking too, Daisy,” Kayla laughed, filling her plate with an assortment of options. “Even what you call a simple lunch like this is better than just about anything I ate back in Glorith City. More important, though, thanks for sitting down and talking with me last night. I definitely want to have a conversation with your boss, just as soon as I get back to the city.
“Speaking of bosses… does anyone have any idea when we might see the two lovebirds?” the reporter asked. “Not that I don’t enjoy your company or the good food, but I really would like to do their interviews so I can get back to my story.”
“They will be joining us shortly,” Mindy answered Kayla’s question. “We have plans for this afternoon… but more importantly, Hope got hungry and they ran out of brownies. Kuh-he!”
That explained why everyone had loaded their plates but hadn’t started eating yet.
“Aww, I was hoping she would share at least one,” Silvie pouted.
“Oh, I’m sure Boyd will be making more,” Mindy said with a cryptic little smile that carried all sorts of implications.
Raev let out one of her velvet laughs, “I have sooo many questions, now.”
Daisy decided she really didn’t want to have any of the questions that sprang to her mind answered, let alone what might pop into the innuendo laden brain of their resident vixen—in both senses of the term.
“Me, too,” Silvie and Laura said together, then shared a laugh while Daisy rolled her eyes and prepared to fade out of the conversation.
“Apologies, for being late,” the big dummy’s rumbly voice called out as he approached, saving Daisy from the need to tune out the others. “We got a little… ahh… distracted in the shower.”
“Hellooo everyone!” the angel under his arm sang her greeting.
“Wow… Darling you look… mhnnnn,” Silvie apparently decided that there wasn’t an appropriate word for how he looked, so settled on ending her sentence with a blatantly sexual sound.
“Holy shit,” Raev, breathed.
“Oh…” Laura made a strained confused but appreciative sound, as if seeing something they didn’t fully understand, but really liked.
Tinker, on the other hand, looked puzzled. “Wait… did you get shorter?”
Boyd blushed. “Yeah, uhh… a bit. At least Hope seemed a bit taller in the shower… but I haven't measured.”
“Come here,” Mindy called to him as she stood from her seat.
The big demon walked over to Mindy, with Hope tagging along. As one of his tallest loves, his goth temptress would be the best gauge. Mindy looked first at Hope, and then at Boyd. She got right up close, in the personal space of each of them.
Without any heels on, the top of her head came up to Boyd’s chin; he was definitely shorter. Which meant that since she was almost six feet tall, Boyd was a little over seven feet—at least five inches shorter than his normal seven-foot-six inch height.
“Oh, hells!” Kayla seemed a bit put out. “I was already chanting ‘you can’t sleep with him’ as my mantra. But did you have to go and get hotter?”
Daisy simply stared, agreeing with Kayla in sentiment, even if she didn’t need to use a mantra the way the reporter apparently did. The big lummox had always been attractive—absurdly so—especially walking around in only those long shorts he favored like he did, rippling muscles all on display. But now he was just… majestic. And though still very large, he didn’t seem to loom as much over everyone as before.
Despite this, he looked more… solid? Though given the man’s muscles had muscles, she didn’t see how that was possible. His horns had grown a little and turned a deep crimson color that matched the inner lining of his wings and extremities. Despite their darker shade, the light that shimmered off of them had a golden quality which added a certain regal air to the already larger-than-life epitome of... get-your-panties-in-a-twist hot…
‘Don’t you dare go there, Daisy Baker!’ she chided herself.
‘Kuh-he!’
The fairy woman heard in her head. Snapping her head around, she glared at Mindy who replied with a saucy wink.
‘Why fight it?’ the tall goth hero asked her.
Dipping her head, she hid from the woman across the table, scowling. But inside, Daily quailed. A man simply should not be that beautiful and yet so manly at the same time. But there he was. And she felt the terror that slithered up from the pit of her stomach to squeeze her heart that seemed to happen anytime the gorgeous doofus appeared.
And then there were his eyes.
His previously slit-pupiled amber eyes had an almost feral animalistic appeal; they simultaneously pierced her and drew her in if she wasn’t careful to look the other way when his gaze settled on her. His new eyes were still abnormal in color, just as intense, and just as piercing as the old ones—but now Daisy had an even harder time looking away and not being drawn into their shining golden depths.
