“You want to stay?” she burst out in disbelief.
“Not
want
to. Or not exactly. But I’m not sure we have a choice. That king fellow isn’t going to let you go. He thinks you’re his mate in blood. His friend claims you two need to have frequent sex, like it’s an addiction.”
“People recover from addictions.”
“Yes,” he said. “But until we figure out how to get out of here, we might have to play along.”
“It wouldn’t just be play. These people make us feel things.”
“I know,” he said.
They looked at each other. She watched his pulse throb at the side of his neck, just like her own was doing. This, at last, frightened them.
“I love you,” he said huskily. “Nothing that’s happened can change that.”
“Even knowing I’ve been with another man?”
“Even that. I wish -” Her husband’s voice sank lower. “I wish I’d seen you with him. I wish I’d been there to help.”
This confession plain stunned her. James wanted to watch another man fuck her? A second pulse started thudding between her legs, where her clit was palpably swelling.
Her amazement must have been apparent. James’s hazel eyes turned shy.
“Wouldn’t you have wanted to watch Ty go down on me?” He called the man by his name, and that startled her as well. She ordered herself to be as honest as James had been. “Yes,” she said. “When he kissed you at the beach, when I saw how much you enjoyed it, my body was excited.”
“Then maybe we can get through this. This place is pretty amazing.” Genuine amusement rose in her. “My adventurer.”
“You’re one too, or you wouldn’t have married me.” She stroked both sides of his face, his hint of dark afternoon bristle rasping her fingertips. One of them had to think like an accountant. Set terms and things like that. “We don’t let them separate us.”
“No,” he agreed.
“And we get a message to Violet ASAP, enough to keep her from worrying.”
“They have computers here. Maybe we can connect to the internet.” Olivia’s heart fluttered, the emotional drag of fear changing to excitement.
Had they really decided to do this? James’s hands tightened on her upper arms.
The sudden light in his eyes kicked her pulse faster.
“God,” he groaned. “I would kill to fuck you right now.” His words weren’t an exact match for Anso’s from earlier, just close enough to send a shiver skipping like a pebble along her spine.
* * *
including an array of sushi.
Anso poured wine for everyone, seeming to enjoy playing host. “You have to have wine with fish,” he said, a smile playing around his mouth as he noted James’s surprise. “If the fish finds too much water in your stomach, he might start swimming around again.”
It occurred to James that the king might be trying to get them drunk, but apart from his joke, he didn’t push the alcohol. Anso and Ty both were well mannered eaters, and apparently familiar with lots of forks. Neither was shy about digging in while their “guests” were still studying the offerings.
“Weres have fast metabolisms,” Anso explained politely. “Yours are likely to increase as well. Both of you easily accepted the changes required to breathe water.”
Because Anso was being civilized, James decided he could too. “Genetic changes, you mean. Do wereseals transmit a virus through saliva?”
And will it wear off
? he wondered privately.
Anso offered Ty half the lobster meat from his claw. Ty accepted it without fuss, demonstrating that these two were indeed long-time companions. A sensation James didn’t want to identify tightened in his chest.
His friend’s stomach taken care of, Anso addressed James’s question. “Our mages and scientists have tried to pin down the factor that causes the partial change, but neither has succeeded. We do know only royals can pass it on. It’s been used a time or two to verify a particular king or queen’s bloodline.” Olivia sat beside James, as Ty sat beside Anso. She scooped some red caviar and sour cream onto a cracker and slid it onto James’s plate. His eyes widened, but he didn’t think she was consciously echoing the king’s gesture with the lobster, just being her usual thoughtful self. Oddly disconcerted, James spun the loaded cracker in a circle.
“If you -” He stopped, momentarily unable to push the question out. “If you and Olivia had a child ...”
The king’s deep blue gaze settled quietly on his. “The child would be a were, fully royal in every way. Another of the mysteries we’re unable to explain.” Rocked by that answer, James took a swallow of the pale yellow wine. It was light and delicious, the product of a grape he couldn’t identify. It managed to oil his brain into working.
What would he and Olivia do if she was pregnant by the time they escaped?
