“Exactly.”Laurette tugged on the silver chain before handing it off to the pixie.He turned to Peter.“Didn’t we dance?Some ball or other?Two years ago?”
Peter nodded.“Closer to five years ago, and it was a fundraiser for the museum.”
Laurette nodded, twirling a pink strand of hair around his fingers.“Oh yes.You were taciturn but sort of charming.Hmm.Celeste says you’re her lawyer, and your human lover is safe at her place.”He pointed a thumb.“Bow Arms here seems to have accosted him.Your man has good instincts to run at the first sight of Fae.”
Peter straightened.“Theodore is smart like that.”
The Fae pulled against his chain, but the pixie was unimpressed.“I was not—I would never—I did not accost the human!He was besmirched by a thrall.”
Laurette glanced back at the Fae, who was fumbling with the chain, while the pixie had pulled a phone from an inner pocket of the coat she wore.She was texting, apparently oblivious to what was going on around her.
“Celeste asks us if we would come by the Boudoir.For tea, she says, if your lordship is amenable.”The pixie spoke with an air of supreme boredom.Peter could admire that.
Laurette grinned.“Tea!Lovely.Oh, has she cookies?Gertrude, try to find a way to ask, carefully, if the madame has cookies and if she might be persuaded to hand one over.Or two.One for you, one for me.”He glanced at Peter, his green eyes flickering with the magic.Peter knew Elves had no visible pupils, but the magic they used to hide that was somehow just as unsettling to him.“Want to come with us?”
“My car is parked right back there.”Peter pointed at the linguistics building, meaning the lot behind it.
Laurette rocked back and forth on his feet.“I like being driven around town.Do please take us.”He cocked his head.“I mean, you did donate.To the museum, I mean.Back when we danced.”
Peter nodded, never gladder that he’d written that check.“Of course, Lord Laurette.It’s to keep the humans safe, after all.”
Laurette smiled at him with all the brightness of a Venus flytrap playing at being pretty and innocent to an unsuspecting housefly.“Right answer!”
The pixie visibly rolled her eyes.“She says she’s out of cookies.”
Laurette’s face fell.“Oh no.That is—Gertrude, that will not do.Handsome, we are going to have to make a detour.We cannot possibly have tea with Madame Celeste and not bring baked goods.You understand, yes?”
Peter nodded, impossibly glad that Michael was no longer doing anything this Elven lord might find fault with.He walked ahead of the group toward his car, feeling like a footman and oddly at ease with that.
Theodore, beloved, I’m returning to you.
The urge to hold him and never let him go again settled in Peter like a soft scarf around his neck; a warm comfort without which you were cold and miserable.
Chapter 14
Theowasfeelingcoldall over.Jittery too, like he’d had too much coffee.One of the other students who wasn’t in his afternoon seminar had posted a video in a group chat, and it had been Peter facing that Fae and looking kind of mad…or rather kind of emotionless, but in a scary way.Peter had a knack for that, the scary look.It was his version of a resting bitch face.
There’d been no more updates until two minutes ago, when the Elven lord had texted Celeste.Theo should’ve hit the floor with relief at that news, but it hadn’t happened, and a part of him worried that Peter had gotten hurt or needed blood, and not knowing made him antsy.
Celeste frowned at him.“They’re on their way here.Everything’s fine.They’re bringing cake.Relax.”
Theo leaned on the kitchen counter and focused on just breathing.“Fuck.”
“You’re looking a little pale there.”Carl put his hand next to Theo’s, though he didn’t touch him.“Do you need to lie down?”
Celeste made an approving sound.“He’s right.You look like you had too much adrenaline with your tea.Horse that’s been raced with a new crop and didn’t get the appropriate aftercare.”
Theo chuckled, dry and humorless.“Not a horse.Or in need of aftercare.”
Celeste pushed the toffee tin over to him.“I don’t need all the details about your relationship with Peter, you know.Eat a toffee.”
Theo looked up at her.“Funny.”Theo took a few deep breaths.“If I said anything mean to you—”
“Oh, hush.”She gestured at Carl.“Watch him.I’m setting the big table for tea.Might as well if we’re hosting Lord Laurette.”
“He’s truly coming here?”Carl asked.
Celeste made an amused sound.“Don’t look so starstruck before even meeting him.And remember, you’re representing the Boudoir when you’re here.”
