“You have the best eyes,” Sebastian said unapologetically. “You can tell me what birds you can see.”
“I don’t have to set foot outside to tell you that. There will be gulls, who are as much of a menace as pigeons.”
“Pigeons aren’t menaces,” Sebastian predictably countered, starting to turn toward the door.
“Says the animal-loving menace himself.” Wesley caught Sebastian by the belt. “And here you could have said you want your own Bentley,” he said, as he pulled him closer. “Hell, after a kiss like that, I’d buy you the damn Bronx Zoo.”
Wesley kept his movements careful, almost gentle, so Sebastian could have easily escaped if he’d been spooked. But he was grinning, his body pliant and at ease with being manhandled across the stateroom—or, at least, at ease whenWesleymanhandled him, and perhaps Wesley alone. That thought went straight to the same reprehensibly atavistic part of Wesley’s brain that had preened over having the tattoo’s hidden lion to himself. Magic or not, Sebastian trusted him in ways he didn’t trust anyone else, and magic or not, it apparently still drove Wesley wild.
“The only thing I want is you,” Sebastian said, as helet Wesley tug him exactly where he wanted him, which was right into Wesley’s arms.
You already have that, and embarrassingly completely.Wesley didn’t say it, instead sliding his hands lower on Sebastian’s back. “Listen to you, trying to charm me. You know I’m not that easy.”
“Are you sure?” Sebastian twined his own arms around Wesley’s neck. “Because you just offered to buy me a zoo.”
“I think you just called me a sucker,” Wesley said. “It’s almost like you’re trying to goad me into throwing you down on this bed.”
“No, no, I am the innocent, remember?” Sebastian’s smile was a little wicked as he tilted his head back and chin up, so their lips were more aligned. “You besmirch my character.”
“I canbesmircha lot more than that—”
There was a polite knock on the door. Wesley sighed and let Sebastian go, stepping over to answer the door to reveal two young men in bellhop uniforms.
“My lord,” one of them said. “We have your luggage. Your hotel forwarded a cable from London. Made it just in time.” He held out a sealed envelope.
Sebastian moved to look out the large porthole as the bellhops carried in luggage. Wesley opened the envelope to find a cable from his second cousin, Geoffrey.
THORNTON INVITED ENTIRE CLUB TO BECKLEY BALL STOP ASKED IF YOU WILL BE HOME IN TIME STOP ASSUMING OF COURSE YOU ARE STILL ALIVE STOP IF YOU ARE DEAD HAVE THE COURTESY TO LET ME KNOW STOP
Lord Thornton’s ball at Beckley Park.
The Duke of Valemount would almost certainly be there, and now that they were unexpectedly aboard theGaston, he and Sebastian would arrive in England in time to attend.
Shit.
“Lord Fine?” Sebastian was looking at him with a furrowed brow as the bellhops placed Wesley’s trunk. “Everything all right?”
Wesley hastily tucked the cable back in the envelope like the craven coward he was. “Nothing important. Just Cousin Geoffrey being Geoffrey.”
He’d have to tell Sebastian what kind of ball it was. Of course he’d tell him.
Eventually.
* * *
After leaving Wesley’s stateroom, Sebastian followed him up the grand staircase to B-deck. Well-dressed first-class passengers, many with umbrellas, were clustered along the railings, some of them watching with impassive faces while others waved handkerchiefs at the pedestrians down below.
Itwascrowded, but they finally found a spot near a grouping of deck chairs on the ship’s port side. Sebastian pulled his coat closed for warmth, leaning on the railing as the engines deepened and vibrated, taking them away from the pier.
“Can you see Arthur and Rory anywhere?” Sebastian asked, craning his neck to view the other classes’ decks below.
“No.” Wesley was scanning the crowd. “Though I do recognize a pair of London’s top solicitors and a dowager who’s great friends with my third cousin.”
The ocean liner was making its way down the Hudson, passing Manhattan on the left. Sebastian was still keyed up from the rush of the day, the flurry of their unexpected departure. He took a breath of rain-tinged sea air, letting it fill his lungs. “Do you want to go talk to them?”
“Do I ever want to talk to anyone?” Wesley said dryly. “I’ll remain here, thank you. I’ll get more than my fill of others when we’re back in England.” He huffed. “One might reasonably have assumed all this paranormal lunacy would not include socializing, but apparently even magic can’t spare me from people and parties.”
Sebastian snorted. “Didn’t you mention a party at the Magnolia? It was a ball, I think you said—one you were sure the Duke of Valemount was attending?”
