Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
We shared a moment of frustrated camaraderie before I said, “You need to get to work. And Tanyn’s worried about your response to this, so I need to go tell him you’re good.”
“He’s worried about me?”
“Yes.”
She eyed me. “He’s a good male, Cat.”
I smiled at her. “I know he is, Gayle.”
“He’s it for you, isn’t he?” she whispered, and some of her melancholy about what I was building with Tanyn, what Aleksei and Laura had, all of it she did not have, beat the spell, because I could see it buried deep in her gaze.
I scooched closer to her, took her hands, and shared, “I’m guessing this won’t surprise you, even though hearing it may upset you, but I’ve already laid the groundwork to move up here. Because, yes, he’s it for me. I think…I think…” I swallowed and let it all hang out. “I think I knew it when Avie the lynx took him down to the snow when we were on Sigil. He’s been open and honest with me since the very beginning. We fight. We make up. He’s not a dick. He’s not a pushover. And he makes no bones about the fact he’s in love with me.”
The melancholy left her gaze, it softened, and she squeezed my hands. “I love that for you.”
“Thanks,” I said gently. “I love it too. It’s a great deal of change for me, and I can’t say I’m there yet.” Understatement! “But I’m coming to terms with it.”
“Isn’t this freaky?” she asked, giving me another squeeze before letting me go. “You and Laura and Aleece are all going to be queens.”
And you are too, I thought, but didn’t say because, call me rosy-eyed due to the fact I was falling in love, I had hope for her and Cormac.
“Who would have thought all those times we were on the prowl, we’d end up like this?”
She laughed. “Only you were ever on the prowl, Cat. Laura, Mon and I were just your wingbeings.”
“Please,” I scoffed. “You could prowl.”
“You were the expert.”
I couldn’t deny that.
“You good?” I asked.
“I’m good. Go to your male.”
I didn’t go direct to Tanyn.
I moved in to give her a hug.
After we shared we’d see each other for pre-dinner drinks, I went to Tanyn.
He was relieved Gayle took the news well and was going to talk to Cormac about it.
He was also distracted because, he said, some irate CEOs were demanding an audience to share their displeasure with this tax situation.
So I left him to it.
When I got back to my study (yes, I was finally there in my head, that study was mine), and hit my lapcomp, I didn’t return to work, like I should.
I did a deep dive into fae history and lore.
Of course, I couldn’t sift through thousands of years of history and lore in an afternoon.
But I gave it my best shot.
What I learned was, the story of Selediel was pretty damned buried.
Suspiciously so.
As such, I hoped Cormac knew something.
Because, like Tanyn said, the more we knew about whatever was happening, the better.
Chapter 23
Expect
I felt lips brush my bare shoulder before the covers were pulled over it.
I blinked to kinda/sorta awake.
“Good morning, my love,” Tanyn whispered.
He was so lovely.
“Morning,” I mumbled.
“Go back to sleep.”
“’Kay.”
My eyes drifted shut, but I heard his feet on the floor (and Hurley’s), a door closed…
And I went back to sleep.
I was making up my mind.
I was going to have to quit my job.
This was my thought, sitting in my study, the promised report from Barret and Camaryn on my lapcomp, but I wasn’t reading it.
I’d also spoken to Laura, who in turn got in touch with Queen Calisa, who in turn had her aide send me their own report about salary scales for staff at the Celestial Palace.
But I wasn’t perusing that either.
I was realizing I needed to come to terms with the fact that, although my job had deskwork, most of the time I was on the floor, or meeting with artists, or caterers, florists and printers, if we had a showing coming up. Or wining and dining our clients.
Although Lua was comming frequently to ask what to do about this or that, since I’d asked her to take all my appointments while I was away, it felt more like I was intermittently training my replacement than doing my job from afar.
I knew this was in the cards. I’d even told Lua to make that extra effort so the way was clear for her promotion.
But it was becoming even clearer I was going to have to let go of the last vestiges of my life in Nocturn.
And that meant I should probably talk to Tanyn about putting my flat on the market.
Ulk.
I was circling my Palm end to end on the desk, and I watched my hand doing it.
I did this because I was procrastinating.