Page 69 of Gemini Queen
Now the visual of him wearing my lacy unmentionables just about lights my brain on fire. With his slim body and his sexy-pretty face, he could definitely pull it off.
Shit, he’d probably look better in my lingerie than I do.
Somehow, I’ve gotta stop thinking about this, because clearly he can hear my thoughts, and I don’t have the first clue how to stop projecting them.
“What’s your plan?” he murmurs, low and husky.
“Um, I’m gonna ask Lucius or maybe Neo to teach me to shield my thoughts. Starting today, because this whole situation is totally intolerable.” It’s definitely time to put my blouse on, but for some reason I’m not moving.
“For fuck’s sake, I’m not referring to your education.” If I didn’t know that viper better, I’d think he’s struggling to contain a laugh. “I’m referring to your plan for getting off this island.”
Oh, right. Because he agreed to help me do that.
I want to reach for my blouse, but he’s still lurking behind me, and now he’s rubbing a towel over my sopping hair with a care that makes me deeply suspicious. Any second, I expect him to bury one of those hidden knives he carries in my back.
I don’t want to trust him with my plan, but he can hardly help unless I tell him. Still, definitely, the less I tell him the better.
“Neo says this island’s self-sufficient,” I say carefully. “Is there, like, a water sports shop?”
He huffs out a disdainful snort, the auditory equivalent of a sneer. “You won’t be kayaking or stand-up paddleboarding your way out of this captivity, if that’s what you’re imagining. The sea around this island is freezing, and the wards make the surf far too rough.”
“Just tell me.” I’ve had more than enough of his disturbing proximity. More than enough of him in general, with his telekinesis and his fangs and all that sexy he wields like a weapon. I evade the towel and duck around him to grab my blouse.
He pivots to watch, gaze tracking my fingers as I hastily button my blouse, all without trying to seem like I’m hurrying.
When he finally answers, he sounds weirdly distracted. “There’s a dive shop at the marina. It isn’t much, but it’s Racetrack’s summer job to run the wretched place. We attract a few tourists from the witching world during summer holidays.”
Then maybe I can get Racetrack to help me, if I can trust her with my plan. She’s not exactly a warm-and-fuzzy, and she and I haven’t exactly bonded at this point or even talked about what we want this connection between us to mean, but Neo did say she’s one of my courtiers.
“So I’ll ask Racetrack. I’d like to get in there,” I say casually, fastening the last little pearl button at my throat. Now I’m almost decent, standing in front of him in my blouse and panties and thigh-highs. He’s still studying me like I’m a puzzle he can’t quite decipher, his narrowed gaze sliding slowly over my disarray.
I grab my short plaid skirt and shimmy into it while he watches the whole time.
“Never mind asking Racetrack. She holds no particular affection for royals, she doesn’t give a shit about social prestige or being one of your courtiers, and she’ll very likely instruct you to pound sand. In any event, what precisely do you fancy you’ll accomplish in a place like that?” His eyes land on my dive watch. “Icarus is twelve kilometers from the nearest private island—an island that’s uninhabited in winter, incidentally—and we’re much farther than that from the mainland.”
Twelve clicks. With proper gear and planning, like an inflatable float, I can handle twelve clicks of open ocean.
Even if that neighboring island is uninhabited, they’ll have shelter, supplies, maybe even comms. It’s the weirdest thing, but I haven’t seen a computer or even a smart phone since I woke up on this island, just a few old landlines. And the burner phone I finally found in my clutch from Singapore is dead as a rock. I’m dying to plug back into cyberspace and pay my rent before I lose my safe house in Sharm.
Even if the idea of losing it feels slightly less pressing than it did yesterday.
“What do you care?” I counter. “Our deal’s to get me past the wards and that’s it. What happens to me after that’s none of your business.”
“That’s entirely true… so long as you abide by your end of our little arrangement.” He bristles with sudden menace. “I want a signed statement of abdication before you embark upon your suicide stunt, so the Senate can initiate the relinquishment process. Otherwise you’ll go missing at sea, it will take years to have you declared legally dead, and the entire royal tyranny will keep grinding along with Messalina keeping your throne warm.”
“Fine.” I definitely don’t mind signing a statement like that, even though I firmly crush another pang of remorse at the thought of what this betrayal is going to do to Neo. I really shouldn’t have slept with him. This is all going to be so much worse for him than if I hadn’t. “But I won’t sign it till I’ve got one foot in the water. When can I hit the dive shop?”
By now I’ve tucked in my blouse and buttoned up my blazer. The naked Zara show’s all over.
Even if it’s a show that can’t hold much interest for a gay guy.
“Meet me alone near the piazza fountain at midnight.” Vasili reclaims his coffee and prowls for the door. “And, for your information, the person you want tutoring you to shield your thoughts isn’t Lucius, and it certainly isn’t Neo. The tutor you want for telepathy is Ronin.”
Before I can swallow my surprise that he’d volunteer anything to help me that he isn’t being forced to provide, he’s vanished.
Meet the psycho anti-monarchist who’s hazing me alone at midnight, huh? Not really sure I should. It’s even odds he’s the queen killer. He’s probably planning to whack me over the head with some telekinetic hammer and hurl my senseless body into the sea.
Although, in that case, he wouldn’t have the signed letter of abdication he seems to need.
