Page 117 of The Lost Art of Seducing a Mage Warrior

“Exactly,” Brannal agreed, smiling at him. “It’s possible there’s a certain broad affiliation and also that there are exceptions to the rule. It’s equally possible that people see what they want to see and discard the rest. It’s even possible the people themselves, consciously or unconsciously, conform to expectations.”

“Ooh,” Perian said, not having considered that. “You mean Cormal could have learned to control his temper better, but everyone expected him to be a fiery hothead, so he just went with it?”

Brannal shrugged. “I’m just saying it’s possible.”

It was an interesting idea, and they spent several more minutes going through Mage Warriors, seeing whether they matched their element or not, coming up with more outlandish ways tomakethem match, and then conceding it was probably complete nonsense and laughing into their cups.

“This has been really nice,” Perian told them. “I really appreciate that you were open to this.”

“Of course,” Molun said with a wink. “We’re open to lots of things.”

Brannal rolled his eyes, and Perian snorted because he’d kind of walked right into that one.

“Seriously, though,” Arvus said, “we’re very happy to have dinner with you anytime you like. Or to go into the city or dance in empty ballrooms, whatever you want.”

“Thank you,” Perian said at the same time Molun said, “Oh, can we?”

This led, naturally, to them pushing the table out of the way and attempting to dance around the room. Arvus started humming, having already learned that lesson once with Perian, and Perian ended up in Brannal’s arms and made sure to apologize in advance. He did his best to put into practice what he had learned with Arvus, to let Brannal lead and to trust his body. It was actually really nice, and with Brannal leading, he didn’t have to worry about running into any of the furniture or into Molun and Arvus as they swung around the room.

“This is lovely,” Perian said, looking into Brannal’s eyes and letting the hum of attraction between them guide him. It felt like an intangible force connected them together.

Brannal smiled back. “It’s very nice. It’s why you can’t get rid of Molun. Despite all the absurdity, he still manages to come up with good ideas from time to time.”

“I heard that,” Molun called out.

“You were meant to,” Brannal called back.

It was the perfect way to end the evening. They made it through the equivalent of what was probably two or three more songs before Arvus said that was enough humming for the moment, and the evening broke up.

Molun proved that hecouldread a room, because he thanked them both for coming but didn’t actually renew the invitation to their bed. Perian was confident both that it was there unspoken and that it would be repeated later, but he appreciated that Molun had allowed the soft contentment to end the evening. Perian and Brannal headed back to Brannal’s rooms arm in arm.

“Thank you for thinking of that,” Brannal said once they were inside.

“I guess it’s really not that strange now that I realize it’s only been a couple of weeks,” Perian admitted, “but I feel like there’s so many people I’ve only started to get to know. This, uh, made me feel like I belonged, let me get to know them better.”

“They’re good people,” Brannal said with a nod. “Ridiculous sometimes, of course, but good.”

Perian grinned. “Yes, I noticed that. But I really do like them.”

“Good,” Brannal said, hands slipping to Perian’s hips.

“I also really like you,” Perian pointed out, allowing himself to be tugged closer.

“Even better,” Brannal said. His eyes were warm. “And you most definitely belong.”

He swooped in for a kiss.

Perian melted into the embrace and wrapped his arms around Brannal’s neck, bringing the proceedings to a halt because he’d forgotten that one of his arms had been burned.

There was nothing like a hiss of pain to mess things up.

“It’s fine,” Perian hastened to say.

“We should change the bandage and reapply the salve,” Brannal told him.

Perian frowned. “Well, we should do that, yes, but weren’t we in the middle of something?”

Brannal’s eyebrow raised. “Don’t you remember what happened last time we changed the bandage?”

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