Chapter Four #6
“He’s just finishing up a call,” his assistant tells me. “Can you hang around a few minutes, or do you want me to text when he’s done?”
“I can wait a few minutes,” I decide, but Percy’s door opens barely ten seconds later.
“I thought I smelled you,” he says. “Come in.”
I smile at his assistant, then follow him inside. We settle at the small table by the window, as we often do, and out of habit, I activate the privacy wards. Not that this conversation is going to really need them.
“How did it go?” Percy asks. “You seem to be fairly relaxed.”
“Sam fixed it so my to-do list is only two-thirds the size I thought it would be,” I tell him. “It’s like a surprise vacation.”
He laughs, then says, “Once this initial chaos settles, we need to talk about you taking a vacation. I can’t remember the last time you did.”
Distract, distract. Because I can’t remember either.
“The king has agreed to a ceremony that we can livestream.”
“Splendid. I’ll have PR set something up—subject to approval from you and Caolan,” he adds. “I trust you not to let them make me look stupid, and Caolan’s the king’s delegate, so presumably he feels the same way.”
I concentrate very hard on being neutral, but it’s useless. I must exhibit some physiological change—respiration, scent, something —because Percy perks up.
“What?” he asks.
“Nothing. Just thinking about all the ways PR could make you look stupid. Do you remember the time they suggested an ermine robe? Talk about insensitive.”
“No. Don’t try to distract me. Whatever it is, tell me now. Is it about Caolan? It is , isn’t it? What happened?”
Here’s the problem with working for a man you basically grew up with: boundaries don’t exist. When we were teenagers, Percy and I told each other everything.
That relationship changed when we reached adulthood, and we drifted apart a lot over the subsequent centuries, but our connection is forged in steel, and when the magic selected him to be lucifer, he sent for me immediately.
How can I possibly keep anything secret from him?
“It’s really nothing,” I insist. “Just… it was interesting seeing him interact with his people and his king. And… oh, I should have mentioned earlier. We brought the grandson of the dragon wing leader back with us. He’s going to act as a spokesperson of sorts for their civilians—answer their questions and let them know what to expect from Earth. ”
“That’s a clever idea. Caolan’s?”
He’s like a dog with a bone. Or a cat with… well, pretty much anything.
“Yes. In fact…” I sigh. “I’m pretty sure he came up with it because the kid—his name’s Dustin—was feeling overlooked. He’s… well, the first thing he did when we met him was make a pretty heavy pass at Gideon.”
“This is perfect,” Percy whispers, and I wonder if he stopped listening at some point. “Without even knowing it, Caolan hit right on your soft spot.”
“No—”
“Yes. Insecure adolescents are your kryptonite, and you know it. And it seems like Caolan feels the same way, which means you have even more in common than you thought.” The self-satisfied expression on his face is so very catlike that I smile.
“This is what’s bothering you—you’re becoming more attracted to Caolan. ”
Because of course Percy of all people would know that I already felt attraction.
“Maybe,” I admit, then, “Fine, yes. You already know he’s just my type, physically, and if he was only offering a shag, I’d already have asked you to relax the rules. Finding out now that I actually like him as a person and that we might have things in common is… disconcerting.”
“Why? Isn’t it a good thing? He seems pretty devoted, and you’ve always been a monogamous relationship kind of person.”
How dare he be so reasonable.
“Things are so complicated. And he can’t tell time, Percy. Worse—he doesn’t seem to care! What if he just never wants to learn? What if once this crisis is over, it comes out that he’s happy to flitter through life without regard to schedules and commitments and responsibilities—”
I stop, because my voice is rising like it always does when I start down this path.
Percy puts a hand on my arm, a solid sign of comfort and security.
I’ve always been able to rely on him. If Percy said he would be there, he wouldn’t forget or disregard that commitment because something more interesting came up.
Taking a deep breath, I loosen my muscles and force away the bad memories.
“Sorry.”
“You don’t ever need to apologize to me,” Percy says fiercely. “And if you’re genuinely worried about this, I’ll enforce the no-fraternization rule until the end of days. I’ll even come up with other rules to keep him away from you completely. But…”
I sigh again. “Yeah. But.”
“What if you start slow? Tell him it’s too soon for you to know if you feel what he’s feeling, but that you’re attracted to him and would be open to exploring that.”
I blink. “That’s the most genteel and boring way of asking for a no-strings fuck that I’ve ever heard. Well done.”
“I’ve always had a gift for diplomacy,” he says, deadpan. “But in all seriousness, I think you should do it. When’s the last time you even had sex, anyway? All that pent-up tension can’t be good for you.”
If it was anyone else, I’d make a stupid joke about having had sex more recently than him, but I’m one of the few people who knows why Percy hasn’t had sex for nearly a year, and the last thing I want to do is hurt him. So instead I say, “It hasn’t been that long.”
Has it?
Not that I’m pent-up—that’s what my hand is for. A quick wank in the shower takes care of any tension with no fuss. But when was the last time I got off with more than my hand for company? Or even with a little more finesse?
“Okay,” I concede. “Okay, so maybe it would do me good to hook up with someone.” He gives me a look, and I sigh.
“Fine, with Caolan. It would do me good to hook up with Caolan.” Just saying the words out loud puts me in the mood, which is a little embarrassing.
Not to mention awkward, since I’m at work, in a meeting with my boss.
“Good! So, I’m officially relaxing the rule about personal relationships between us and the elves. Feel free to tackle this however you like.” He leers, which is very unlike him.
“You’ve been spending too much time with the hooligans who work for you.”
He laughs. “They are hooligans, aren’t they?
Even the levelheaded ones. Did you see what Sam did to Alistair?
What am I supposed to do about that? Obviously we don’t want people thinking they can just stab their coworkers with pencils—or other office supplies—but on the other hand, there isn’t a person on this plane or the next who hasn’t felt an overwhelming urge to stab Alistair at some stage. ”
“I’ll come up with some story to spread that makes it sound like Sam’s been punished. Alistair will support it—he’s planning to milk Sam’s guilt all through eternity, but he’d be the first to protest if we actually tried to fire Sam.”
“Good.”
We talk for a few minutes more, just a general update, and then we both have other meetings.
“Dinner at Gideon and Sam’s?” he asks me as I get up to leave.
“Sam put it in my schedule,” I confirm. “A daily update is probably a good idea right now, anyway.”
“I can’t wait for this all to be over,” Percy mutters.
Oh fuck yeah.