Page 23 of A Queen and Her Knight

Then Cleo had kissed her outside the hotel, with people around,looking, her hands urgent on Zoe’s clothes. Zoe had been too stunned to object, not that she would have. She felt about as shameless as Little Wolf, although it had only been kissing.

Of course, to any wolf noses, she reeked of sex, which was as close to publicly declaring herself mated as she could dare come yet.

But she came through the gift shop entrance to the café and felt something like fear when she saw Nathaniel with Tim at the counter and then Carl in his usual spot. They all looked up. Nathaniel immediately rubbed his nose.

Zoe gulped a breath, then reminded herself of themonthsTim and Nathaniel’s sex smells in her clothes just from being near them. They could deal with a little of her mate’s bloom-scent wafting in the air.

Robin’s Egg floated over to greet her and ask if she had an order, then smiled beatifically at her in a way Zoe didn’t understand. Although to be honest, fairies always made her nervous. Creatures who saw the truth when they looked at Zoe and thensmiledmust know something she didn’t. But she ordered her coffee, then remembered the vanilla her mate put in her French toast too and changed her mind. She ordered a latte with low-fat milk and strong, bitter espresso, with a hint of vanilla syrup, like Cleo did. Robin’s Egg dashed off before Zoe could rethink it.

“Look who didn’t come home last night,” Little Wolf chirped the moment Egg was gone, a wicked grin on his face. Then he took a breath and wrinkled his nose. “Aw, Zoe. Gross. You smell likegirls.”

Nathaniel casually leaned down to whisper something in his mate’s ear. Zoe couldn’t make it out, but it made Tim meet her gaze. “Which is great,” he added, and briefly closed his eyes in pleasure when Nathaniel gave him a peck on the cheek.

“Well, well,” Carl commented. He always had been a nosy old man. “I take it you haven’t been home.”

Zoe stopped. She glanced to Nathaniel, who had such a warm look on his face Zoe had to resort to checking with Little Wolf to get some clarity.

His eyes were ferociously blue for a moment. “Tell us about last night, Zoe.” He might have meant it as a question, but it didn’t come out that way.

Zoe bristled. “No.”

“Then this morning. Tell us about this morning,” Tim pressed. He was being very Dirus right now, and, unusually, Nathaniel wasn’t reining him in. He wasn’t even trying.

Nathaniel’s eyes were gold. Zoe blinked at him and nearly took a step back as she tried to determine what was going on. “I’m going to go home and shower and change. I know about the marinara on my uniform, and… everything else.”

“Anythingelseyou want to tell us.” Tim waved off the stains, or stink ofgirls, as if they’d never really bothered him. He crossed his arms. Zoe crossed hers right back at him. At least until Robin’s Egg came over with her coffee. Then Zoe stood there, inhaling milk and sugar and vanilla and thinking of Cleo.

After a few minutes of a standoff she knew she’d lose, she huffed. “Nothing bad happened. We talked. She wanted me and asked me to stay. She made me breakfast.”

A smile was slowly growing on Nathaniel’s face. “That sounds like wooing to me.”

“Oh my God!” Tim almost howled. “Not fair. I had to catch this one a rabbit!”

“Yes. That’s what won me over. The rabbit.” Nathaniel rolled his eyes, but with affection. Hearing him joke like that was still so strange. His tone was mean but kind; Zoe had never understood it, although Tim seemed to.

But Tim pooh-poohed Nathaniel as well for the moment. “It was my very first rabbit. It wasspecial, and he loved it.” He turned to Zoe. “What did she make you for breakfast?”

“French toast,” Zoe revealed, hating Tim a lot for how he could ask simple questions and still have her flustered. She hadn’t said anything weird or suggestive, but now he was grinning at her. “And then…”

“Spare me theand then,” he interrupted, then glanced to Carl with an offended expression on his face.

So did Nathaniel. He outright scowled. “Not a word, Carl.”

Carl grumbled at him, fearless before that scowl in a way most others weren’t, but didn’t say whatever he’d been planning on saying. He pretended to be reading his paper again.

“But you didn’t tell her?” Having dealt with the dirty old man, Nathaniel focused on Zoe once more.

Little Wolf snorted. “I keep telling you, the traditions are nice and everything, but waiting for the other person to recognize the bond is a waste of time. It’s already there. She clearly feels it if she’s wooing you.”

“It doesn’t matter if I say it or not, then.” Zoe stared at Tim as this idea occurred to her, which was right, by his own logic, but which felt wrong, instinctually. She could tell he thought so too, because instead of arguing, he opened his mouth, then closed it. It felt like a lie to keep it from Cleo when there was no reason to. Cleo was the opposite of Little Wolf. She wasn’t afraid.

She had implied she wanted permanent, had sought it with others.

Zoe bit her lip to hold in her growls at the thought. Her instincts, on edge with things still unsettled between them, were somewhat soothed by the realization that Cleo wanted it with Zoe as well, and that Zoe had already done what the others hadn’t.

“I have to tell her before we go any further,” she announced with a sigh. “She—wedo better with truth between us.”

“Truth.” Nathaniel was dry, the way he usually only was with Tim. “What else have you told her, Zo’? Because she’s telling you something.”

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