Page 107 of The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy

Then, just as he pushed her against the wall of the grotto, and shells dug into her back, and she wrapped a leg around his waist, her tacn stung. With effort, Aurienne drew away from Mordaunt and looked at her palm. It took her a moment to understand what was happening through the fog of feel-good hormones. A very impatient deofol was asking to come through.

“Fria, whynow?” breathed Aurienne.

Mordaunt, breathing heavily himself, asked, “What is it?”

The deofol buzzed at Aurienne’s tacn again so fiercely it hurt.

“S-sorry,” said Aurienne. “Cath’s deofol. I’d better let it through.”

“You’re joking.”

They pulled apart. Aurienne dragged the dressing gown into a semblance of decency. Mordaunt, red mouthed, tousle haired, backed farther into the grotto as Cath’s deofol, an enormous, impatient wasp, materialised.

“Gods,” said Aurienne, shaking her sore hand. “Will you never learn to be gentle?”

“No,” said the wasp. “Cath’s got an urgent case. Replantation of a severed arm. Patient is a Leyfarer. Tripped next to his craft’s propeller. Will you come?”

Aurienne had no choice. A civilian losing the use of their seith was one thing; a Leyfarer losing his tacn was quite another. “I’ll return to Swanstone at once.”

“Why are you in a cave?” asked the wasp, swivelling her triangular head around.

“I’m—sightseeing,” said Aurienne.

The wasp’s antennae twitched her way and took in her borrowed attire. “And why are you dressed like an auntie with rheumatism?”

“Erm—”

The wasp buzzed closer to Aurienne’s face. “You look like you’ve just been snogged to within an inch of your life.”

“Don’t be silly. Tell Cath I’m on my way.”

“What a perfectly torrid scene,” said the wasp. “I can’t wait to hear the details.”

With a final obnoxious buzz, she spun into nothingness.

Aurienne leaned against the wall of the grotto with a sigh. The sigh came from deep within—not from her lungs, but from disappointment.

Mordaunt reappeared.

“I’m so sorry,” said Aurienne. “I’ve got to go.”

“I know.”

“I can’t be irresponsible, after all.”

“It’s all right.”

“I shouldn’t have done that,” said Aurienne, with a general gesture at everything. The flirting, the kisses, Mordaunt.

“Why did you do it?” he asked.

“Because I would have been miserable if I hadn’t.”

“And what are you now?”

“Miserable anyway,” said Aurienne. “That’s the problem with entertaining things that could never be.”

Mordaunt was pained and silent.