Raise the child in seclusion? Keep it in a bathtub? Would they even be able to figure out what wereseals needed to grow up? Would the baby look human when it was born?
Something of his thoughts must have shown in his face.
“She’s not pregnant,” Anso said, setting down his own wineglass. “I can read her energy. I’ll know the instant it happens.”
Now James heard a male challenge in his voice, and no small amount of royal pride. James supposed he’d chapped Anso’s ego when he’d said Olivia was still his.
“I
am
in my forties,” Olivia put in. “Me having a baby might not be possible.”
“It
is
possible,” Anso said, turning stern eyes to her. “In truth, the ideal age for conceiving among our people is fifty or later. To breed before one is thirty is considered scandalous.”
“But I’m not
your people
,” Olivia pointed out.
James didn’t think she meant to hurt him, but the king appeared taken aback by this statement.
“Oh boy.” Ty laughed into his napkin.
“You have something to add?” Olivia asked him in the cool voice she’d invented for Violet’s teenage rebellion stage.
Ty stopped laughing, but his eyes sparkled. “Only that you are his people. No one more so in the whole universe.”
“Ty,” Anso said warningly. “Give Olivia a chance to adjust.”
“Adjust to what?” she huffed.
The currents in the room had definitely gotten strange. The king looked vaguely guilty, while Ty seemed both bitter and amused. Anso frowned at his friend, which caused him to guffaw outright.
The warm rolling sound made James’s cock twitch inside his pirate pants.
“Adjust to what?” Olivia repeated.
“Ty only means you need not have health concerns. Living in Oceana is beneficial for most humans.”
Anso wasn’t lying, but he wasn’t telling the entire truth. Twenty-five years in business had tuned James’s antenna for evasions. He reached under the table to squeeze Olivia’s hand. As was usually the case, she squeezed him back and calmed. They’d always steadied each other.
“I’m not forgetting this conversation,” she said evenly to the king.
Someone rapped lightly on the door to the dining room. The king gave his man, Harrison, the okay to come in. Unlike the other men, the butler was resplendent in a black and white penguin suit. Thinking the term more appropriate here than ever, James smiled softly to himself.
“Sire,” said the butler. “I’m afraid there’s been a ... leakage of information in the kitchens. The dessert course has arrived early, and Lady Ellice has come with it.”
“Shit,” said the king, which implied Lady Ellice wasn’t a welcome guest.
“Can’t you get rid of her?”
“I can, sire. However -” If possible, the butler looked even more constipated.
“You need to inform me if the judicious use of force is permissible. When I tried to guide her away before, she clung to the doorway.”
“Good Lord!” Anso exclaimed as Tykon once again burst out laughing. Anso spun to him. “This isn’t funny. Ellice must have lost her mind.”
“Ellice is too smart to lose her mind.” Ty’s sardonic manner served nearly the same function as his laugh. “She’s just guessed your iron is hot, and now is the time to strike.”
Anso’s bluffly handsome face turned pink. “My iron is spoken for!”
“She doesn’t know that,” Ty said.
“Crap,” Anso said, then turned resignedly to Olivia. She was watching all this with interest. “I’m sorry. I had intended to ... to ...”
“- have time to sort things out?” Ty archly suggested.
“Yes, to have time to sort things out between ... all of us ... before news of your existence became public. Unfortunately, my cousin Ellice cannot - at least not decently - be manhandled out of here by my butler. I need to receive her. You should feel free to withdraw to the other room.” This last was said hopefully. James rolled his lips together to hide his smile.
Olivia might be shy, but she was no doormat. No way would she make Anso’s life that easy.
“I’d rather stay,” she said demurely, her hands folded like a schoolteacher’s on the table. “I’m sure it would be an honor to meet your relatives.” Anso heaved a weary sigh. “Fine. Just, please, don’t pay Ellice too much mind. Your position is unassailable, as is ... as is the respect with which I already regard you.”
James suspected he and Olivia wore matching expressions of surprise.
Naturally, Olivia deserved admiration. Olivia was awesome. The thing was, neither of them expected the king to be professing
respect
for her. Ty didn’t either. His golden lashes blinked rapidly in front of his yellow eyes.
