Page 142 of Gemini Queen
“Hmmm,” Vasili murmurs, which I’ve figured out is his way of not answering questions he doesn’t want to answer. With Zerxes out of it, the fog spell’s dissipating fast, scattered dancers taking shape around us.
Vasili touches the small of my back to steer me away from the scene of the crime before we’re discovered gathered like vultures over Zerxes’ fallen form. Or, worse, before the guy wakes up.
Because that warlock’s going to be mighty pissed.
“Before we realized we’d lost track of you, and divided our forces to find you,” Vasili muses, “I do seem to recall Mercury saying something about a naughty little rendezvous in Lucius’ office.”
“And was he persuading you?” I twine an arm around Vasili’s slim waist, which is taking a chance, but fuck, I want to touch him. That’s when I realize he’s wearing a freaking corset under that sparkly coat of his, and OMG, I nearly lose my freaking mind.
A breathy little moan slips out of me, and the Goblin King tucks me up against his side with a smug sidelong smirk. Yeah, he knowsexactlywhat kind of damage he and his corset are doing to me.
Neo falls easily into step on my other side and loops his warm fingers through mine. “He, uh, wasn’t exactly saying no.”
“Nooooooo.” Vasili draws the word out and reaches to snare Ronin’s hand. “He certainly wasn’t. It seems the two of you are horribly persuasive when you… work together… to persuade me.”
Oh, hell to the yes.
“Only problem’s the logistics, yeah?” Ronin leans past Vasili to give me a lazy grin. “Lucius’ office is tiny and cold as fuck. Not like your nice warm bed, love.”
“It is a nice warm bed, isn’t it?” At first I wasn’t sure getting Vasili and Neo into the same bed tonight (or any night) would be in the cards, like maybe there’d always be an F between those two M’s in my harem, but it’s definitely starting to look like these two particular males aren’t opposed to touching. It’s too bad to miss the crypt, of course, but I can always explore my vampire fetish with Lucius and his crypt later. And crypt or no crypt…
“Where is Lucius?” I frown. “We’re not doing this without him.”
“We’re certainly not.” Vasili pauses when someone screams behind us. That’ll be some unsuspecting dancer tripping over Zerxes, who ought to be waking up pretty quick in all that commotion.
And it’s probably for the best we’re not hanging around the commons when he does.
There’s no denying we made a bad enemy tonight. An enemy who’s just added public humiliation to his tally of grievances. It’ll be pretty obvi to the whole school he was overpowered by witchcraft, and I’m guessing the Scorpio scion’s pretty much the only warlock at this Academy who could take him out.
Once he’s awake and ambulatory, Bucephalus Zerxes will be spoiling for vengeance.
“Got a notion these festivities will wrap up early, along with Lucius’ babysitting duties, what with all the ballyhoo,” Ronin says with a dark grin at Vasili. “Fancy a romantic stroll by moonlight with that sexy alpha you just bonded, love?”
“Oh, very well, I’ll play errand boy and fetch him home,” Vasili purrs. “But don’t get accustomed to that sort of thing. I’m not a valet. Now why don’t the three of you run along to thedomusand get yourselves… warmed up… for Lucius and me?”
That dragon in my belly lurches to her taloned feet with a roar of anticipation. Wow. My mating heat’s definitely looming. And given the kind of heat I’m packing, getting the five of us warmed up is totallynotgoing to be a problem.
In fact, it’s all I can manage not to breathe fire.
Chapter Forty
Neo
With our whole cohort still at the dance, thedomusis dark and quiet, and I’m really grateful for the respite. Losing my bond with Zara when Master Zerxes broke all the Academy rules and made his awful move on her was really upsetting. Zara’s told us everything he said while he was feeling her up. Now I feel terrible that Ronin and Vasili and I were off messing around and left our mate vulnerable to a predator like that.
“You have to stop seeing it that way, baby,” she says to me sweetly as the three of us pad up the stairs in our stocking feet, our snowy coats and boots left behind in the atrium.
Zara, Ronin, and I are headed toward her bedroom. Which is about to become our bedroom, since I don’t intend to sleep anywhere else ever again in my whole life except right next to my beloved.
“I shouldn’t have left you, babe.”And I’ll never do it again,I promise her silently.
This complicated mate of mine heaves a sigh. “Listen, Neo. I’m not some shrinking violet. Iaskedyou to go over there and play with the guys, remember?”
“That’s true,” I say contritely. “But we shouldn’t have lost track of you even for a second. You should always be our top priority.”
“Why, because I’m queen?” My mate’s snort tells me what she thinks of this proposition. “We’re doing things differently around here when I, uh, ascend. We’re not going to be like Cybelle’s harem apparently was, with all the guys at each other’s throats and Zerxes allegedly cracking the whip to keep them all in line, like orcs in a damn Tolkien film. In my harem, we’re going to bealltogether. And we all matter, Neo. This queen and her consorts are one hundred percent equal.”
I should probably object to that, but it’s her call to make. I’ll agree to anything that makes her happy.
