Layla laughed, feeling better than she had in weeks, still wiping away tears. “I can’t help it! It’s just…” Layla hiccoughed, laughing again, unable to speak.
“You, girl, are in big trouble.” Arron Jacobs lifted an ash-blond eyebrow at her, though he was grinning also. Wearing a white collared shirt with pink and blue birds printed on it, he had on a dark charcoal waistcoat and a hot pink silk cravatte tucked in his open collar.
“What did I do now?” Layla laughed, finally not crying anymore as she rubbed away tears.
“We heard you got in some kind of magical accident.” Arron lifted an eyebrow at her, though his smile was kind. “Laid you up fordaysand made you miss our regular phone call. What were you thinking? Playing with magic all Katy Perry style. You dark horse.”
Layla laughed again. She and Arron had made fun of Katy Perry’s ridiculous music video to no end, though they both secretly loved it. “If I’m a dark horse, you’re a flamingo! Where did you get those swanky duds?”
“Oh this?” Arron stroked his glaringly pink cravatte with a reckless grin – obviously silk and obviously expensive. “Someonesent ridiculous amounts of money from her quarterly paycheck, straight into our accounts.”
“Your first deposit from the Hotel went through two days ago,” Dusk coughed with a pleased grin. “I distributed ninety percent of it among your housemates’ personal accounts, just as you specified. The untraceable ones we set up for them.”
“Charlie bought a boat!” Celia laughed brightly.
The housemate in question, big buff Charlie Avondale who looked like Adonis and Cupid had the most beautiful lovechild, tousled his blond curls with a sheepish smile. “I wanted a boat, yo. We live in Seattle! It’ll be fun for Seafair.”
“Don’t tell me you’re taking up sailing!” Layla laughed.
“Speedboat, yo.” Charlie grinned, reckless and fun. “I just wanna rev that engine!”
“At least it was used.” A fourth voice spoke as someone else took the final chair. “Charlie didn’t blow all his money in one go, I made sure he got a good deal on it.”
And there he was. Layla’s heart stopped for a moment, seeing her ex-boyfriend, the one her magic had almost killed two months ago. Luke Murphy was Layla’s first true love. Dark-haired with bright emerald eyes, he was as handsome as men got – and just as tempestuous. Luke had a critical streak a mile wide, but even he seemed happy right now, his emerald eyes glittering with humor as he and Layla gazed at each other.
He looked good, she realized. She’d known he was recovering well from what her Dragon had done to him, but Layla didn’t know she’d still carried that last image of him spasming upon his bed and bleeding out of his eyes, until now. Something released inside her, something that had been tight for months. And as she gazed at him, her eyes teared up all over again.
“Good to see you, Luke.” She swallowed, blinking away tears.
“Hey.” Kindness took his face, and for a moment Layla felt like they were the only ones on the call as they held each other with their eyes. “I’m ok, Layla. Glad to see you are, too.”
“Thanks.”
“Dusk said you were healing,” Arron jumped in, his gaze flicking to Layla’s left. “Is that the man himself?”
Leaning into the camera’s view, Dusk gave a grin, flashing his white teeth as a ripple of pleasure lit the midnight scales at his temples and his artfully-styled dark hair. “Arron. Good to see you at last.”
“My god!” Arron’s grey eyes got huge. Even Celia and Charlie were gaping in astonishment, though Luke merely gave a wry smile. Dusk had visited Luke in the hospital once, and Luke had memories of Dusk healing him when Layla’s magic had attacked. But the rest of the housemates had never seen Dusk, only heard his voice on the phone, and their reactions were priceless. Arron in particular, gave a sudden amazing smile three miles wide.
“Layla! You didn’t tell me your boss was the handsomest rogue I’d ever meet!” Arron grinned, beguiling and flirty as hell.
Layla saw a wash of color pass through Dusk’s hair again as he laughed, bright and utterly amused. Dusk loved attention, in all forms and from anyone, gay or straight. “Arron Jacobs, in the flesh. I’ve heard about your proclivities. Are you sure you aren’t a Dragon?”
“Are you sure you’re not hopping on the next plane out of Paris to come be my next beau?” Arron was lewd and disastrously sexy as he raised a blond eyebrow at Dusk. Arron was a hot mess, in a good way.
Dusk laughed, shaking his head. Layla actually saw him blush in his dusky-tanned skin, which was rare for the Crystal Dragon. “I have too many duties to leave right now. But if you’d like to take a trip to the Hotel… it could be arranged.”
“Seriously?” Arron’s eyes went wide.
Dusk nodded, and even Layla was astonished by his next words. “Seriously. I’ve already had it pre-approved by the Madame and the Hotel Head. Four complimentary guest passes for a ten-day stay, for whenever you all would like to come visit. Meals, transportation, and Hotel events are complimentary… as well as three Assignations of your choice during your time here. Of course, the confidentiality agreements you four signed already about the Hotel and the Twilight Realm would stay in strict observance.”
“Of course.” It was Luke who answered, the other three too astounded to speak. And though Layla saw a flash of wariness in Luke’s Irish-green eyes, she saw he was also impressed. Luke had confided in Layla over the phone that Dusk was growing on him ever since the accident. She knew the two had even spoken one-on-one by phone, though neither had told her what it had been about.
Turning, Layla regarded Dusk. “You didn’t tell me about this.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.” His sapphire eyes gleamed with pleasure, and Layla felt a low rumble of his magics suddenly slip out. He didn’t have his invisible barrier up, and his magic shivered Layla for a moment, disrupting the connection of the computer into a fuzzy mess before Dusk got ahold of himself again. His lower-than-sound rumble disappeared, and the video connection stabilized.
“How about Christmas break!” Celia pounced on the idea immediately, beaming as she pushed her chunky glasses up her button nose. “Luke’s got two weeks off from clinic and classes, and Charlie, Arron, and I can get time off work, I’m sure of it. Ohmigod, Paris here we come!”
