‘Isn’t it past your bedtime, Golden Girl?’ Cas smirked, glancing up at the clock. 10:43pm. All the faculty had gone home hours ago, even the evening cleaning staff, and here Gabriela was, still grading papers in the office like she was gunning for a “World’s Best TA” trophy.

‘How did you even get in here, Cas?’ Gabriela asked. ‘The campus should be locked.’

‘Since when has a little thing like a locked door or a “no trespassing” sign stopped me? I’ve been breaking and entering from the minute I could walk!’ Cas’s grin only grew wider as she spread her arms in a mocking flourish. ‘Pretty sure my first word was “minor misdemeanour.”’

‘That’s two words.’ Gabriela marked down a “B” in red ink and stacked the graded paper neatly in a pile with the others she’d completed. She paused, a pointed silence hanging between them as the door swung closed with a resounding click. ‘Aren’t you going home?’

Stalking closer, Cas rounded the desk to drop a kiss to the bare slope of Gabriela’s shoulder. Gabriela’s fingers tightened around her pen as Cas gripped the edge of the desk, her arms caging her in on either side.

‘No,’ Cas murmured in her ear. ‘You want me to just end my night after a little B&E? I’m sure there are pleeenty of other rules we could break together.’

‘We’re not breaking any rules tonight, Cassie.’

‘You sure about that?’

Intent on the papers before her, Gabriela did her best to ignore Cas as she scraped blunt, human teeth down the column of her throat, nipping a bite just beneath her jaw. Despite herself, Gabbie angled her head, giving Cas better access. Goddamn it all.

‘Gotta say, President Adalhard,’ Cas murmured. ‘You are looking all kinds of delicious today.’

Cas skimmed a knuckle down Gabriela’s neck, nudging the edge of her soft, grey cardigan until it was in danger of slipping right off her shoulder. She’d paired it with a strappy tank and a floaty, A-line skirt today, hoping to catch Cas’s attention.

Gabbie was as thrilled as she was nervous to find herself trapped against the desk, Cas all but devouring her with her gaze.

‘But, as cute as you look in this outfit, I’m pretty sure it violates the dress code.’

‘Really, Cas? That’s your angle?’ Gabriela snorted indelicately, rolling her eyes. Tugging her cardigan more firmly onto her shoulders, Gabriela stacked another paper on the “completed” pile. ‘Is this the part where you tell me I should take it off?’

‘Hey, you said it, not me!’ Cas raised her hands defensively, her grin utterly wicked as she straightened up. ‘No complaints if you do, though.’

Blood warming, Gabriela sucked her lip into her mouth, biting the plush curve until it was swollen and tender. Bad idea, she chided herself, not at all paying attention to the heat of Cas’s thighs as she leaned on the desk beside her. Being alone in the office with Cassie Harlow could only be a bad idea.

Cas nudged the cardigan again. It slipped right off Gabriela’s shoulder to pool around her elbow. Cas’s grin was unrepentant.

Gabbie made a noise that was half-laughter, half exasperated sigh. ‘Cas! You are such a bad influence.’

‘Yup. That’s why you like me,’ Cas said, a teasing glint in her eyes. ‘Oh, sorry, how did it go? That’s why you think I’m just so cool and gorgeous, and you have the most infuriatingly beautiful smile, Cas, like some fallen angel! You are the worst kind of temptation. And even though I know I shouldn’t, I can’t stop thinking about your—’

‘Okay, enough! God, you’re annoying!’ Gabriela ducked her head, heat rising to her cheeks. It had been a week since her teary, drunken confession at Nicole’s spring break rager and Cas would not let her live it down. That night, Cas had howled with merciless laughter and thrown Gabbie’s drunk ass in an Uber with a rather-more-sober Libby to keep an eye on her. But ever since then, the menace quoted Gabriela’s ill-advised monologue at every available opportunity.

Gabriela fisted her hands atop the desk. ‘You are never going to let me live this down, are you?’

‘Not a fucking chance, Adalhard. Not a fucking chance.’

Gabbie had been adamant she was going to take her ill-advised crush on Cas Harlow to the proverbial grave. But as things had turned out —embarrassment and endless teasing aside— the drunken confession had worked out rather in her favour.

***

One week earlier…

Gabriela woke to a pounding in her temples and a thick, dry feeling in her mouth.

God. A hangover. She actually had a hangover. As a vampire. She must have seriously outdone herself last night. 

