Page 152 of Gift from the Source
“Access to me,Gean, is a privilege I’ll not be awarding you tonight. Nor will my Awaiting Advisors. I do appreciate your time, but I have others to attend to now,” I say as confidently and regally as I’ve heard Corentin be when speaking to members of the five or elite.
He doesn’t take the dismissal well, but he doesn’t push me any further. With an obvious sneer, he turns and walks casually down the line as though the conversation never even happened.
“Fuck, I’m so hard right now,”Draken groans.
“Same,”Cas agrees.
I ignore both of them to the best of my abilities.
“You handled that perfectly, princess,”Corentin says, laying his hand to my lower back and kissing me on my temple.
“Eww, I feel like I was on an undeserving power trip. It was so awkward I wanted to bust out laughing. I don’t like talking like that whatsoever. I’d have preferred a good old-fashioned cussing out.”
“You could’ve done that and we still would’ve been fine with it, but you did just set a precedence. None of the rest of the men will mess with you now that you made an example out of him.”
Turning my head, I do find the remainder of them giving me more cautionary looks rather than the curious ones when I first walked up. I’m not sure if it’s a good or a bad thing.
My fathers-in-law look giddy and proud. Aurora’s holding her head high with a small smile. Just before she turns back to the Primaries, she shoots me a wink. Keeper and Gaster chuckle behind me.
So I have my family’s approval and I made my stance clear with Gean Everglow.
I’ll take it as a good thing.
The next however long passes by in a blur as I’m introduced to more people and told more names than I’ll ever be able to remember.
It doesn’t go unnoticed to me that the entire Gale Nexus has avoided me.
I only got a glimpse of Pran and Dillon when I first walked up. They’ve since disappeared somewhere in the crowd. Their Primary hasn’t tried to speak to me yet, but she also hasn’t left from under Aurora’s feet.
“The whiskey is divine, but is there any food here?” Keeper asks.
He looks so adorable in his three-piece tuxedo. His tailcoat and all black undershirt are paired with a shiny silver vest. His fluffy purplebow tie matches the guys and me to perfection. I absolutely love this style, and I’d love to see if this is how all the vampires dress up in the Keep.
“There’s food everywhere. Those little meat things are so good. I snagged me a whole tray a few minutes ago when the waiter walked by,” Draken says excitedly, and I shake my head. I knew when he was talking earlier his words sounded muffled.
“Not that kind of food, son,” Keeper says quietly.
“What—oh. Yeah, there is. I asked Core to arrange for you some of those bloody cocktails from that book that talked about Keepcuisines.”
The guys and I chuckle at the way Draken attempted to say that with a fancy tone, but Keeper looks shocked.
“You did that for me?”
“Yeah, of course. There’s just normal blood too,” he says, waving his hand around in the air like a madman. Lo and behold, though, a waiter walks right up to Keeper.
“Your special-order, sir,” the waiter says as he offers Keeper a glass.
“Thank you, my good man.”
A delighted hum leaves Keeper the moment the glass touches his lips and his eyes slowly slip closed. My dragon man sits there staring, waiting for his full reaction.
“Perfection, my boy.”
“We didn’t have the exact ingredients, but Nikoli helped me get some he thought would be close enough,” Draken comments, rubbing the back of his neck.
“It tastes like home, son,” Keeper says, squeezing his shoulder.
I can’t stop smiling at the two of them. My heart flutters witnessing this moment between them. Even if my other men are trying to play it off, their happiness for Draken swells in my chest.
