Inkiri’s sexy smile was to die for, and it was all mine.
Chapter 19
We left our room for dinner maybe half an hour later. I wasn’t sore exactly, but even with my supreme pillow princess energy, there was no way I could take Inkiri’s barb twice in less than an hour and not feel it. It was pleasure pain though, as I assured him when I put on my pants with a wince.
He rubbed my back as we opened the door to our room and headed toward the stairs. The walls up here were white except for where Kinnek had created some fantasy scene or something from Aër. Sometimes I couldn’t tell the difference. Just where the stairs started, my eyes were always drawn to a ladybug he’d painted on there. He’d told me once that it meant luck.
“Sadir, we can go soak after dinner. The warm water might help.”
I kept a straight face and gingerly put one foot on the step below. “That would be nice. Uh, your brother isn’t going to soak with us, right?”
Inkiri clicked. “He might want to. I’ll go and see if Nokim needs my help in the kitchen before I find Zeddira.” He overtook me, but stopped a few steps below when our eyes were level. “You relax.”
“Okay, I can do that.” Relaxing was one of my more sharply developed skills, after all.
I made my way to the bottom of the stairs, and from there I wandered into the living room.
The room was spacious and had low couches, which I knew my guys liked. It was an Aër thing more than an Earth one. Piled in a corner next to an indoor lemon tree that soaked up the light from the large window were a bunch of floor cushions.
The large window and the fact that it was south-facing also meant Kinnek’s paintings could really let their colors shine. The walls were full of his art, for once contained on canvas or paper rather than living on the walls directly. He’d painted humans as if he’d learned to look past the differences with the tip of his paint brushes and pencils, but there were landscapes and abstract, playful images as well. I liked those. Every time I looked at them, I found something new, a swirl or edge that I hadn’t really seen before.
But Kinnek’s art wasn’t the most interesting sight in the living room today. Vergis sat on the couch. Three of the bagu guests were literally sitting at his feet on the floor cushions my guys preferred to the couches sometimes, two of the bagua in black, one in taupe. The interpreter was by the wall filled with bookshelves, going through a volume, fingers turning the pages reverently. He and Vergis both looked up at me, and I froze like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Hi,” I said.
“You need my help?” Vergis grumbled.
“Uhm, no, Ink just told me to park myself on the couch.”
Vergis frowned and glared while the interpreter tilted his head. “You mean, you are going to sit?” He closed the book. Just like Fellisse or Nokim when I’d first met them, his accent was far more pronounced, but I liked how it made the English sound smoother and rounder in places. “Might I perhaps join you, sir?”
I shrugged and headed over to one of the three couches, not the one Vergis was sitting on. He radiated mild murderous intent, and I wasn’t as eager to be in the splatter zone as the three bagua at his feet.
“Sure, but you don’t have to call me ‘sir.’ That’s weird. Just call me Rory. What’s your name?”
The interpreter beamed. He was still clutching the book as he sat some good two arms’ lengths away from me.
“I’m Luëris. Of House Livim, originally.”
I glanced over to Vergis and his newfound entourage. The three bagua clicked softly. Vergis ignored them. Your fault, he mouthed at me.
When was it ever not?
“Cool,” I said to Luëris.
He tilted his head. “Are you asking about House Livim? I can assure you, the grounds are quite comfortable, even in the cold season. But it is very nice at this time of year, although I don’t mind admitting that I prefer it during the second planting season. You should come and visit, Rory.” He inched a bit closer. “I would be happy to show you around myself. It really is a beautiful place, the Asshar mountains almost as close as Volkon Lake.”
I fumbled with my friendship bracelet absentmindedly. The place did sound interesting, and I was kind of curious to meet Inkiri’s dads, the ones he exchanged cordial letters with. Then again, I wasn’t sure whether Luëris would think I’d accepted the invite if I said it sounded interesting, and then I didn’t know if that would put Inkiri in an awkward position.
Essentially, I wasn’t sure how to talk to Luëris without putting my foot in it. Story of my life, really.
I settled on: “I’ll have to talk with Inkiri about that.”
Luëris tilted his head this way and that. “Does your mate desire to have a say in where you go, Rory?”
Something told me I was potentially getting Inkiri in trouble. Well, there was my foot, going right in it.
“What he means is, he likes his mate to talk with our sentenmen first,” Vergis said. “Some humans have a funny little habit of doing that before accepting such kind invitations as you extend, Luëris.”
