Chapter Nine #2
Reynal exited the kitchen, and she closed and locked it up, with a few flares and small glitter bombs near the doors and windows.
He wrapped his arm around her, and she leaned against him. “Do you know a woman named Elida?”
“Of course. The running tiger.”
“She’s also an amazing dancer with a figure like a nineteen-fifties lounge singer.”
Reynal nodded. “I see, so she grew into her elf blood then.”
“I thought it happened much later for elves?”
“The more our genes are scrambled, the closer to human maturation we get.”
She stared into the darkness and nodded. “Interesting.”
He pulled her in a little tighter. “So, if you and I were to have children, it would go through high school and finish maturing by twenty-two or so.”
“Wow, you have this planned out. Is your family pushing for more kids?”
“No. I have finally met someone who suits me in every way, and I believe that I suit you. Why wait?”
“I just started a new job?”
“I will help when I can and support when I can’t.”
She smiled. He would, too. “You just want me wrapped in your wings.”
He shuddered. “Don’t tease.”
She chuckled. “Mine don’t wrap. They just drape when I fold them.”
He stopped, turned, and kissed her. Apparently, wings were his hot button, so to speak.
He lifted her against him, and she wrapped her legs around his hips for balance. As their kiss continued, she let her wings out, and she felt his balance shift as he did the same.
When he lifted his head, he smiled. “And that is how that pose is very practical, but you are too short without a lift.”
“I am just lucky the skirt had enough play to let me move my legs.”
“I am very thankful for the opportunity.”
“So, um. Are you going to set me on my feet?”
He cocked his head. “Am I allowed to take off with you?”
“Nope. Not until you put a ring on it.”
His eyes glowed.
“Geez. No. I was just playing.”
“Pity. I would very much like to take you home with me.” He nuzzled her ear.
She shivered, feeling her skin tense up at the touch. He started to lick, and Krys gasped.
There was a laugh from the house, and Krys curled her face toward Reynal to hide from Vaia and Azreen.
Reynal chuckled against her neck. “You didn’t know they were there?”
“I was distracted.” She smirked. “There go the wings.”
She laughed as he gripped her thighs, sighed, and slowly lowered her to standing. She smiled up at him, and the wings flicked away. “What is your fascination with my wings?”
He leaned in and whispered, “Mid-air mating.”
Her face glowed red. “How would that...”
He held out two hands, and the upper hand dropped on the lower.
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that would do it.”
Reynal chuckled. “It’s a little advanced for a first encounter. How much stamina do you have for flight?”
“I can hover for an hour and a half, but I don’t fly in the open air that much.”
“Then, perhaps that is another date.” He stroked her back. “I am very concerned with your stamina.”
The blush was never going to fade.
Vaia came over and chuckled. “Azreen didn’t let me out of the room until I stopped blushing. It was quite the wedding night. Better than the first.”
Krys smiled. “So, there is going to be a rehearsal here for the dancers tomorrow night.”
Vaia grinned. “Good. I think my hips have loosened up.”
Azreen inclined his head. “I do my best.”
She patted his arm. “I know. I am working to catch up.”
He let out a gust of air. “You are doing a great job.”
Vaia chuckled and held his arm. He leaned down, and they kissed sweetly.
Krys smiled. “So, Vaia, are you going to dance with us?”
Reynal said, “Us?”
“Sure. One of the regulars broke her leg, so I am on patch-in duty for this kind of thing.”
Vaia frowned. “Can’t get a healer?”
“Even with a healer, you can’t dance on a repaired leg for a month.”
“Right.”
Krys looked around, and Sable was walking toward them with a swing in her hips. Right. “Note, date night at the quarry means they are not to be disturbed.”
Sable walked up. “He finished that statue for you. He wasn’t sure of how to finish it, and then he saw Reynal and Krys, and he figured it out.”
Krys remembered. “Oh, the sword!”
Sable grinned. “Right. Do you want to come and see it?”
As a group, they walked toward the quarry, where a study of gold and crystalline white was standing. Benko grinned. “I like it. It came out well.”
Krys froze. “Good fucking god.”
Reynal chuckled. “Why, thank you.”
They were in the pose they had just been in, her dress foamed up and frothing over her thighs.
His suit jacket was open, and that is where her arms were.
His head and hers were bent toward each other, her hiding, him snacking.
What made it them was his gold-black wings and her frost-white butterfly wings.
Azreen cocked his head. “I am wondering where we can display that.”
Benko chuckled. “Wherever you like. I can get my brothers here, and we can move it and anchor it to the bedrock. It won’t move after that.”
Krys looked at Benko, “Why?”
He grinned. “Because Sable believes that you and Reynal look gorgeous together, and I found the right coloured stone.”
Krys laughed. “Thank you for that one. Marble or granite?”
“Granite with geode centres.”
Reynal circled it. “This is spectacular.”
Krys shook her head. “No, you can’t keep it.”
He looked at Benko. “Do you have enough materials to make another. A smaller one? About two feet tall? I have a niche in my office that would fit it.”
Benko laughed. “I would check the appalled look on your lady’s face.”
Reynal walked up to her and wrapped her in his arms. “I think I would welcome the statuary in my office.”
She looked up at him. “It would be distracting.”
“It’s a memory.”
“Benko is busy.”
Benko chuckled. “Not that busy.”
Krys looked at him and wrinkled her nose. The dark elf beamed. He was enjoying his new role in the city.
Azreen grinned. “Hey, Benko, tomorrow, there will be a dance rehearsal here. If you want to get some more poses, that would be when.”
Vaia grinned. “And Sable, we are going to start a dance class here on the lawn. Wednesday nights, starting in two weeks or so, I will keep you posted.”
Sable grinned and clapped.
They all admired the statue, and then Krys said, “Sorry, but I have to crash. Last-minute checks tomorrow and putting out any fires that occur, plus adding five, no six new meals to the count without the caterers noticing.”
Vaia frowned. “Six new people?”
“One is from the mayor’s office, and five more are Neekil’s relatives.”
Benko grinned. “So, Elida and her brood are coming? Excellent.”
“You realize that all of the brood in question are adults, right?” Krys said.
Benko blinked. “Oh, Neekil only referred to them as Elida and the girls.”
“The youngest is just an adult.” Krys smiled.
Vaia nodded. “Min said that they look like models for mixing elf bloodlines with other races. Neekil is already getting prepared to address any insults.”
Benko nodded. “I will help. They have been through a lot. They don’t need to be manhandled.”
Krys leaned against Reynal as her head began to whirl. Two days to the first official-for-hire wedding at the Grunwald mansion. This frost fairy was going to show Redbird City what she could do.