“What. Is. The. Problem?” he bit out.
“The problem is I don’t understand why we actually have to have sex. I’m not sure youwantto do it. And it wasn’t in our original contract.” I tilted my head, my hair brushing across the thick wooden door behind me. Something in my stomach twisted. I wanted Cade, but not like this, not frost lining his skin and a look of terror hiding beneath the anger on his face.
“I’ll pay you more money,” Cade said.
I laughed. “I am not some GI Joe at the Goodwill. I donothave a price tag on the bottom of my foot.”
I tried to catch his eyes, but he looked away.
“How much will it cost?” he asked insistently.
I stared at him before shaking my head. “How much will it costyou?”
He blew out a breath, ruffling his bangs. “That’s what I’m trying to figure out. Will another five hundred thousand do it?”
“Cade…” I trailed off, not even sure what my next move was going to be.
“More?” He opened and closed his hands at his sides. “How much?”
“I don’t mean how muchmoneyit will cost you,” I said. Petrona and Cade were both thinking about one moment from the meeting: Cade had flinched away from me.
It had been fast, and everyone else had been focused on me, but I had seen it, and apparently, Petrona had too.
I stepped forward, and Cade took a half step back before firming his stance. Reaching out with my hand, I nodded at him. “It’s about the fact that you don’t want me to touch you.”
“I’ll be fine.” Cade shook his head. “Let’s just get on with it.”
“Cade. If we have sex, I don’t want it to be the sort of thing that youjust get on with.” I took in the rapid flutter of his heart at his neck, the rise and fall of his chest, the flicker of tattoo that appeared at the cuff of his shirt before disappearing again. “You weren’t willing to take one for the team. That’s why you hired me instead of getting a real consort. And I don’t have sex with people who aren’t interested in having it with me. There’s more than enough regrets in my life. I don’t like adding that one.”
“I need to get used to you,” Cade said sharply. “People have noticed we don’t touch or smell like sex. One of the other counselors was talking to their werewolf before the meeting this morning. They mentioned to me that after a passionate courtship, sometimes things… decrease in the bedroom. They offered metips.”
“What?” I gawked, my mouth working for a moment before I shut it. I had no idea what I was going to say.
“We’ll do this. And likely need to do it again.” Cade looked behind me at the door. “You saw how they are. The last thing I need is it getting around that we aren’t having any sex.”
I blew air out, digging my hands into my hair. “Why does it matter? Why would it even be remotely important?”
Cade looked at me, his head tilted. “Because of the magic.”
“What?” I blinked at him, feeling as though I’d missed some key points.
“It’s hard to explain without explaining the whole of it.” When I opened my mouth to protest, Cade held up a hand. “I can’t. I’ll tell you everything I can, but it’s… Revealing this would be revealing the deepest secrets of magecraft.”
Cade walked toward the window that he had broken earlier, looking out over the grounds. He put his palm against the glass.
I came up behind him, making enough noise that I wouldn’t startle him. Still, his shoulders rose before he forced them back down.
“There are two relationships in a mage’s life: a spouse and, if he has the ability, a consort. Your spouse is for political gain and offspring. Sometimes affection, but love is fickle. The benefits of marrying for money or power last for the entire relationship. A spouse is always opposite sex, regardless of preference.” Cade’s tone was flat, and he withdrew his hand from the window, clasping it behind him. I saw his fingers twitch.
I fought the urge to reach out and touch him, to brush my forefinger over the soft flesh of his palm. I had good evidence that wouldn’t actually help him relax.
“And the consort?” I asked.
“The consort is a sign of your magical ability. Back when consorts were slaves—” He seemed to choke out the word, swallowing before continuing. “—it showed your magical prowess to be able to subjugate another person, especially one as strong as a werewolf. When it became obvious how immoral slavery was, a consort was taken more for affection. The ability to keep another safe, to give them the powers to keep themselves safe, that was seen as magical strength.”
“Why are most consorts same-sex partnerships?” I asked because I had done the math, and with the exception of one, all of the consorts here were same-sex. I’d never noticed it in the real world because consorts were falling out of fashion, and freelance mages didn’t usually take a consort anyway.
“Offspring,” Cade said shortly. “The last thing anyone wants is a mage pregnant by a werewolf or the opposite.”
