“It sounds so dramatic,” Atlas disputes.
Lucien tilts his head as he thinks about it. “Actually, it might work. I’ll make a few calls and join you guys for dinner later, alright?”
He heads to his office and closes the door, leaving me to cook while Cambria and Atlas fall into a discussion of the quickest ways to repair the damage to my store. They only have their preliminary assumptions to base anything off of, unaware of the full extent of the damage yet, but I adore them for it.
When Luce finally emerges over an hour and a half later, he has a smile on his face. “I think you’re going to love me for this one when you see it,” he tells her, sitting in his chair at the table.
“Bold of you to think I love anything besides myself,” she retorts instantly with her spoon still in her mouth. “Ow!” Atlas flicks her arm, playfully scowling at her. “Go on,” she prompts Lucien, narrowing her eyes at Atlas, but Luce shakes his head.
“I wouldn’t want to ruin the surprise and miss seeing your face. It’ll take about a week to get everything in order, but it should be solid enough to withstand scrutiny.”
He starts eating happily, and that in itself is as strange of an adjustment as living with a fae. Lucien’s been happier and more relaxed than I knew he was even capable of since accepting Cambria into his life. He smiles more, even laughs. He still gives off a dangerous air when we’re in public, slipping into the cold persona he’s accustomed to, but at home? He’s practically like any other living, breathing human.
“I can’t imagine how much something like that cost,” Cambria voices.
Atlas pins her with a look. “Don’t worry about that. Consider this for all of our benefit. We don’t want anyone digging so deeply they expose you as a fae and get us into trouble. The last thing any of us want is to be dragged off because we weren’t able to keep the secret under wraps.” He takes another bite.
“Besides,” Lucien smirks, “if this plays out anything like I imagine it will, it’ll be the most fun I’ve had at work in ages.”
***
Two days later Cambria, Atlas, and I are back in my shop. Luce got the insurance agents to expedite my claim, so someone came to have me sign papers and issue a check. It’s not the first time I’ve been impressed by the amount of pull he has, and I doubt it will be the last. My phone chirps in my pocket and I pull it out, opening the attachment without thinking about it.
And promptly hit back four hundred times while simultaneously trying to mute it, shut it off, and pray for a swift death.
The elderly agent looks down at me reproachfully as I shove it back in my pocket, finish the papers, and he leaves with a scoff. As soon as he’s gone I march over to the bathroom where Atlas and Cambria are already busy making repairs.
“Why? Why now?”
She blinks up at me innocently. “Why what, Dorian?”
Atlas looks confused, pausing in his efforts to rip up the destroyed laminate flooring to get at the subfloor underneath. I groan, mildly embarrassed.
“Why’d you choose now to send me a sex tape?”
Cambria busts out laughing. “It only just came through? I sent that before we left the house this morning and figured you were mad, so I was giving you some space before I apologized. If it makes you feel better, I acknowledge I should have asked first, so I deleted it immediately after sending so that you’d have the only copy. You can delete it if you want and pretend it never happened.” She slips her phone out of her pocket and offers it to me. “You can even check that I’m not lying.”
I don’t take her phone and Atlas is snickering at my expense. “You got it when that stuffy old guy was standing there, didn’t you?”
I nod once sharply. I’m not a prude by any means, but I’m not as open as Cambria is with all of this stuff. All of my experience has been behind closed doors and I’ve never done something like this before. I’m not mad at her. Honestly, it’ll probably be part of my nightly routine for a while. I was just blindsided and that always leaves me a little unsettled.
Cambria senses my discomfort and frowns. “I’m sorry, Dorian, I really should have checked first. I just thought it’d be a fun gift, but I forget humans aren’t as open as I am. I’ll do better.”
I crouch down and kiss her. “It was fantastic and I am one hundred percent on board with filling my computer with Cambria featured porn. I was just caught off guard, but I should expect you to always keep me on my toes.” I straighten up and smile down at her. “Maybe give me a heads up next time first though? What if I had said something embarrassing?”
She sighs in relief. “Then you could watch it on repeat and cringe for the next twenty years or edit it out? How about next time I get a maybe not so brilliant idea, I run it by Atlas or Lucien first to make sure it’s not going too far?”
She stretches her hand up in offering and I shake it before pulling her to her feet. “Sounds like a deal. I better get back to cleaning if we want any hope of making progress today.”
Atlas snorts. “Yeah sure. Cleaning. We all know you’re going upstairs to watch the full video and jack off ‘till you black out.”
I leave the room laughing, feeling far better than when I walked in.
I wasn’t planning to before, but I could spare twenty minutes.
