2. To my amazement, Ra indulged me. #3
I took a bite of my steak, debating how best to handle the situation.
“Well, this will be fun.” The instant Quinn perceived a threat to me, he’d freak out.
Given ten minutes and an excuse, he’d involve the entirety of his crazy family.
If his crazy family joined in, I’d be watching the kids and caring for the pets while they created havoc, which would give me an excellent opportunity to take the kids and deal with the problem myself.
“Your logic concerns me,” my father admitted.
“It concerns overprotective over there, too.” I pointed at my husband’s legs just to make sure my father understood which overprotective individual I discussed. “Worse, can you think of any part of that logic that was wrong?”
“Alarmingly, I do believe your logic is founded on reality, which is as concerning as your general thought process.”
“I feel I should warn you that I’m going to be a pretty terrible daughter, but in good news, the human ones survived me, so that’s something.”
My husband poked me with his shoe, and a moment later, he peered under the tablecloth. “I heard that, and I’m enrolling you in therapy to address your self-esteem problems.”
“What part of that wasn’t true?”
“The part about you being a terrible daughter. The Gardeners are the terrible ones, and I’ll be implementing corrective training immediately.”
I scowled. “Corrective training?”
My father snickered. “I will, with some help from her mother, make certain she realizes she is not the terrible party. I wish you the best of luck with your efforts to correct the self-esteem damage, but given time, I am certain she will begin to see for herself how we view her.”
I pointed at my father with my fork. “You are an unreasonably biased party.”
“You will get used to it, I’m sure. Being the perfect child of divine perfection is challenging to come to terms with. I’m sure your husband will have no difficulties helping you on your quest to accept your perfection.”
With that, my father disappeared in a flash of fiery orange light.
“Huh. They normally poof off in silver or gold.”
“That they do. Are you ready to come out from under the table now?”
I considered it, nodded, and handed over my plate before rejoining him at the table to deal with the endless line of those wanting to wish us well.
As I didn’t want to destroy my wedding dress picking a fight with a gorgon, I changed into a pair of jeans and a black top.
Black tended to hide the stains better, especially when covered with pet fur.
Anyone who thought I’d resist the furry charms of Sunny, Blizzard, and Avalanche counted as crazy, and I only wanted specific crazy people in my life.
As the rescued ocelot kitten needed the most care and attention to questionably count as domesticated, she got the lion’s share of my attention, although the puppies didn’t seem to mind.
Their new toys helped with that.
To make sure I wasn’t late for my date with Quinn’s grandfather and have enough of a fight to please the unicorn in me, Quinn grabbed me by my waist and dragged me out of the suite while the angel watching over our pets gently took my ocelot from me.
“Cruel,” I whined, and as my husband enjoyed when I put up a fight, I grabbed hold of the door frame and made him show off his muscles.
He chuckled, pulled until I lost my hold, and hauled me towards the elevator. “I’m the cruelest of men, taking you from your puppies and kitten so you can pick a fight with my grandfather. You’ll just have to punish me later.”
“Think the hotel will let me do any demonstrations as a fire-breathing badass? Cindercorns are so much better than gorgons.” As my husband was wise, he kept me out of range of anything I might use to put up a fight. I giggled, tried to dig in my heels, and enjoyed making him work for his victory.
“I’m going to let you have that, as I’ve experienced what it’s like to be you—almost. I’ll admit, playing with fire is quite enjoyable, although I’m somewhat saddened napalm doesn’t function like pixie dust for me.”
“Those hangovers are the worst.”
“They’re easily resolved. I just have to make sure you drink enough water afterwards.
Your napalm rations will come with plenty of liquids afterwards.
You’ll be okay.” Quinn pressed the down button, maintaining his vice-like grip while pinning me to his side.
“I am thinking I’ll condition you to accept you’re also Police Chief Quinn through the careful rationing of napalm.
I already refused to allow them to call you Police Chief Gardener. You’re mine.”
I loved when my husband became possessive, although I missed when he growled Gardener at me. As it was our second wedding day and nobody lurked nearby to catch me, I asked, “But will you call me Gardener when I’ve been really bad?”
“Call? Or do you mean growl or snarl it at you? There are other options, including purr.”
