Martini #2
“Yes,” I agreed, dropping my hand with the Palm to my lap and regaining his attention. “Now, I haven’t shared this with Gayliliel because…” I shook my head. “I don’t know why. Maybe because she’s so upset about Cormac that she paid five thousand marks for a potion to smother her mately urges.”
“Godsdammit,” Tanyn bit, the red seeping into his eyes. “He’s driven her to that?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “She’s desperate. She’s worried her job will eventually be in jeopardy, and she’s right to worry, since she’s here, so she’ll again be out of the office tomorrow with no warning.
She can work remote, but even so. She has a life, honey.
It’s that she needs to make money to live it but more, she should be free to just live it.
Not be randomly snatched from work or on the street and whisked to another realm. ”
“And you’re worried how she’ll react if she sees that portrait,” he deduced.
“Gayle isn’t exactly a fragile female, but she’s coming to her wit’s end. It’s understandable.”
“We have to find some kind of compromise to this tonight, because Mac’s behavior is understandable too.”
I reared away, saying, “I beg your pardon.”
Tanyn wrapped an arm around me not only to pull me back, but also to tuck me to his side.
“I don’t know what’s going on with him emotionally, in the sense he doesn’t just claim the female who was made for him, as he was for her.
What I do know is that he cannot escape the protective urges he has for her.
It’s physically impossible. I watched all day as he got more and more tense, only for this to release if Aleksei got a text comm from Laura, or I got one from you, which I’m thinking in some manner proved to him Gayle was okay. I think—”
He abruptly stopped talking.
“You think what?” I prompted.
“Baby, until this threat is over, he’s going to have to move in with her.”
I jumped off the bench and cried, “He what?”
“He won’t stop unless he’s close to her and knows she’s all right.”
“Then maybe he needs to take a potion,” I snapped.
“You have to admit”—he dipped his head to my Palm—“there are clearly other factors at play. Ones we don’t understand. Ones that may just be coincidental. Or they may be ones we may not ever understand.”
“Yes, I do,” I freely admitted it. “That said, what you’re suggesting makes things better for Cormac, not Gayle.”
“Perhaps this potion isn’t a bad idea for her,” he suggested.
“She’s going to spell herself, Tanyn,” I retorted.
“Is it from an accredited witch?” he asked.
I threw out both my arms. “Who cares? That potion cost her five thousand marks and only lasts a month.”
“I’m sure Cormac will reimburse her.”
That wasn’t the point!
“So she has to dose herself with magic so he feels better?”
Slowly, Tanyn stood, and equally slowly (in other words, carefully), he spoke, “I’m not sure it’s good in these times for Cormac’s protective instinct for her to be dulled.”
“So what you’re saying is, she needs to dose herself with magic.”
“Baby,” he muttered.
“Even accredited witches get it wrong,” I reminded him, though I didn’t share she’d said she went to the best of the best. “You have to have heard the horror stories.”
Of which there were many (though, granted, they were usually because someone got spelled by an uncredited witch…but not all of them were).
“Maybe she can give it to me, and I can have it tested by trusted witches to see if they think it’s safe,” he suggested.
“Are you saying that male can’t access even a modicum of self-control?”
“I’m trying to find a compromise.”
“Newsflash, Your Majesty, that isn’t a compromise. That’s expecting Gayle to do all the work and giving Cormac what he wants.”
I could tell I was testing his legendary patience when he stated, “Us arguing about it doesn’t help the situation.”
I pointed to the door to the closet. “When we go to that dinner, Tanyn, I need you on my side.”
“Your side?”
“That being Gayle’s side.”
His Palm bleeped and he pulled it out, returning, “Maybe you should let your friend speak for herself.”
“With Cormac at the same table, fucking with her head by just existing?”
But I lost his attention because he was reading his Palm display.
And then he bit off, “Gods fucking dammit.”
“What is it?”
He looked at me. “It’s a message from Landing Control. Sirk Parrin is requesting permission to land at Berg Castle.”
I blinked and whispered, “What?”
“Fuck me,” Tanyn bit, and prowled out of the room.
Usually, I was good in heels.
But damn his long legs and agility, and my super tight skirt, he was outdistancing me.
Thus, I was forced to shout, “Tanyn!” when we were both in the hall, but he was quite a ways down it.
He turned, glowered at me and said, “I’ll deal with this and meet you for drinks.”
“Deal with it how?”
He didn’t answer.
He initiated his demon speed and disappeared from sight.
“Damn it! Tanyn!” I yelled.
A door opened and Aleece stuck her head out.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“I need a drink,” I announced.
And then it was me who was stalking.
Direct to the antechamber to get a drink.
It had seemed a good idea at the time.
