21
Luke
“Jay, I’m sure you already know this, but those rumors going around about me and Al, they’re just rumors,” I said. “They’re not true,” I emphasized. We sat in Jay’s study. I sat across the desk from him in a comfortable leather and wooden chair.
“I know, Luke,” the high lord reassured me, sounding unconcerned.
Of course, he knew. Powers fading or not, the Lord of Whispers had enough resources to know the truth of those rumors.
Then the high lord paused.
“But you know the rumors that are going around about me and Alarie? Well, they are,” he said.
He held my gaze, waiting for my response.
“I know, Jay,” I said, mimicking the matter-of-factness of his prior response. “That’s why I mentioned it to begin with.” And then, in response to Jay’s questioning gaze, I said, “Alarie told me.”
Jay nodded his head as if he had expected my answer.
“I guess you had a change of… heart… about Alarie’s role with the House, then?”
He had told me Al was off limits because we needed her to stick around for House Vitruvian’s sake.
“No,” he replied. “She’ll keep her same role, and I still have long-term plans for her, too. Alarie knows what she has signed up for. That’s why we have chosen, for the time being, not to make our”— the high lord paused, looking for the right word—“relationship public just yet.”
“Well, if that’s what she wants…” I trailed off.
“But you bring up a valid concern, Luke. The whispers about Alarie and who she’s dating… I don’t see any need to change the ones floating around about you two,” he said.
“So, what are you asking me to do then, Jay?” I asked, the muscles in my jaw feathering.
“You two just keep doing what you’ve been doing, Luke. You work great together,” he said.
* * * *
“Where’s your other half?” Rhett asked.
We sat in one of House Rein’s carriages, a relatively new number bedecked in golden accents, on our way to Port City for the House Bellamy Winter Gala.
“Al? You know I don’t bring girls home,” I replied dismissively. “My mother takes personal offense to any woman I bring around that she did not personally handpick,” I explained, unsuccessful in keeping the irritation out of my voice. “Anyway, Jay wanted Alarie to stay back and attend the Winter Gala with him since I couldn’t be there.”
“You going to make it?” Rhett teased.
“What are you talking about?” I retorted, incredulously.
“Are. You. Two. Going to be able to make it apart this long?” he asked.
“You spend almost as much time with her as I do these days,” I shot back.
“It’s not the same, and you know it. You two have been damn near inseparable since the day she showed up at Court,” Rhett pointed out truthfully.
“You jealous, mate?” I teased. “Look, I promise she hasn’t replaced you. You’re still my best bud,” I joked.
“You know I have plenty of other people a lot prettier than you to keep me preoccupied,” Rhett retorted.
I pretended to be wounded, as though Rhett had stabbed me in the shoulder.
“So, are you going to seal the deal any time soon with her? I’ve never seen you take this long to go after what you want,” he said.
“It’s not like that with Al, Rhett,” I answered.
“Luke. It’s me. I play third wheel with you guys all the damn time. You don’t have to pretend.”
“I’m not pretending. Well, I am. But not in the way you are thinking. It’s Jay—”
“What in the hell does Jay have to do with this?” Rhett interjected incredulously.
“Well, for fucking starters, he’s the one dating Al,” I retorted.
“Fuck!” Rhett exclaimed. “Didn’t see that coming.”
“Yeah…” I chuckled sardonically. “And, not in so many words, Jay has encouraged me to foster those rumors going around about me and Al until they’re ready to go public with their relationship,” I said, thinking about my conversation earlier that day with Jay.
Rhett let out a low whistle. “Luke, mate, you really go all out for your job, don’t you? I could use someone like you on my team. Will you intercept James next time she comes after me?”
“I will not,” I said.
Lady James Morrigan and Rhett were very on-again, off-again. I was smart enough to stay out of it.
“And why not?” Rhett asked, as if offended by my answer.
“Because you deserve it. Speaking of which, why didn’t you bring James along?”
Rhett pursed his lips, tilting his head as if slightly browbeaten. “Turns out I may have pushed my luck a little too much with her lately. I fear I have surpassed the line of charming bastard and am now in the realm of just a bastard in her books.” Rhett tried to play off his comment as a joke, but there was an underlying tone close to regret in his words.
“Anyway, why bring your own cake to a party?” Rhett asked, back to his normal self.
“And that’s exactly why you deserve everything James sends your way, man.”
Rhett raised his eyebrows as if surprised, then decided to give up on the act and tilted his head from side to side in agreement.
When we arrived at my parent’s manor, the seat of the Silver Court, a host rushed out to greet us. My father was one of the last ones out the door.
“Son, I knew you wouldn’t miss a chance at a good party,” my father quipped by way of greeting.
My older brother, Brad, snickered, then covered his response with a purposefully unconvincing booming cough. I stared daggers at my older brother, who was dark in every way that I was light, having inherited his looks from our mother instead of our father, like I had.
“You know me, Father. Disappointing middle child and official partier of House Bellamy,” I replied dryly, walking toward the house.
My mother trailed along my side, her long, dark hair whipping behind her, as I made my way into the manor.
“Your father knows you do more than just party at the High Court,” she said.
“He has a funny way of showing it.”
“He’s just never been one to put much stock in the High Court politics. And after Jacob—”
“Mother,” I interjected. I did not want to talk about my younger brother, the one who had not made it home from the last war. “I know. You don’t have to keep making his excuses for him.”
My mother’s eyes cut to the tall blonde high fae lady who had just made her way into the foyer behind us. I knew my mother wanted to bring her up, so I just went ahead and asked. No matter how tired I grew of my mother’s matchmaker games, I had a soft spot for her.
“Who’s that?” I asked, not completely hiding my annoyance.
“Eliza Rafford,” my mother said cheerfully.
“I mentioned to her that you’d be here,” my mother said cautiously, testing my temperature.
I let out an exasperated chuckle. I had to admire my mother’s tenacity.
“Well, perhaps you could introduce us then?” I said, inviting the unavoidable.
I knew Eliza’s father was from several towns over and that he owned a port my father would very much like to have some involvement with. Like the woman before her and the woman before that who my mother had tried to set me up with, I wasn’t interested. I didn’t even like blondes—that was Rhett’s MO. For that reason alone, Eliza was very likely going to end up in Rhett’s bed, not mine, by the end of the weekend. But I didn’t tell my mother this.
“At the Winter Ball,” I said quickly to my mother, who was showing signs of wanting to push Eliza off on me at that moment. “We have to…” I failed to come up with an excuse, instead just grabbing Rhett and walking away.
“So, the blonde’s there for you?” Rhett asked.
He was well aware of my mother’s machinations.
“You know it.”
“What’s her name?” Rhett asked, showing a modicum of interest.
I smiled. He was nearly as relentless as my mother, just in a different way. “Eliza Rafford. And you can go for it,” I said, giving Rhett the go ahead to pounce on Eliza the moment my mother wasn’t looking.
My mother would be pissed, but it would just be the latest disappointment in a long string of disappointments for her when it came to me.
“You know I’m more into brunettes anyway,” I said.
“Brunettes or a brunette?” I heard him mutter under his breath, but he didn’t push it any further.