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Oh, for the love of Hades, Ere thought with a roll of his eyes.
Begrudgingly, he reached down to scratch the mutt behind his ears, making him moan with doggy abandon.
“You lot stay back in the shadows,” Divina instructed the centaurs.
She gestured to the back of an alehouse across the paved stone street from the bath hall.
“When I call your name, come forth. But only when I call for you.”
“Need any help?” Ere asked, folding his arms and quirking a corner of his mouth.
Chewie butted up next to his leg and leaned heavily against him, silently begging for more petting.
Ere toed him in the belly to nudge him aside, but the pup wasn’t having it. He simply heaved all of his weight on top of Ere’s foot, trapping him beneath all that warm, luxurious fur.
Divina snorted.
Ere wasn’t sure if she was besmirching his offer of help or laughing at the grudging yet obvious affection he had for her dog.
“You know the answer to that, you sexy devil,” she said. “Even if you aren’t attracted to girls, I’m certain Sorin would take exception to your being surrounded by two dozen naked women.”
Ere slanted a look at his Mate to check on this assumption.
Sorin looked steadily back at him, his face giving nothing away.
The enigmatic, gorgeous male.
Ere wanted to pant at him the way Chewie panted at Ere.
“Besides,” Divina added, “you’re too beautiful. I don’t want the girls to take one look at you and start wishing for the moon. Let me work it. I know what I’m doing.”
With that, she disappeared inside the bath hall.
Damn.
Divina was starting to grow on him, Ere acknowledged reluctantly. It was hard to dislike a beautiful woman who called him “sexy devil.”
He stayed back with Sorin, Chiron and Andros, slightly apart from the others. After all, none ofthemwere on the “marriage mart.” Divina didn’t want the girls to be distracted by their presence.
Before long, she came back out with the first girl.
Even in the burnished glow of dusk, Ere could see the deep blush that darkened the female’s olive skin.
Divina stopped short of the place where the centaurs waited, called one of their names—how did she remember them all?—and he came forth from the shadows, looking as painfully shy as the human female did.
Ere couldn’t make out what Divina said as she stood between them, putting the girl’s small hand in the centaur male’s much larger one. He could only hear her low, soothing tones.
After a few minutes, and at Divina’s reminder, the male reached into a fold of his tunic and withdrew a beaded bracelet. It was only a cheap little charm, which Ere had bought in bulk at a seller’s stand. But it did its trick, apparently, for the girl’s face brightened with pleasure. She looked up at the centaur male as if he’d just hung the moon and stars for her.
Wow.
What exactly was Divina peddling over there? Did she somehow convince the girl that bracelet was made of diamonds and gems instead of dried, painted beans?
Whatever it was, she definitely wove some kind of magic around the couples, one after the other. For they each went away as if walking on clouds, their bodies leaning toward each other. Practically vibrating to get closer. Wanting to mate.
“Huh,” Ere muttered as he observed the unbelievable scene unfold before him, each centaur male getting paired off with a willing, blushing virgin.
Sorin came to stand next to him, arms also crossed over his massive chest. Sorin’s massive chest, that was. Not Ere’s.