Yes, my husband could purr, and I loved it. He also hissed nicely, especially when he shifted to his gorgon-incubus doohickey form. “Growl, snarl, purr, and hiss are all good options. Call is so tame compared to those.”
“In private, I’ll do whatever you want me to.”
He really would. “Talk, talk, talk,” I complained, sighing when the elevator door opened. To my amazement, no one was inside. “That might be a first.”
“Well, we’re on the upper floor and there’s entertainment to be had in the canals.
I’m betting the hotel is about to make good money off you and my grandfather, and I can’t even blame them for monetizing your little scuffle.
” He dragged me inside and hit the button for the first floor.
“Your goal is to headlock him and braid his snakes without getting bruised in the process.”
“He’ll probably just stand there while I crawl all over him attempting to knock him down and put him in a headlock.
I’ve learned how gorgons operate. Unless I’m a cindercorn, I probably won’t be able to budge him.
But I’ll just climb him, put him in a headlock that way, and braid his snakes together while he explains why it’s a bad idea to do what I’m doing.
Then he’ll probably bite me a few times.
Somebody mentioned testing my immunities while pregnant was good for the babies.
As such, I’ll probably get bit by every damned gorgon on the planet.
Just to make sure I’ve had exposure to all types of snake venom.
Then you’re going to get all annoyed and insist you get to bite me more often than any other gorgon. ”
“You do realize that’s more because my bites are like an aphrodisiac for you, right?”
“I may have noticed something along those lines, because gorgon-incubus doohickeys are the best doohickeys, and I have a full claim on the only one. Mine, mine, mine.” I rubbed my hands together.
“You act like I don’t con your little serpents into biting me.
Although it was sweet they tried to make the hangover better, but really, Quinn?
A heart?” I pointed at my chest, where his serpents had indulged in body art.
I blamed one of the angels or archangels loitering around the hotel for the scarring, as snake bites didn’t usually do anything other than annoy me for a day or two.
“And now it’s permanent body art! I bet one of the fucking assholes is responsible for that travesty. ”
“I like it,” my husband replied, grinning at me. “I like it almost as much as I like our bracelets.”
“Like is not a strong enough word for what I feel about my man repellent. I will become very upset if it somehow becomes gorgon-incubus doohickey repellent, however.” Considering an archangel had marked us with the magical equivalent of a ball and chain, which bound us together until death did we part, I wasn’t particularly worried about that happening.
Chuckling, Quinn shook his head. “I thought about bringing my Lakers jersey just to screw with you,” he confessed. “But I decided you were getting the suit model for Christmas rather than annoying you. When you least expect it, I’ll show up in my Lakers jersey, though.”
Evil, evil man. “Do I still get a picture of you shirtless to carry around in my purse along with a picture of the suit model? I’ll take the dress uniform model, too.
” As my husband hadn’t grimaced at the reminder I’d spent a disturbingly long time in the hospital thanks to my immune system shutting itself off, I added, “I am definitely pursuing the naked model later.”
The elevator made a few too many stops on the way down to the lobby, and I sighed, forced to almost stand on Quinn’s feet when we got shunted into the back corner.
While I appreciated being close to him, I contemplated murder by the time we reached the ground floor with the lobby, the canal shoppes, and the location I’d finally get to pick a fight with Quinn’s gorgon grandfather.
I escaped without killing anyone, but I wanted to scream at the crowd barring us from reaching my destination, a nice mat the hotel had brought out so we’d be able to fight without damaging their pretty floors.
“We can go around the back way,” Quinn said, taking hold of my hand and dragging me towards one of the hallways that circled the canal shoppes.
While there were still people loitering around, we entered the shoppes from the other side of the steakhouse and worked our way back to where I’d have my chance to be pummeled by a gorgon.
The jerk would probably stand still and sigh while I climbed all over him.
Quinn’s parents spotted us, and his mother waved, and when my husband didn’t immediately acknowledge her, she waved faster and bounced up and down.
“She really won’t stop until you tell her you love her,” I whispered to my husband.
“I know.” According to his grin, he liked it that way.
Crazy man.
Quinn’s father had more restraint, although he joined in waving at us, which drew a lot of attention, most of it unwanted.
“Dad, did you feed Mom sugar again?”
“She got into some pixie dust earlier.”