It was early enough yet, so Gabriela moved through her morning routine on autopilot; shower, brush teeth, complete skincare routine, fix hair. By the time she was settling down into a cross-legged position on her yoga mat, Gabriela was feeling marginally more human.

Well. As human as she could feel, these days. Shrugging off the stinging thought before it could burrow too far under her skin, Gabbie drew in a deep breath, intent on following the prompts on the YouTube tutorial she was watching and emptying her mind as best she could.

She was just beginning to relax when she was interrupted by a knock at the door.

A loud knock.

 Very rude knock.

A knock that sounded alarmingly like someone was not, in fact, knocking, but rather kicking at her door with one oversized, metal-studded boot.

‘Nooo,’ Gabbie muttered to herself. It was far too early in the morning to be dealing with Harlow’s particular brand of delinquency. ‘What do you want now?’

Rising from the mat, she padded barefoot to her front door, wrenching it open to come face to face with one smirking, silver-eyed menace.

‘Oh, honey, I’m home.’ Cas ran a tongue across one of her fangs, a mocking smile on her face and two large cups of coffee in her raised hands, one iced, one hot and fragrant with curls of rising steam.

Gabriela leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed tightly against her chest.

‘What,’ she deadpanned.

‘Aw, come on, now,’ Cas said. ‘Is that any way to treat your favourite Venandi?’

Gabriela watched as Cas raised the iced coffee to her mouth, her lips sinfully full and hypnotising as she took an obnoxiously loud sip through the straw. Gabriela winced, the sound grating on her over-sensitive hearing.

A moment passed. Another. Gabriela sighed through her nose.

‘What do you want, Harlow?’

‘I was in the neighbourhood.’ Cas took a second, drawn out sip. ‘I had a feeling that after last night, you were really gonna need a coffee this morning.’

‘You literally live on the other side of town.’ Gabriela’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. ‘Did you spit in it? I— what is this?’

‘Damn. Rude.’ Cas prodded the inside of her cheek with her tongue when Gabbie continued to glare at her. ‘Look, do you want the coffee or not?’

Without waiting for an answer Cas shoved the cup into Gabriela’s hand.

Taking a moment to pop the lid off —after one last suspicious glance as Cas, who slurped away at her iced Americano with a feigned air of innocence— Gabriela peered into the cup. And promptly blinked in surprise. 

She didn’t know what she’d been expecting — a plastic Halloween eyeball? A dead rat or something?— but she certainly hadn’t been expecting to see a steaming double shot latte with a hint of vanilla, the fluffy foam dusted with a delicate shower of cinnamon.

It was her favourite.

If anyone had told her, even yesterday, that Cassie Harlow, of all people, had memorised her usual coffee order, she’d have laughed full in their face.

Right now, Gabbie didn’t feel like laughing.

Right now, Gabbie felt like the entire world was falling away beneath her feet and she didn’t understand why.

‘Thank.. you?’ Gabriela sucked in a breath, hoping like hell that Harlow hadn’t picked up on the slight flutter or her traitorous heartbeat. ‘What’s the catch?’

‘No catch,’ Cas said, though her mouth twitched as she said it. Shit. ‘I just thought I should add “generous” to that growing list of yours of all my admirable qualities.’

‘What—’ Gabbie hated how breathless she sounded. ‘What are you talking about…?’

‘Aw, come on,’ Cas insisted, her eyes glittering. ‘Rummage around in that big ol’ nerd brain of yours, Adalhard. Figure it out.’

The eagerness about Cas was palpable, Gabriela thought. But it wasn’t malice burning in her eyes just then, nothing so cruel. Teasing, yes —Cas wouldn’t be Cas if she wasn’t teasing Gabriela about something— but there was excitement there, too. And maybe even a flicker of… nervousness? Gabriela blinked. Surely not.

‘Tell me,’ —Cas shifted incrementally closer, and Gabriela sucked in a startled breath— ‘does generosity rank higher or lower than “stubborn loyalty” and “a face so cruelly perfect you can’t decide whether you want to punch it or kiss it”?’

A warning flared in Gabriela’s stomach. The world pitched, tilted, and Gabbie was in freefall.

Just like that, it all came flooding back.

The tears. The yearning. The umpteenth glass of that shimmery, icy slush she and Nicole had been knocking back as if it didn’t have a ludicrously high alcohol content hidden somewhere beneath its bright, peachy taste… taken out of her hands by one surprisingly gentle Cassie Harlow. 

