“Thanks bunches!” As she announced it, she whipped her top up, exposing a rather full set of breasts with pierced, dark nipples.
“Oh, good gods! Please put those away, miss!” Marquis fumbled and hit the gas, zooming off.
Mads sat there with wide eyes and pursed lips. “Did you pay her to whip her tits out?”
“It said coffee! I ordered coffee.”
“That was a big tip for only coffee…” Mads took a sip of the concoction and noticed writing on the cup. He squinted at it. “Bikini Babe Baristas. Ten for a flash, twenty for a bounce.”
“What?” Marquis didn’t look at his cup, fingers clutching the wheel.
“Yeah, you paid her to show her tits.” Mads snorted, the half chuckle caught in his throat, making him choke on his coffee drink. The coughing led to full-on laughter.
“I most certainly did not!”
“Says on the cup. Ten for a flash.” Mads took a long draw of the sweet and bitter concoction. It wasn’t that bad. Delicious, even. The laughter made it better.
“Anyways, I’m calling Rexford to give him an update.” Marquis cleared his throat.
“Be sure to tell him you took me to a titty coffee place and paid for me to see boobs.” Mads beamed.
“I’ll wait to make the call, then. And I did not pay her to see her breasts! I would have paid twenty for her to keep the top on.” He cleared his throat.
“What would you pay to see my tits? Eh?” Mads lifted the edge of his shirt, and Marquis glanced over for a blink before focusing on the road.
“If I had to pay to see them, it would sully what we share. But suffice it to say, there were days in my life I would have given every penny I owned to see you or yourtitsonce again.” Marquis wilted in his seat. Always the perfect gentleman.
And all those years ago, Mads had chosen not to leave, and he didn’t regret it.
Even if he’d lived through hell.
Chapter Seven
Marquis
Always. Bad things always came in threes.
One thing they hadn’t accounted for when Mads had revealed Midnite’s true name was it breaking the hold the fae had and his family recalling his true name. This, combined with some sleuthing on his mother’s part, had her calling and screaming at Roan Greymorning until he had agreed to facilitate a meeting on the grounds that she keep her opinions to herself. Sexuality to mages was not some binary they could categorize as gay, straight or other. Also, Roan wanted her memory wiped or modified. Best idea he could have ever come up with.
In addition, one of their mages, Tack, had an issue with his wand that Rexford couldn’t fix. So, his presence was necessary on two counts. On top of it all? Mads was growing depressed. Dr. Vans had made it clear that it wasn’t anything Marquis was doing wrong or a side effect of the long-term manipulation. It was distance from his mate and being trapped in their facility. So, he wanted to speak to Marquis and propose Mads travel with him.
As he arrived at the facility that morning, Dr. Vans waited for him at the entrance with a rather nervous expression slanted across his face.
“How did your tests go?” Marquis walked alongside him as the doctor led him toward his office.
“As you said, I was getting sick. They found some inflammation in places that could have become cancerous in time.” While not the death sentence for mages that it was for humans, it was still highly inconvenient. Vans was finding it out the hard way.
“And you’ve ceased whatever tinkering it was you were up to?” Marquis rocked on his heels before taking a seat.
“I have, but it cuts my research short a bit. It did leave me with a theory of something that might help Mads, though.” He cleared his throat nervously before staring at Marquis, begging the question.
“What is this proposal?” Marquis drummed his fingers on the desk as Dr. Vans went into a spiel about the need for a mate bond to be sanctified, that there were several ways, the most important and functional of which was estrus…
“No.” Marquis cut him off. “You’re suggesting I spend a heat with him when we barely know one another anymore.”
“Yeah, well, I’m out of ideas at this point. There’s nothing that will fix his trauma. Magic only goes so far. He doesn’t have innate magic anymore. There’s no shifted form. There’s nothing yet. I don’t know if there ever will be. It’s infuriating.” Dr. Vans stared Marquis down with tented fingers.
“What are the pros to this?” Marquis leaned back, part of his horny man-pig brain entertaining the idea.
