Florian nodded, still dizzy and relaxed. He was utterly spent and probably would not have been able to do much more than just lay there—though the thought of Kade fucking his mouth had a certain appeal—so the promise of more later was all at once comforting and arousing.
“I guess I should start unpacking then,” Florian managed, after taking a moment to catch his breath. Kade chuckled again from where his face pressed to Florian’s shoulder. Everything felt a little more normal at the sound of Kade’s soft laugh; strange and unfamiliar as everything was, Kade’s presence was grounding.
“I can unpack for us,” Kade teased, bringing him back to reality. “You shouldn’t keep Tatiana waiting.”
“It hasn’t been that long, has it?” Florian protested, only to groan as he glanced up at the clock. He had a bit of time still, but not as much as he thought. “Well, shit.”
“Go on,” Kade grinned, sitting up and pulling Florian with him. “Maybe clean up a little first. Try not to look like you just got a blowjob, you know?”
“And whose fault is that?” Florian countered, but couldn’t stop himself from laughing as he said it. He stumbled to his shaky feet and looked around for his long-since discarded underwear.
He ended up being only a few minutes late, though at first glance he didn’t see Tatiana in the library.
“Is that you, Florian?” her voice called out from behind one of the bookshelves, somewhere further into the room.
“I’m here,” he answered, and the woman stepped out to meet him. “Sorry I’m late.”
“I didn’t even notice,” she said, waving her hand as she sat down at one of the tables. Florian sat across from her. “Not much has happened, so I don’t think this will need to take too long. But I made sure everything from the funeral and the coronation ceremony was paid, so all the invoices are taken care of.”
Florian nodded uncomfortably. “Anything you need me to take care of?”
Tatiana shook her head. “Not exactly. Though I think it would help morale if you held some kind of dinner party while you were still here. Everyone in town is fairly used to the king being gone for stretches of time, but I think they’d like to start getting to know you better, too. Nothing major, we could invite just the heads of the main families.”
He managed to stifle the groan that the words elicited in him before it could escape his throat. She wasn’t wrong, of course; but he was antsy to leave the Winter Court, and this would only be another delay.
“Okay,” he relented, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. “Tomorrow, maybe?”
“We can do that,” Tatiana agreed, scribbling down a note on a stack of papers in front of her. “I know you don’t mean to stay long, but I think it would help assuage everyone. There’s no unrest, or at least not anything concerning, but I think a bit of return to normalcy will help quite a bit.”
“I understand,” he said.
“And... I wanted to ask you something maybe a bit more personal,” she said slowly. Florian glanced at her with apprehension, but the moment their eyes met he was absolutely certain that she was going to ask about him and Kade. “I was wondering if you—”
“Ugh, yes,” he groaned, pressing his hands to his face. “God, everyone keeps asking us. Is it that obvious?”
Tatiana blinked owlishly at him for a moment, then a slow, hesitant smile spread across her face. “Well, ah, I was going to ask if you’d been sleeping alright. You look tired.”
Instantly, Florian’s face was burning hot with embarrassment. “Oh,” he muttered, looking down at his feet. “Um, I mean—well, a little, but not really. But it’s okay. I’m okay.”
He couldn’t bring himself to look back up at Tatiana; but thankfully when she spoke again, her voice sounded nearly as awkward as he felt. “I’ll have one of the spectral servants bring you some tea before bed. It’s been helping me sleep at night. Goodness knows you need it more than I do.”
He could only nod, eyes still locked on his feet. Whatever she might have thought about him and Kade, he had certainly given it away now.
“Did, um... Did you mean you and Kade?” she asked lightly, and miserably he nodded again. “I see. Well, I had considered the possibility, but...”
There was a beat of silence, then to Florian’s surprise, something like a giggle broke the tension between them.
“You know, when Kade first moved here,” Tatiana began, and when Florian managed to look up at her, she had a hand pressed to her face in a vain attempt to cover a smile. “Jerah used to tell me he hoped Kade would find someone here, hoping one of the fae in the village might catch his eye, because a marriage between us and the wolf kingdom would only help things. So I can only imagine he’d approve.”
Florian shifted uncomfortably, but still managed to smile nervously in return. Jerah had teased him more than once about his and Kade’s dynamic; he was sure Tatiana was right. Maybe he had even suspected more between them than he had let on. “I mean—I wouldn’t say anything is that serious—but, you know. We get along pretty well, so...” He shrugged and looked away. “I don’t know if you had his old room set up, but, um, he’s probably just going to stay with me in my new room.”
An amused grin crossed her face. “That’s fine.”
“Is, um, is that all?”
Tatiana pursed her lips slightly, considering. “I did want to ask if you had an idea of how long you’d be staying, what your plans are for now. I understand you still want to go see this witch?”
“Yes,” Florian said, nodding in relief now that the conversation had moved on. “I was thinking we could stay a few days. Enough to rest a bit and figure out how to get there, and then head out.” He paused—it occurred to him that he hadn’t asked Tatiana if she knew anything about the hag, or about why Jerah had wanted to go see her in the first place. “Do you... know anything about her? The hag? We’re not entirely sure how to find her.”
