Serenity #2
I shoved the straw back through the mouth hole. I sucked in a fortifying sip of vodka and olive juice. And the visor went into its final phase.
My Palm chimed again, and this time, I knew it was Mom. I also knew I had to give her something so she could stop worrying and sleep easy that night.
So I picked up the Palm, aimed it blindly at my face, released the straw, and called, “Engage Palm, audio and video.” I then said, “As you can see, I’m all right.”
“What the fuck is that?” Tanyn asked.
I scrambled, ripping off the visor, water splashing around as I sat up and stared at his amazing face on my display.
“What are you doing comming me?” I demanded.
“I told you I would,” he replied.
“Tonight?”
“Apparently.”
Good gods.
My face had to be glistening. It might even be red from the visor’s ministrations (I had very pale skin, this happened). As such, I had no makeup on. My hair was scraped back into a mask.
And I was naked.
Fortunately, he couldn’t see me being naked.
But I was naked…
While talking to King Tanyn Firefierce.
“Okay, then for you too, as you can see since I’m relaxing in my serenity pool. So, again, I’m all right.”
“I’m not comming you about that,” he replied. “I’m comming to tell you a soni-jet will be picking you up on Aleksei’s landing pad at six thirty Friday night. Lex is arranging it so your security will be able to access it to get you there. Is that acceptable to you?”
A soni-jet?
A soni-jet would get me to Abyssinia in an hour.
Which meant a soni-jet would get me to Sigil Isle in maybe an hour and five minutes.
And that meant I’d be at the citadel where he grew up probably before eight o’clock Friday night.
Not deep into the night where I’d show just in time to go to bed.
Time enough to have dinner together.
Time enough to have conversation.
Time enough to have sex.
Gods.
“You’re going to soni-jet me?” I asked.
“For the foreseeable future, travel time is going to be an issue for you in living your life while having me in it. Fortunately, I’m king so I can commandeer a soni-route for something other than diplomatic, military or emergency purposes.”
“I guess it’s good to be king,” I mumbled.
“Yes, it is,” he replied.
It took effort, but I didn’t roll my eyes.
“I’m aware this probably won’t help,” he began.
“But I’m going to say it regardless. Your father was out of line.
He realized this after the fact, which I understand doesn’t help you in coping with what he did.
However, what I hope might help is pointing out that it is far from a bad thing to have a father who cares for you so much, he expects the most from you because he knows in his heart you’re the type of being who can deliver, he’s overprotective of you, and he wants the absolute best for you. ”
Even with the warm waters lapping around me, I felt chill to the bone at the reminder of what his father did to him. To him and his mother.
Cheating on his wife with one of her dearest friends.
And not only ending his marriage to her in favor of that deceitful friend, but stripping her, and their son, of titles, lands, and banishing them to a freezing cold island far away from anything and anyone.
It was my understanding, when he came of age, Tanyn had received the education any prince of that realm would have, without the status of being what he was.
That being, not only a prince of that realm, but its rightful future king.
I, like everyone (especially females), had been fascinated for years by the brooding, tragic figure of Prince Tanyn of Sky’s Edge.
Also, I, like everyone (and that would just be everyone), admired how he comported himself through this, fought for his place after his father’s death—ethically, lawfully and patiently—and won his rightful status.
What I had not done, specifically recently, was let my mind go to what all he’d endured must have taken from him. How it had to affect him. How harmful it had to be.
His mother had passed before his father, many said from a broken heart, because she’d died very young for a demon (or even a human), and there’d never been an official statement of how that came to pass.
Now, he was an orphan. His only sibling was a murdering, pedophilic, now-deposed-and-incarcerated tyrant.
And unlike all the other realms, the monarch of Sky’s Edge had more than just voting powers in the Center.
They had a democracy. They had a legislature with elected officials. They had a Premier.
But the buck stopped at Tanyn.
He could intervene. He could veto. He could introduce his own laws, and unless the legislature voted against them with a ninety-five percent decision, they would pass.
Arnaud had used these things for nefarious, frightening, and sometimes disgusting reasons (like lowering the age of consent of females to ten years old).
For the past three weeks, Tanyn had been in the thick of disentangling all this mess, overturning Arnaud’s most morally despicable edicts and setting his realm to rights.
Obviously, there was a good deal of work to be done, but he didn’t dally in diving right in to do it.
I didn’t want to think about any of this either.
I refused to be fascinated by King Tanyn.
And I definitely refused to admire him.
“It isn’t yet my place to intervene in your family dynamics,” Tanyn brought my attention from thinking about him to talking to him. “It also is. I’m simply saying, it’s something to think about.”
“Right,” I replied, before I noted, “I thought you weren’t calling about that.”
“I lied.”
He said this dispassionately.
Then again, he was full demon.
Of course he lied effortlessly.
“Dad and I have had these situations before.” Not this bad, I did not share. “We’ll get over it.”
“Good.”
“I have a spa-visor program to finish,” I informed him. “Are we done talking?”
“Is that what that thing was?”
“You’ve never seen a spa-visor?”
“I’m a male.”
I scoffed. “Males use spa-visors.”
“Not this male.”
“I’m sure you haven’t just recently been introduced to females,” I drawled.
“If I want them, I fuck them. Once I have them, I’m done with them. And they don’t tend to give themselves facials while I’m fucking them.”
There was so much there to bite back about, it was unreal.
But since I was putting all my effort into not letting my head explode with how offended I was on behalf of myself and every female breathing, I didn’t have it in me to bite back.
“And no, to answer your question, we’re not done talking,” he carried on.
“What else would you like to discuss, sire?” I asked through my teeth.
“Have you ended it with him?”
Oh my gods!
A million percent yes.
I refused to be fascinated by this infuriating male.
Another million percent YES!
I absolutely refused to admire him.
“That’ll be done this weekend,” I said tightly.
“Confirm with me when it’s done,” he ordered.
“Listen, Your Majesty, I’m not one of your subjects.”
“Yet,” he inserted.
I ignored that and stated, “So how about you give the kingly commands a rest until I’m chained to you and the cage is firmly locked around me.”
“I’m going to make you happy,” he announced, not grandly, not vehemently, not warmly, simply matter-of-factly. Like he could say, You’re going to be happy, and then I would be.
“That remains to be seen,” I retorted.
“Indeed it does, and it will.”
This farging male.
“Can we be done talking now?” I requested.
“When are you ending things with him?”
One-track mind.
“Tomorrow, if he confirms,” I pushed out. “By the end of the weekend, definitely.”
“Don’t sleep with him.”
I had no intention of having farewell sex with Bash, even if I liked having sex with Bash. It would be too painful. Maybe not for him, but for me.
Even so…
“You can’t tell me what to—”
“Hear me, Catla,” he said, the silk of his voice taut, which surprised me, since it denoted emotion. “Do not, as you are legally tied to me, fuck that male. Understood?”
I wanted to latch onto the fact that yes, I was tied to him, but no, I was not bound to him, so he could not tell me what to do.