“There will be no rough-hiding in the pool!” Arach declared.
“It'sroughhousing,” I whispered.
Arach looked over at me with a confused frown. “Why would it be roughhousing? There is no house involved. There are, however, ample hides in danger.”
“A rough house was a place where brawls broke out a lot,” I explained. “Originally, it meant: to behave as a person who inhabits a place like that. Then it was altered to mean boisterous play.”
Arach grimaced at me, then turned back to the children, who were waiting patiently for him to continue. Not even children rush the Dragon King. “There will be no roughhousingin the pool or pool area. That is water you are in. Water! Do you understand that you are risking your immortal lives by swimming in it? If one of you should go under and no one noticed because of this unacceptable behavior, that child could die.”
The children gaped at him.
“Way to take the fun out of swimming, babe,” I muttered.
“Risking eternal death on a battlefield is admirable, but in a swimming pool it's simply idiotic,” Arach continued undeterred. “And if one of you dies, I will be very angry!”
“Just be more careful.” I laid a hand on Arach's arm and pushed him back with a glare. “You can play but you need to remember that you can't be as wild as you are on land. Okay?”
A chorus of, “Yes, Queen Vervain,” and “Sorry, King Arach,” came from the children.
Arach nodded crisply.
The children went back to playing, just not so violently.
“Well done,” Neala commended.
“Thank you,” Arach and I both said, then grimaced at each other.
“I was speaking to both of you,” Neala clarified. “King Arach, you scared them, which they needed, then, Queen Vervain, you calmed them enough to allow them to return to their fun.”
“In the Human Realm, we call that God Cop Bad Cop.” I chuckled.
“Perhaps I should have made the pool bigger,” Arach noted as he reclined on a lounger.
“There's plenty of room for swimming.” I waved a hand at the adults who were still in the water, completely unaffected by the children or the roughhousing.
“I think I'll just lie here awhile with my wife until the waters are calmer.” He extended a hand to me. “Why haven't you removed your robe yet?”
Neala secretly grinned at me and headed for Fionnaghal.
I slipped out of my robe, revealing my one-piece bathing suit.
Arach frowned. “I thought you were going to wear the one that tied on?”
“I'm not wearing a string bikini in public,” I said for the hundredth time. “That's for when we go to the hot springs or have a midnight swim when no one's around.”
“I have no idea why you're so shy about your body,” he grumbled as he drew me down onto the lounger beside him. “You're a shifter. You get naked every time you shift.”
I had to lean half on him, which wasn't such a tragedy. I hooked my leg over one of his and snuggled against his warm, wet body. “Years of negative programming, I suppose.”
“What does that mean?” His finger trailed over the mounds of my breasts, then sank into my cleavage.
“That television, magazines, and movies have presented me with an image of the perfect female body since I was a little girl, and that perfect body is not my body.” I fished out his fingers. “You shouldn't paw at me in front of our people. It's not becoming of royalty.”
“Our people are pawing at each other.” Arach glanced around pointedly. “Why must I deny myself if they don't?”
I took a look around. Sure enough, several Fire Faeries had paired off to revel in the skimpy attire that swimming required. Hands were wandering and grasping as if they were behind closed doors. Another glance at the children showed that they couldn't care less. Still...
“If swimsuits start coming off, I'm going to say something,” I growled. “This is not appropriate.”
