Page 35 of Caged By Dance and Desire

Andrei lifted a finger. “That sounds interesting, my darling. Why don’t we arrange it?”

Constin laughed. “Humans are finicky about these things. There’s supposedly only two genders, and you must be sexually attracted to only one, or maybe two.” He grimaced. “Boring. But then you have such short lives in which tobebored.”

“Not everyone is that restrictive.” It had taken me time and exposure to grow out of it though, so I didn’t argue too hard.

“Really? Many of you are. It's hard to decide when to tell the truth, and when to tell the creative truth.”

“You mean when to lie.”

“Fae can't lie.” He spoke with a straight face.

I waved my hand. “Uh huh. So the luudthen thing is why your Lord won’t go all High Fae on me if I’m affectionate with Mathen.”

Constin eyed me, absently massaging the back of his neck. “Confine your flirtations to us, and you'll be fine. And if you’d like us to demonstrate any particular technique?—”

“Hold,” Andrei said, giving Constin a narrow eyed glance. “I feel the need to clarify.Flirtations,Hasannah. Nothing more. I'm not sharing you fully even with them.”

“I can teach her how you like?—”

“I will feed you whole and living to my mother’s swans.”

I frowned. “This is the second time you’ve said that. Are they murder swans or something?”

“Or something,” Constin muttered.

I laughed, though Andrei didn’t appear to be joking, especially since he repeated himself in Cassanian—with a few extra imprecations it sounded like.

“I wasn't thinking about it,” I said, happy that they were revealing another layer of themselves to me. The softening in theair made plain the former, subtle tension I hadn’t noticed before. “I wanted to understand the dynamics, is all.”

“One hopesshe'lllearn to share after a few years,” Constin said. “You should know better, Drei. No one likes a hoarder.”

I almost choked. Iwasn'tgoing to think about those implications right now.

The coach pulled up to the private home where the party was being held.

Chapter

Eleven

As soon as Mathen opened the door and assisted me down, I spotted Samuel, Taima, and Coralene walking down the street towards the entrance.

I turned to Andrei. “Let me enter with the other dancers. It will be more diplomatic. I don't want gossip about my date.”

Andrei paused, looked down his nose at me. “Another man might think his lover ashamed of him.”

I was coming to understand his fresty—frosty testy—tone. “I'm not ashamed of you, but you understand I want to do this on my own. No politics involved.”

“Oh, let the mortal enter the party with her friends, Drei,” Constin said. “Her reasons have merit. You can stick a shiny keep away sign on her head later. She’s already wearing no trespassing colors.”

But Andrei remained tense. “It isn't that. You know who’s among the guests tonight.”

“My eyes will be on her at all times, Lord,” Mathen said quietly, an edge in his voice that was not for Andrei, of course, but for anyone who might be a threat to me.

Andrei sighed. He bent and placed a chaste kiss on my lips. “Go then, before I change my mind.”

The conversation took a bare minute, but it was almost a minute too long. I also hadn't wanted my friends to see who I stood next to.

I darted forward, putting enough plausible space between us before I gained their attention. Coralene's gaze flicked to me first, then beyond, and I knew she wasn't fooled. Especially when she narrowed her eyes, which I ignored.

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