His First Time
Raphael Mirabaud
I hadn’t done it before.
Wait, that sounds bad.
Can we back up and do this again?
Under the watchful eyes of the imprisoning guards, the wedding party had a formal supper in a hotel’s private dining room. Flicka had magicked the hotel’s phone number out of the ether because she’d stayed there with girlfriends for a weekend while incollege three years before, so she’d called and made arrangements for an entire wedding reception. The call had taken fifteen minutes.
As a military general, Flicka would have been formidable. If Raphael had been a Swiss mercenary two centuries ago, he would have been terrified to go up against the coalition of allies that she would have put together during an afternoon of chatting over drinks.She could have marched on France and conquered all of Europe with just a word to a few friends and relatives.
At the reception supper, Raphael drank wine along with everyone else, but he made it look like he was drinking more than he was actually consuming. He placed the crystal goblet carefully on the snow-white tablecloth and looked over the low centerpieces.
The Russian guards stood at thewalls of the room. They weren’t drinking anything.
On the long table, alabaster flowers tucked into deep greenery glowed like stars with their pointed petals. He recognized the little sprays as jasmine, and their heady perfume filled the air while they drank the wine. Their sweet scent slipped over his neck and down his collar to his chest because they smelled like Flicka’s bare skin.
His parents,Valerian and Sophie, were half-sloshed. His mother was giggly and pawing Flicka, who accepted it with amazingly good grace. Princesses are trained that way, Raphael supposed, but he didn’t know how she stood it.
His father stared into his wine glass on a few occasions, contemplating something, but in general kept the conversation up. His sisters were great at that, of course, and Anaïs was practicallygiddy.
Against all odds, the reception supper was a lovely affair, full of laughter for many hours and really good seafood. Alina was perfect. She climbed up on his lap, cuddled up to his side, and went to sleep around nine.
He held his baby, enjoying her scant weight in his arm because he’d been at the bank too much lately, until Flicka dusted off her hands and stood, announcing, “Thank youall for coming on such astonishingly short notice. We’ll be heading back to the hotels now.”
With a flutter of her hand, the Russian guards transformed into chauffeurs and attendants, though as attendants, they watched their charges a bit too closely.
Raphael’s mother came over and gathered Alina from his arms. “Her car seat is already in our car. She can stay in our room tonight.”
“If she’snot all right, call me,” he told his mother, though Alina was accustomed to sleeping over at her babysitters’ houses, from Suze-mama’s house to Uncle Tinashe’s Las Vegas condo while he and Flicka had worked nights. Alina’s little hands grasped the air as Sophie lifted her, grunting a little, but her eyes didn’t open. As soon as Sophie settled Alina on her hip, her arms clamped around Sophie’s neck.
Yeah, she would be fine.
Raphael watched at the easy way Sophie carried Alina. She must have carried him and his sisters on her hip like that.
He found Flicka’s fingers with his, and they walked to the cars under heavy guard.
The ride to the hotel through the night took only moments. The hotel valets had already stashed their luggage in their rooms on the fifth floor.
Four Russian guards stoodaround their door, but Raphael closed the door firmly and locked it with them outside.
When he turned, Flicka stood in the middle of the dark room. Moonlight streamed through the windows and danced over the subtle sparkles on her dress.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at his shoes, black against the dark carpeting.
She asked, “What is it?”
“This is all coming to a crescendo.My father has been biting his lip all evening. There is something he has to tell me, but he didn’t want to ruin today. Something will happen soon.”
“We have tonight,” she said. She’d walked over and was standing right in front of him. The jasmine scent of her reached him, and he longed to touch her.
He nodded and reached for her hands, holding her fingers between his. “I’m making arrangementsfor you. You’ll be safe.”
She nodded, the dim light reflecting in her clear green eyes.
“But I might not get out of this,” he said.
