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He chuckled as his hands roamed until they landed on my ass. He used his leverage to pull my pelvis against his. I rocked my hips as he groaned. “That sounds like a good plan. I just walked through the whole place. There’s maybe five people here. We could be quiet.”
Gods, this man. I wanted him so badly.
And yet, I was plagued by the issue of sleeping with two men at once. Yeah, they both seemed fine with it, but my mind wasn’t fine with it at all.
And then Adair...
Still, even in my hesitation, my lips went to his neck, and I played the game of turning him on, which took less than two seconds. The bulge in his pants rubbed against my core and I nearly came right there, pants on, not a piece of clothing removed.
“Gods, the way you move. I’m about to strip you naked and take you right here on this table, Endymion. Tell me you want that, too.”
I did.
And I didn’t.
“How about just a really hot make-out session instead?” I teased and felt guilty about it.
“That works, too. Now, stop talking.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The next few weeks flew by in a blur I couldn’t have described if I tried. Well, not clearly, and not in a way an outsider might understand. School did not slow down, my skills at memorization were barely speeding up, and the party committee had more meetings than preparation for international peace talks. Or a queen’s coronation ball. Because Nissa certainly considered the event all about her. She listened to each of us explain how we planned to carry out our tasks as if she and only she had final say in every detail.
And I had to keep her from learning Alara and I were planning to switch with someone for something besides cleanup because, unbeknownst to her, we were attending the after-party at her sweetie’s parents’ home. At least, I assumed he was still her betrothed. I hadn’t seen them together in a while, and his comment about her slutting around sure didn’t make it sound as if he wanted to marry, mate, whatever with her. But was that even an option? When your parents sign a contract when you are a baby, could you just say never mind, opting out? Still, I watched for my opportunity and when, the day before the big event, the cupcake committee members both came down with purple spots, I jumped on it.
“Alara and I can get up super early tomorrow and make the cupcakes,” I volunteered when nobody else raised a hand at the emergency meeting. “But we’ll be too tired to clean up after the party...maybe we can all do it the next morning?”
A murmur of agreement went around the room and Nissa, who although she’d done nothing but hold meetings and criticize, was acting exhausted by all her labor, agreed that “we,” meaning I was sure everyone but her majesty, could put off the tidying as long as Titania agreed. Since I had another tutoring session that afternoon, I volunteered to let the headmistress know, and...done deal!
Sort of.
When Alara and I arrived in the main academy kitchen the next morning armed with the binder from the spotted duo, I learned something alarming. Alara finished wiping the binder with sanitizer and then faced me. “There. No itchy purple spots for us. Okay, chef, what do we do next?”
Uh-oh.
“We bake the cupcakes then decorate them.” I waved to the boxes of supplies on the counter. “Why don’t you get started on the dough? Batter? Mixing stuff? And I’ll organize the decorations.” I opened the box marked sparkles and began to pull out the jars of sparkling glitter and other shiny things.
“Endy?” The trepidation in her voice did not bode well for our endeavor.
“Yeah?” I peeked at her, praying to any god I could think of that she wasn’t about to say what I thought she was.
“I’ve never baked anything in my life.”
Hell’s bells.
“Neither have I. My mom isn’t much of a cook,” I said through the thickening in my throat. “And she never baked.”
After an hour and a half of what I can only describe as disaster after disaster, the head cook came in, staggered back out at the sight of her domain, then chased us away. She said it was easier to bake the cupcakes herself than to allow us to destroy the place entirely, and so it was, we found ourselves back in our room dressing in our fairiest finest for the party that evening.
Unlike my childhood Halloweens, this was more a formal event. And one for which, unlike baking skills, my mother had left me well prepared. In the bottom of my biggest bag, I’d found, when unpacking, an ice-blue gauzy dress. A note was clipped to it.
I wore this to my first All Hallows Eve at the academy. I met your father that night. Have a wonderful time and dance until your slippers are ruined. Like I did. Love, Mom.
The dress fit like a dream, as did the slippers tucked into the folds. Finally, some fairy tale in our fairy academy. I was especially pleased that I could wear the same outfit to the after-party until I overheard a couple of other girls talking about their ensembles and figured out that Adair’s party would be more modern and stylish. So, I’d have to come back and change after all.
The decorating committee had outdone themselves. I’d expected something like a high school formal with a fall theme, but what met my gaze was magical enough to satisfy any lover of fairy stories. Sure, there were balloons, but they were in the shapes of mythical creatures and not made of latex or Mylar or anything I’d ever seen balloons made from. No, they, like just about everything else in the room, were sparkling. The colors were in the fall range, but the creatures, the twining ribbons everywhere, the heavy draped cloths over the refreshment tables, everything was in jewel tones, deepest red, blue, amber...and the embroidery on the curtains newly hung by the windows of the auditorium might well have held actual gems.
I didn’t know, just that it was all amazingly beautiful and yet ethereal. I tried not to let it freak me out that wings were in full evidence and many of the students were dancing in the air. My wings were merely itches at my shoulder blades, on a good day slight nubs, but I could dance on the dance floor with the best of them, and I did that.
