Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
“Because, apparently, he isn’t open to it,” Cat answered for her.
“He doesn’t know I exist,” Gayle said miserably. “Okay, he does, since he’s been introduced to me. And he’s been cordial, but distant. To him, I’m just a female that’s important only because I’m your friend.”
“Not even a spark?” I queried.
She shook her head. “Not that I can tell.”
It was lucky I read up on mates because I’d learned just this.
Though, somewhere inside Cormac, he had to know, but perhaps due to all that was going on, he wasn’t tapping into it.
That said, Gayle felt it and…
Dang.
That had to sting.
“I’m so sorry, honey,” I whispered, reaching out to take her hand.
She squeezed it and said, “Now, I don’t know what to do. I can’t be me, a huge nobody, and walk up to a prince that will one day be a king and say, ‘Hey, we’re supposed to spend the rest of our lives together. You wanna start doing that now?’”
No, she couldn’t do that.
My attention drifted to the entrance to the alcove. “Maybe I can talk to Aleksei.”
“No!” Gayle cried.
I looked back to her.
“I don’t…I want it to happen like…” She shook her head. “He should figure it out himself.”
“But if Aleksei—”
“Aleksei knew right away,” she reminded me. “He called you to him, what? Maybe five minutes into us being at the club? And then you got Captain Jacques’s and after, all of this…”
She explained “this” by flitting her hand toward the ball, the Palace, and also my dress.
She ended with, “I want that, Laura. All of it.”
I couldn’t say I blamed her.
“All of it” was danged awesome.
Still.
“Cormac isn’t Aleksei,” I noted.
“Well, he better pull his head out of his magnificent, tight, muscular ass, or he’s going to have some groveling to do,” Cat decreed.
This was true, and in the romance novels, the groveling was the best part.
But Gayle looked no less miserable, which, of course, was why the male had to grovel. It just never occurred to me how miserable the female had to be to deserve it.
I didn’t want that for Gayle.
Alas, we could speak of it no longer, nor could I get into Tanyn with Cat, because Bash and Aleksei joined us carrying two piled-high plates between them, so we could all munch.
This we did, and it was good to have this fortification before Aleksei turned to me and said, “I’m sorry, love, but our respite is over. I’m afraid we have to mingle.”
Ugh.
I nodded, bid adieu to my friends, and Aleksei helped me out of the sofa, onto my aching feet and guided me into the ballroom.
I wanted to tell Aleksei about Cormac and Gayle, but I found right away he was correct.
The respite was over.
Beings were no longer ignoring us. We barely got two steps out of the antechamber before we were descended upon.
Commence nearly three hours where I learned the different, excruciating levels of foot pain and hoped my face didn’t space out as my mind tried to figure out how mad Lancet and Nata would be if I didn’t send this gown to the Catalogues, and instead burned it in the courtyard. It weighed a ton when I put it on, it began to feel like ten and growing as the night wore on.
Though, from the two-hundred and eleven (literally) compliments I had on it, and the number of pics taken of me in it by the varied royal and media photographers Germaine had working the event, it was a hit.
Making matters worse, I had to dance.
Doing it two times with Aleksei was sublime.
While he whirled me around the dance floor, my feet didn’t hurt a bit, and the gown felt like a cloud swirling around me.
He was an excellent dancer (of course) but having that alone time with him in a sea of people was a revelation. It was like a recharge to my flagging energy and the constant race to the limits of my endurance with the crowds, the conversations, the attention.
I made note of this too: be sure to take time with my mate, even if only a few minutes, just the two of us.
And then I could face anything.
The three times I had to dance with other people (a count named Hoyt who did business with Aleksei and also played in their ring ice league, a male I found I liked very much (he was also a vampire); an actor who laid it on so thick about how great my designs were, it was all kinds of sycophantic gross; and last, Sirk, who was another respite, because I was glad to see him, he was also an excellent dancer, and I was happy he didn’t seem too broken up about Gayle, since he was his normal gregarious, affectionate self and he’d brought a slyly elegant demon to the Masque as his date).