“Kuh-he,” Mindy let out her little laugh, “I’m glad I peeked when he looked in the mirror earlier. You’re all going to start catching flies, ladies.”
Daisy closed her mouth with an audible click as Boyd let out one of those rumbling chuckles that simultaneously made her stomach do a flip and made her want to shout at him to shut up!
Hope remained tucked under his massive, sculpted arm, positively glowing in happiness and dressed in one of Boyd’s t-shirts, one of the ones Tinker had made for him. This one proclaimed ‘NERFHERDER!’ in big pink letters—whatever a nerf was—on the white t-shirt, which fell just shy of her knees.
With a growl she barely stopped from becoming audible, the fairy woman would have bet her next month’s paycheck that the t-shirt Tinker had made for Boyd was the only thing the angel had on.
After getting Hope settled in the seat that had been left empty for her, the big goofball wowed everyone at the table with a flash-of-canine smile, seeming to take it all in for a moment.
Daisy wasn’t sure how she felt about the stunning simpleton’s apparent joy at seeing her sitting there amongst a group of women who all wanted to sleep with him. What if he started making certain associations with her presence in that group?
That wouldn’t be good for either of them!
His golden eyes meeting her suddenly panicked gaze with a warm smile certainly did not make her heart go pitter patter, or stir an entire meadow’s worth of butterflies in her stomach, that’s for sure.
Stupid heart didn’t know what was good for it. And what was up with those traitorous butterflies? She was the one with butterfly wings… the butterflies should have been on her side.
Once he was done taking them all in, he rumbled, “Daisy…” which made her jump in her seat—not having expected to be the first one that squeeze-your-thighs-together deep voice addressed.
“I’m sorry I only had a bite of the delicious Chantilly cake you made, and Hope didn’t get to try any at all. Did there happen to be any leftovers?”
He’d liked it? He wanted more of it? Daisy ducked behind her swirling iridescent hair as it felt like her cheeks lit up like emergency flares. “Um… okay… I-I think so…” it took her a moment, but Daisy finally figured out how to get her tongue working again in her suddenly dry mouth, “yeah. Here, I can go get a couple of slices.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m already up and will grab them. In the fridge?” he asked, walking back down around the table.
“Yeah,” Daisy nodded, her eyes seeming to follow him automatically.
To be fair, every other set of eyes at the table followed him, too—those on the side he walked down turning in their seats to do so.
“Holy… shit!” Raev repeated more slowly, once some potted plants interrupted their view of that broad back, with the triangle of his lats extending beyond the folded black wings, and that juicy rear that drew everyone’s eyes like a magnet as he walked to the other end of the horse-shoe shaped tier of the Great Room.
“Wait… when did you get a halo?” Silvie asked, suddenly sounding as close to upset as Daisy had ever heard the sickeningly saccharine hero.
Daisy looked first to Silvie, then followed her eyes to the giggling Hope who sat directly across from her.
“Hee-hee-hee, took you long enough to notice! ”
“It was pink before, but now it’s gold,” Tinker noted, sounding almost disappointed.
Daisy watched as Hope lifted a delicate hand to touch the golden halo that floated a few inches above her golden hair. “It’s only pink when Boyd is close…” Her cheeks suddenly turned the aforementioned color. “Otherwise, it’s gold… like this. How does it look?”
“Gorgeous, really finishes the angel look and makes your hair look even lovelier,” Silvie all but bubbled over.
“It’s very pretty. Silvie is right, it suits you,” Laura commented.
“It looks very nice,” Mindy smiled warmly.
“I like the pink more, but gold does look good on you,” Tinker replied with a big smile of her own.
“Almost as beautiful as the rest of you,” Raev purred smoothly, the flirtation clear.
“Aww, thanks,” Hope wrapped her white feathered wing around Raev in a brief hug while the other reached around the end of the table to do the same with Silvie. She pouted at Mindy, “I can’t quite reach you so remind me to give you a hug later.”
“The halo does looks very good on you, but where did it come from?” Kayla asked, the confusion in her tone likely born of everyone else's lack of confusion.
