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I trailed a fingernail down the curve of his ear, behind to the velvety hollow beneath the lobe. “Playing the regret card? So far I haven’t managed to shake you. I don’t see it happening soon.”
“Be careful what you wish for,” he murmured, our lips a breath apart. I knew he wouldn’t strain our relationship by kissing me, but he tempted me to break my own rules. Each time he gave in, coaxed me into special dispensations, gave me fewer reasons to stand by them.I can change the rules for this moment and then get them back into place.But the victory that kept him from seducing me entirely had been hard-won. I’d tricked him—which was excessively difficult—and I was unlikely to do it ever again. Especially when it came to this arena.
Still.
I leaned in closer.
“I havethemost splitting headache!” Starling declared from the other room, the level of her voice unlikely for a headache sufferer. I nearly fell into Rogue. Would have, if he hadn’t steadied me with that firm grip on my waist. Starling rounded the corner. “Oops!”
She smiled an impish grin and curtseyed. “Excuse me, Lord Rogue. I didn’t expect to find you here.”
She was a terrible liar and I glared at her. She beamed innocently at me in return. “Mama—Lady Blackbird—sent me to ask if you require anything. And to see if you needed help getting cleaned up and dressed, which clearly you do, since you haven’t done it yet.”
“I’ll just excuse myself, shall I? Since you insist on attending this feast, though I’d just as soon have meals sent up so we could stay…closeted.” Rogue winked at me and slid a casual hand from my hip to my bottom. “I picked out a dress for you.”
“I might not wear it.”
He smiled knowingly. “Yes, you will.”
Chapter 11
In Which I Obtain aClue
‡
The flora and fauna appear to be a conglomeration of the life forms recognizable from my world, that generally follow the same laws of form and function, and then wild variations that should be physically impossible. Certainly they do not seem to proceed from the same evolutionary path. It’s as if natural law here has been subverted by another, more powerful,force.
~Big Book of Fairyland, “Rules ofMagic”
Starling watched himleave the room with a little lustful sigh.
“You are the worst lady—in-waiting ever.”
She grinned at me. “I love you too, Gwynn.”
I snorted, oddly flustered by her affectionate rejoinder. Or maybe by her knowing leer.
“It’s lovely to see you two canoodling.”
“I really don’t want to know what image you had in your head for me to get the word that I did.”
She giggled. “Was it dirty?”
“Are you still drunk?”
“Gah—maybe a little. That beer knocked me on my ass. Tell me, did I promise Officer Sean to meet him later?”
“I have no earthly idea. I was busy while you were canoodling.”
She blanched. “Ooh—thatisdirty. I most assuredly was not doing that!”
“Neither was I.”
“You have to be either the most obstinate or the most disciplined woman in all the world.”
“Possibly both,” I agreed. “So? Bathing room, yes?”
“Bathing room, yes.” She wrinkled her nose. “You smell more like Felicity than she does.”