* * *
It was hard to respect a man who fell for that kind of thing.
Unaware she’d been seen through, Ellice tinkled out a bunch of baloney about how surprised she was that Anso would disappear without telling anyone. He
knew
he was supposed to file travel plans!
And
take a proper vehicle. Did he think this was the middle ages to be swimming God knew where under his own power?
It was barely spring outside. She was
so
glad he’d returned safely, and wasn’t it nice of the royal kitchens to help her prepare his favorite dessert for him?
That nonsense delivered, Lady Ellice got down to the brass tacks of what she’d come for: discovering why the hell another female was sitting at the king’s table.
“I don’t believe we’ve met,” Lady Ellice said, holding out an elegant hand to her. Anso’s cousin was taller and curvier than Olivia, but also very strong. Her sleeveless yet vaguely Victorian gown bared arms that could have competed in Olympic sports. Her eyes were the same gorgeous blue as Anso’s - a family trait, she presumed. Despite her apparent strength, her skin was delicate enough to look translucent.
Olivia was childishly pleased her fingernails were currently in good shape.
They got ragged if she neglected them. Accustomed to shaking hands with men, she gave Lady Ellice a firm but not over-assertive grip. “I’m Olivia. I’m a guest of King Anso.”
“And a mundane,” Lady Ellice observed, using the term Anso had warned her was insulting. “That’s ... extremely interesting. His Majesty didn’t tell me he wanted to meet Outsiders.”
It was too bad this wasn’t a soap opera. Olivia would have asked Ellice if
she’d
have offered to introduce him to some.
“Olivia is being modest,” Anso said.
They’d all risen for his cousin’s entrance, and somehow none of them had sat again. Olivia suspected that would be too much like letting down their guard around his relative. Anso was standing a foot from Olivia. As he spoke, he took her hand. Olivia met the subtle question in his eyes with an equally subtle nod.
She’d back his play if he wanted to make one. James would want her to. He’d never liked fake people.
Satisfied, Anso turned back to Ellice and dropped his bomb. “Olivia is my mate.”
“
What
?” Ellice’s horrified expression was the first honest one she’d displayed.
“She can’t be. She and this other mundane are married. They’re wearing matching rings! I assumed you’d tired of balling Ty and brought her here to play with.” Olivia gave the woman credit for deductive reasoning - minus a couple debits for not watching her tongue better. Without looking away from Ellice, Anso’s thumb caressed Olivia’s knuckles.
“You’re my cousin,” he said calmly. “And royal in your own right.
Nonetheless, it isn’t proper for you to speak of your queen that way.”
“My queen!” Ellice was sputtering with anger. “Never!”
“Our union has been consummated. It cannot be annulled.” Olivia hadn’t known this, and it gave her a turn. She’d thought there had to be a ceremony - a ritual exchange of sardines at least. James hand came to brace the small of her back from the other side. The gesture was small, but Ellice noticed it.
“She’s married,” she repeated, her eyes pleading for him to concede her point.
“Similar cases have occurred in the course of our history. You know as well as I do that blood law rules supreme.”
“But why would you mate a married woman?” Ellice’s confusion seemed sincere. “You saw what happened between your mother and your father, and your mother’s affections were free to give. Don’t you want a queen who loves you?” Whether Ellice loved Anso as much as she loved the idea of ruling was questionable. All the same, she knew him well enough that her question struck a nerve. Anso flinched, his hand jerking slightly in Olivia’s.
“I shall love Olivia enough for both of us,” he said.
His dignity - or perhaps it was humility - astonished Olivia. The way he pulled himself straighter and met his cousin’s gaze caused her throat to tighten. But she couldn’t promise to love him. That would make her as false as Ellice. She wasn’t even planning to stay. She squeezed Anso’s fingers instead, oddly comforted when his squeezed hers in answer.
“You’re crazy,” Ellice said. “And this isn’t over.” That made Olivia smile, because it was precisely the parting shot a good soap opera villainess would fire off. Ellice’s sharp eyes caught the flicker of movement at the corners of Olivia’s mouth. She stopped and stared hard at her. Olivia just knew the other woman wanted to warn her not to get too comfortable.