As she’d burst out in delighted laughter. As she’d promised they’d revisit this conversation when Gabriela was less likely to fall on her own ass.

Oh god.

The warning in Gabriela’s stomach turned icy-hot, searing cold.

She’d told Cas she had feelings for her.

Gabriela’s cheeks were suddenly flaming.

‘Aaaaand there it is.’ Cas snickered.

—noooooooo whatthefuckwhatthefuck why was she literally the most idiotic idiot in the history of idiots whyyyy— 

‘Cas—’ Gabbie blurted, though she wasn’t sure what the rest of that sentence was going to be because she clamped her mouth shut against a sudden swell of nausea. 

What the hell. What the hell had she been thinking!? Oh, she was going to be sick. 

In that moment, Gabriela wasn’t sure if it was the hangover or the embarrassment talking, but either way, she was saved from having to figure out how exactly one is supposed to finish a sentence when they’ve just remembered they’d all but confessed their undying love to their mortal (immortal) enemy the night before, when Cas reached into an inner pocket of her jacket and slapped a brown paper bag into Gabriela’s hand.

It was warm. The paper was slightly greased and smelled of sugar.

Cas clicked her tongue, her face pinched in a way that said she was having entirely too much fun at Gabriela’s expense. ‘Eat something before you hurt yourself, dork.’

Flummoxed, Gabriela opened the bag, part of her wondering if it was big enough to hide in forever and never come out. She peered inside to see a pair of warm, apple fritters, sticky with glazed sugar and cinnamon. The exact kind she’d mentioned liking to Harrison around two years ago when Cas had happened to be within earshot.

She’d remembered. 

Gabriela was hungover and Cas had brought her her favourite coffee and apple fritters because she’d remembered.

What on earth was happening?

Gabbie lifted her head to stare deep into Cassie’s eyes, her mouth falling softly open. For a moment, there was nothing but the quiet; the slow, sleepy stillness of a New England morning, spring flowers and errant blades of grass dew-tipped and swaying in the breeze where they sprouted through cracks in the sidewalk. 

‘You… remembered I like these?’

‘Well, yeah. Duh.’ Cas lifted a shoulder in a too-casual shrug, something in her gaze softening from teasing to warm. ‘Is there room on that list of all the stuff you love about me? ‘Cause I don’t know about you, but after all this sappy shit I’m pulling this morning, I think you’re gonna have to add “fucking amazing girlfriend” to the list.’

‘Girl—’ Gabriela choked around the tentative bite of sugar and pastry she’d been unable to resist taking. She coughed, clearing her throat. ‘I’m sorry, but did you just say girlfriend?’

Cas’s knife-sharp smirks had always cut Gabriela to the quick. So proud, so bold, so unapologetically Cas… so beautiful.

It was no different now.

Drawing one last sip of coffee through her straw, Cas rattled the ice cubes around the empty cup, then very slowly and deliberately set it down atop Gabriela’s mail box.

Then she smiled, and it was the bright glow of the moon.

Coffee cup in one hand, apple fritter in the other, Gabriela had her hands full when Cas cupped the back of her neck. Cas slid a palm against her waist, fisting the fabric of her sweatshirt at the small of her back and sharply tugging her close. Gabriela squeaked in surprise, her pulse leaping to her throat. 

Tilting her head in amused challenge, Cas simply stared at her. Her eyes flicked down to her lips. Gabriela swallowed, hardly daring to hope, and then —in a way that felt inevitable— Cas’s mouth found her own.

Trust Cas to leave her defenceless. But Gabriela always had been, when it came to the stubborn Venandi. Cas was in her very bloodstream. Gabriela could only hold on to her coffee and apple fritters and try to remember how to breathe.

Their kisses tasted of sugar and cinnamon. So unexpectedly sweet and soft against the absolute possession that was Cas hauling her close, sinking her teeth into her lip, tracing her tongue across the seam of her mouth. Gabriela opened to her, and Cas growled into the kiss, flicking her tongue across Gabriela’s and pinning her against the doorframe.

Her knees buckled. It hardly mattered. Cassie’s hand at her back was steady, her body warm and solid with muscle. Cas wasn’t letting her go anywhere. Cas held her steady, even as she fell.

 When the two of them finally broke apart, and Gabriela stood there, breathless, heat flaming in her cheeks, Cas simply leaned to the side to take a bite from the apple fritter in Gabriela’s hand.