Page 42 of Pining for the Prince
“I’m hurt—then we weren’t more than a summer’s fascination for each other.” She smirked. “But maybe it wouldn’t be the topic of conversation to have with a current lover.”
“I’m sure he’d have said something if he’d considered it important. We’re not the type of couple that keep secrets from each other.”
She flicked her long red hair over her shoulder and cocked her head to one side. Another beautiful fae, and she knew it. “Of course, although I have to admit I was more than a little bit curious about you. We’d all heard about your association, but I was convinced it was business-related, maybe friendly, but not romantic.”
He tried to think if he’d ever heard the name before because the way she spoke suggested Hyax to be a close friend, but hecouldn’t place her. So she was either a friend and Hyax had chosen to deliberately not mention her, or she was pretending to get some sort of reaction out of Gwil. His gut told him the latter, and for now he’d play along.
“I’m sure Hyax has a lot of friends, we don’t spend our time together talking about them.”
“Hyax has a lot of friends. He’s very”— she coughed—“generous with his time.”
He spotted something that looked like fruit on the tray and picked up a piece. “I know that, I’m the person he devotes a lot of that time to. And I’m a pretty popular chap myself.”
“That depends on the demographic.”
He chewed on the fruit, it was bright pink and tasted a bit like pineapple. “I get the feeling that the fae are a little annoyed I’ve bagged one of their princes.”
“Their favourite prince. Although it helps that he’s never going to be king, but you’ve certainly made a few enemies.”
He doubted he was important enough to make enemies, he was an annoyance, nothing more. “I’m a vampire, we’re not liked generally, and the thing is, we don’t give a fuck.”
“But you also keep to your own kind. Vamps fuck vamps.”
“Not strictly true.” Especially considering what he’d heard about the Dark Earl of MacLove. “Some of us dabble with all sorts, even humans, although I personally don’t like to shag my food.”
She laughed. “My point was you stay away from other paranormal beings, such as the fae, so it’s not surprising there’s a few eyebrows raised.”
“Again not strictly true.”
“I suppose there are exceptions for important individuals.” Although it was clear that didn’t include Gwil.
She was beginning to get annoying. “I still don’t actually know who you are, but I would think the royal family have biggerproblems at the moment. A bloodsucker as a future son-in-law is inconsequential.”
Her wings fluttered. “So you know.”
“Of course I do. Part of the reason I’m being so warmly accepted as Hyax’s beloved is because I can help. My skills go beyond the pleasure I can give Hyax in the bedroom.”
“Yes, there’s the business connection. The vampire detective,” she drawled, not trying to keep the contempt out of her voice. “There are elements in the court saying the vampires are behind it.”
That didn’t surprise him. No one trusted vampires, it was more believable that they might be behind the disappearance than helping to find the stone. “Was that before or after Hyax revealed our deeper involvement?”
She winked. “You’re cleverer than you look.”
“To be fair, that doesn’t take much, especially in modern clothing. But I looked like a frigging genius in a top hat.”
“Human fashions are odd.”
Something they could agree on, and there were days when he wished the trends hadn’t moved to more casual clothes. He didn’t look bad in a decent pair of jeans, but he seriously rocked a three-piece suit. “I can at least scrub up well. And I’m good at my job in the human realm—I have a lot of contacts.”
“Perhaps that explains why Hyax chose you. I thought it was to stop Metra from procrastinating and make his move since those two are a natural combination. But if you’re of real use to the fae then it makes sense to bond you to us.”
Fucking Metra again, but he wasn’t the subject of the sentence that caught his attention. Getting bonded to anyone wasn’t on the list, as far as he knew that was a magical ceremony in addition to a betrothal, and he wondered if she was trying to gauge the depth of his and Hyax’s connection. Hyax hadn’t mentioned it, and Gwil wasn’t sure Hyax knew that he wasaware of the practise. “Naturally I will want to have the special closeness to my husband—not necessarily every fae.”
“A fae-vampire bonding would be unusual.”
There were myths surrounding every combination of paranormal creature, a vampire-fae among them, and he wasn’t going to share with her the rumour he’d heard from Penelope that the Calanti tribe had one as a leader, but there was no way of knowing what the implication was of him and Hyax connecting through a magical bond might result in. “We’ll find out soon enough.”
“On that note, I will leave you to your delicious repast.” She didn’t wait for his response and glided away.