Daisy had to remind herself that Kayla had deliberately been kept in the dark about the majestic horned idiot being an Enhancer. The reporter knew something was up; it had been obvious to even Daisy that the vague answers they gave regarding Raev’s increasing number of tails hadn’t satisfied her.
“Boyd gave it to me,” Hope replied simply.
Daisy failed to control her urge to face-palm. From between her fingers, she watched that inquisitive fire spark in Kayla’s eyes. “Okay, but how? And did it have something to do with his metamorphosis?”
“Oh, right…” Hope let out another musical giggle, “Hee-hee… sorry but that’s classified.”
“Gahh!” Kayla groaned, dropping back in her seat as if she had been shot. “I wondered how long it would be before the dreaded ‘C-word’ reared its ugly head.”
“Kuh-he!” Mindy let out another laugh.
Daisy rolled her eyes. It really was odd how often the goth Hero’s girlish laugh came out like that.
“Don’t worry, Kayla,” Mindy continued. “I promise you’ll get some of the answers you are looking for soon, and you know that we Devoted…”
“ALWAYS KEEP OUR PROMISES!” Silvie, Raev, and Tinker all cheered in unison.
“Kuh-he! We have a triad now, so should be able to go public in the near future,” Mindy finished.
Daisy couldn’t help herself. “What’s a ‘Triad’?”
Surprisingly, Laura was the one who answered her. “A ‘Triad’ is what Heroes call a team with three S-ranked Heroes on it. Hope was always S-Ranked, and Silvie became S-Ranked when Boyd…” the nurse glanced at Kayla who appeared to be paying a little bit too much attention to Mindy, which meant she was probably trying to eavesdrop.
“Anyhow,” her friend continued, “I bet we’ll find out that Boyd is now S-Ranked, too. He was only a couple tons off from S-Ranked Strength, and I bet his Black Flame got stronger, too.”
Kayla mumbled something to herself, but it was overridden by Silvie half cheering and half asking, “We were all distracted by Boyd’s changes from what was most important… how was it, honey-buns? Was it everything you hoped for?” Hope apparently already had an established term of endearment for the angel.
“And so much more,” Hope let out another little giggle as her cheeks heated and the faint glow she exuded intensified for a moment. “He did things we weren’t sure he would be willing to do right from the start, but after a little while,” Hope shivered in apparent delight, her feathered wings making a pleasant rustle behind her, “he was… perfect.”
“Oh I’m so glad, honey-buns,” Silvie blurred from her seat and pulled Hope’s head to her chest in a hug. “I know you were worried he would have issues with some of what you wanted. Heck, I was worried he would have issues with some of it, even after his merger.”
“He’ll balk at some of what you crave, Hope, but will find…” Mindy paused, considering how to put her next words, “healthier and less image-destroying ways to scratch your various itches.”
“Honestly, I’m perfectly content with the line he has drawn so far,” Hope’s blush deepened a shade or three. “He was more than perfect. Although, the way you put it…” Hope shivered again, eyes going wide, which caused Silvie to lean back and peer at her from arm’s length.
A gleam entered the hovering hero’s bright blue eyes before she said with a voice that blended her usual sweetness with a sternness that Daisy hadn’t heard in it before, but which sounded natural enough, “That’s right, Darling knows what’s best for you.”
Hope shivered again, stronger and longer than the other times, her feathers rustling as she melted into her seat.
“Now I have so many more questions…” Raev growled, more heat in her voice this time.
“Oh, I’m sure you’ll get them answered eventually,” the golden-eyed idiot rumbled with a laugh as he approached. “But we’ll answer them in a more… ahh… private setting. Miss Bailey isn’t the kind of reporter who would want to hear some of those answers, and I’m sure Daisy wouldn’t mind being spared the details, either.”
“I noticed you left me out of that list?” Laura’s rising tone that made the statement into a question, eyebrow going up to match her words.
“Oh, I’m certain you wouldn’t mind hearing every sordid detail, Laura,” Boyd rumbled with another chuckle as he set a small plate with leftover Chantilly cake in front of Hope. “Just as I’m sure one of my loves will share those details with you when I’m not around to complain about it.”
He placed his own plate of cake down before pulling Silvie away from Hope and giving his silver-haired girlfriend a hug and a kiss before guiding her back to her seat.