But when the females started arriving for drinks, looking like varying versions of bombshells, with what we were facing, it turned out we were wrong.
Fortunately, when I arrived, the only beings there were Nayden, Uly and Manny.
Therefore, I was able to say, “Warning. Tanyn and I are in a tiff. He’s in the wrong, but you might not agree, because he’s being male. So don’t get your boxers in a bunch about it. We’ll work it out, but I’m mad at him.”
Uly saluted me with his glass and said, “Although I should side with my brother, I can’t find it in me with you wearing that dress.”
Manny chuckled.
“I’m sure Estra would love to hear that,” Nayden remarked.
“Estra is constantly showing me pics of Euan Seafarer and Luchen Prideblood, mostly shirtless,” Uly returned. “And she’d agree with my opinion on Catla’s dress.”
Before they could descend fully into their bro-dom, I butted in to ask, “Does anyone need a refresh on their drink?”
“Sit, luv,” Manny murmured. “I’ll get your martini.”
I didn’t demur.
I sat.
And that was the extent of the fortune that shined on us, for Bainon walked in before Manny even made the cart. Cormac wasn’t far behind him. And Aleksei and Laura came in with Zyra right after him.
I knew Laura got the treatment I did when Aleksei saw her in her metallic purple, skintight, strapless minidress, because she’d attempted to calm the sex hair (I hadn’t bothered), but she’d failed.
However, then Aleece came in wearing a dress made of champagne-gold disks that were formed in a manner that made them look like fish scales.
Short sleeved, high-necked, padded shouldered, it hugged her curves lovingly and had a swing skirt that was so short, it was a centimeter away from being indecent.
It also put on prominent display her long, shapely legs.
Bainon actually groaned, out loud, when she walked in.
Mm-hmm.
Take that!
But shit got real when Gayle arrived.
She was wearing an iridescent light-green dress with a high side slit, no sleeves, collared neckline with a massive keyhole opening that went from the base of her throat down to her waistline. Her lovely shoulders were on display, as was full inside cleavage, midriff and lots and lots of leg.
Her glorious chestnut hair was out to there, and the color of her dress set off the moss green of her eyes.
This made Cormac growl, “Are you serious?”
Which in turn made Gayle reply, “Yes. But are you serious?”
“I’m very serious about you putting on another dress,” he retorted.
Oh my gods!
“And I’m very serious about telling you to go fuck yourself,” Gayle fired back.
Go Gayle!
“Let’s all take a breath,” Uly tried.
“Actually, let’s not and have this shit out,” I suggested.
“Catla,” Zyra admonished softly.
I pointed at Cormac and reminded her, “He just told her to change clothes. He hasn’t claimed her, but even if he had, he cannot tell her to change clothes.”
Cormac ignored all this and said to Gayle, “This isn’t going to work on me.”
“It’s not intended to work on you,” she replied. “It’s for Sirk.”
Oh shit.
Laura, Aleece and I shot looks at each other as the temperature in the room became sweltering.
“He’s here. Now. To be with me,” Gayle said as she folded herself cooly (and sexily) in an armchair, like she was the only one in the room who didn’t feel the heat.
Did you know about this? Laura mouthed to me.
I did, at the same time I didn’t, so I shook my head.
Cormac’s deep voice was scary-gravelly when he warned, “This was foolish, Gayliliel.”
“And what in our brief history makes you think I give a shit what you think of me or my decisions, Your Highness?” Gayle retorted.
At this untimely juncture, Tanyn joined us.
With Sirk.
I didn’t know whether to cheer or groan.
Clearly, somewhere along the line, with no word to anybody, Gayle had contacted Sirk to instigate the current play. For some mad reason he’d agreed, and now…what?
Over the king’s dining table, Sirk was going to transform into his shifter bear and go at Cormac, who could conjure weapons from thin air?
I was seeing the error of my ways, letting everyone go this afternoon for private chill time and so they’d have plenty of it to get ready for dinner.
As I worried over this, Sirk, who had obviously been given his script, went right to Gayle, dipped in to brush a kiss on her lips, and he murmured (but loud enough for everyone to hear), “Hey, baby.”
At this point the room erupted and all in it were in motion.
The males, to block Cormac from jumping Sirk.
The females, just to get out of the way so our dresses wouldn’t accidentally get torn, or we wouldn’t break a heel.
That said, Gayle and Sirk kept their places, like all of this was happening and they played no part in it.
It was Aleksei who warned Cormac, “You need to calm down. This was your choice. You’ll remember, I told you not to fuck this up. You fucked it up.”
Sirk calmly sat on the arm of Gayle’s chair and goaded, “Yeah, bud. Your loss, my gain.”