Page 38 of D'Vaire or Nothing
Throwing his arms up in the air, Evergreen spun in a circle with a giant grin. “Finally! Now, give me a damn hug and let’s go buy some bubbles for your baths.”
Dudley embraced Evergreen, and Victor tucked in his grin at the redness on the tips of the sentinel’s ears.
“My bathing routine is private, Evergreen,” Dudley grumbled as he followed Evergreen into the colorful shop. The hybrid was already sniffing things in bins and waved his hand absentmindedly at Dudley.
“Sorry, but we’re here with our besties,” Evergreen replied. “They’ll always keep our secrets. Oh, this one smells yummy. Sniff, Dudley.”
Dutifully, Dudley did as he was told. From the corner of his eye, Victor spotted a display of lip glosses and dragged his mates toward it.
“These are flavored,” Phillip said as he dropped Victor’s hand and rushed ahead.
“And they have sparkles,” Keegan enthused. He, too, left Victor to explore.
With a roll of his eyes, Victor followed his men to the glosses and, because they were both tall, had to push them apart so he could squeeze in to look at anything. They were chatting excitably and forcing each other to smell their selections.
Ignoring the pair, Victor found the testers and put a lovely glittery streak of pale pink on the back of his hand.
“We can do that?” Keegan asked.
“How do we get it off when we are finished sampling?” Phillip inquired.
Keegan shrugged. “Wipe it on your pants?”
“Then they will sparkle and smell like a mixture of whatever I smear on my hand.”
To give himself some peace, Victor opened the little bag he’d filled with his money and other necessities for the weekend. He tugged out the convenient travel pack of tissues he’d originally thought could be used to clean up far more interesting things and handed each of his mates one.
“Sparkles, you think of everything, thank you,” Keegan enthused.
Phillip bent and pressed his mouth firmly to Victor’s as the scent of cinnamon filled the shifter’s senses. Man and beast purred internally. “Thank you, Sparkles.”
“You’re welcome,” Victor replied, then sank his fingers into Keegan’s thick red waves and kissed him.
“I love watching the two of you together,” Phillip quietly said.
“Shh, we’re probably already in trouble with Evergreen for kissing again,” Keegan teased.
“I will kiss my mates however many times I want,” Phillip stated.
“Later, Spicy,” Victor insisted. “And we’ll be doing far more than just kissing.”
“Absolutely, now let’s figure out which lip glosses we want,” Phillip said. Victor found his statement hilarious since he was the lone person in their matebond who wore lip gloss.
“Hey, this one smells like coffee,” Keegan enthused.
“Hold on to that, Sunshine, we are definitely buying it,” Phillip replied.
“I already smell like coffee to you both, how does that help?” Victor asked as he took the coffee-scented one from Keegan and noted the color was pretty.
“You’re enriching what you already have, Sparkles,” Keegan said. “Plus, do you see the way it glitters in the light? You’ll be beautiful in it.”
“They have a cake one, should we buy one for the Grand Warlock?” Phillip asked.
“Definitely, I grab everything that fits the people in our family if I’m out shopping,” Victor said. “You never know if you’ll get their name at the solstice, and I want to be prepared no matter what.”
“Or if you have to bribe someone for gossip,” Evergreen remarked from behind them. “Scooch over, Phillip, so I can play with the pretties too.”
Phillip took a step closer to Victor, which gave Evergreen enough room to sniff alongside them.
