“I guess the older you are, the more of an asshole you can get away with being.”
“Elex! Don’t be jealous. We’ve both had too much going on to be jealous of those who have been around us. I mean, I could get jealous of that gorgeous Parli you’ve been around for the past few weeks.”
“Parli? She’s…Oh.” The comprehension washed over his face. His cheeks pinked, and he let a laugh out. “Okay, so I need to relax.”
I wrapped my hand around his. “We’ve been friends for ninety years, Elex. This new path is just weeks old. Give us both time to adjust.”
“Yes, of course.” The smile was genuine.
Not too soon after the last course of dinner, Elex stood and offered his hand. “Dance with me.”
I took the hand offered and moved away from the table. Without another word, he led me to the dance floor in the middle of the room as the orchestra started a beautiful, ancient piece of music, a traditional dance in S’Kir.
A traditional courting dance.
As Elex wrapped his arm around my waist, I leveled a bemused grin at him.
“Did you do this on purpose?”
“Perhaps.” The grin was in his voice.
“You don’t need to court me,” I whispered the words.
“I know.” His eyes alighted on the audience we now had. “But they need me to.”
It still struck me as odd that I had to show people what I was doing. Until the cave, I was nothing more than a slightly magically inclined teacher, the daughter of two humble bakers, who taught the young ones at the temple.
Now, I was a Lady of the Temple of the Lost God.
The eyes of S’Kir were on me
They were on Elex as well as he spun me across the dance floor in the traditional courtship dance.
He did this on purpose. He was claiming his right to court me, to be exclusive to me. It was a purposeful display to warn everyone that I was not for their pleasure.
I hadn’t realized it would, but his possessive stance on our budding relationship actually turned me on.
“The only reason we’re still here,” Elex whispered, “is because I wanted this dance with you. Else, you would already be naked on my bed.”
“You do not need to fan my flames, Lord Everettson.”
“I plan to do a lot more than just fan them.”
Butterflies fluttered through my stomach as we whirled our way across the dance floor and through just a few other couples. My nerves wound tighter as the song finished, and we bowed to each other and the other couples on the floor with us.
Elex’s words were breathy. “May I escort you to my bed, Lady Raven?”
Before I could answer, a hand that wasn’t Elex’s slid between us and grabbed me around the waist.
A tall, well-dressed man in formal clothes stood behind me, smiling. I didn’t like it.
“May I have the next dance, with your suitor’s permission?” His voice was full of snake oil and falsehoods, and it slithered around like the very snake he’d stolen the oil from.
But Elex couldn’t refuse because he’d asked permission. It would be rude, and in an unspoken agreement, Elex and I conceded this.
The snake oil aristocrat whirled me out on to the dance floor again, this time in a high-spirited dance that had a lot more people joining us on the floor.
I hoped Elex would cut in fairly quickly. He lurked at the edge of the dance floor for just that reason.
