Knight in Leather (20 page)

“How about,” Thom said, “you help us out of the goodness of your fucking heart and we’ll put a real roof over your head at a motel on the Outer Banks.”

Colin hissed and shook his head. “Not even close.”

Ethan got to his feet and swatted some of the mud off his jeans. “Screw this. We shouldn’t even waste our breath. I mean, it doesn’t matter who deals with the O’Cuilinns, but I’m certain whoever does will make Hestia quite happy. She hates people fuckin’ with the princess.”

Colin straightened up. “Hestia?”

Thom stood, too. “Mm-hmm. She’s our princess’s patron.”

“You got
Hestia
to come out of the woodworks?”

“She really likes our princess.”

Colin groaned and stood. Propping a fist onto his waist, he cocked his hip. “You bastards get all the luck.”

“Maybe some will rub off on you,” Ethan said.

Colin grunted. “Perhaps at the very least, Daddy Dearest will be driven a bit bonkers to know I was rubbing elbows with her. She refused him eons ago, you know. I’m not sure he ever got over the snub.”

“So, we have a deal?” Ethan asked.

Colin gnawed on his bottom lip and tapped his foot as he pondered the proposal. “Guy’s gotta eat. I’ll take your deal
plus
pocket cash.”

“I’m certain Prince Heath will make sure you’re flush.”

“Splendid.” Colin shook Thom’s hand and climbed up the bank. “So, where’s my chariot?”

Thom closed his eyes and quietly counted to five. “You’re riding on the sissy seat of my motorcycle. Don’t get too excited.”

“Ooh! How delightful. I’ve never been on a motorcycle before.”

“And this will almost certainly be the last time you’re on mine.”

They were almost all the way back to the road when Thom snapped his fingers and turned to Colin. “Do you have clothes?”

Colin sucked his teeth. “Sure, but who the bloody hell knows where they might be?”

Thom pulled in a deep breath, then let it out and gave his short hair a tug.

“Don’t stress yet,” Ethan said. “I might have some spare pants in my bag. They’re gonna be too big, but at least they’ll cover his bits.”

“Shirt in there, too?”

“Maybe. If not, you’ll just be extra white-trash-looking with him on your bike on the way back to the beach.” He gave Thom’s back a slap and laughed all the way to his bike.

“Bastard.”

Dasha was in the storage room with Simone, collecting supplies for Dasha to schlep through the portal into the realm, when the rumble of motorcycle engines shook the office walls.

Simone poked her head out the office the door, and said, “Huh. Ethan’s back.”

“Why is that surprising?”

“Eee!” Simone ran outside squealing and, curious at her friend’s sudden improvement of mood, Dasha followed.

Thom had barely gotten his helmet off before Simone launched herself at him.

He laughed and gave her a tight squeeze as the bare-chested stranger still on his bike looked on curiously.

“Hello, Princess,” Thom said. “Miss me?”

Simone shrugged. “Maybe a little.”

“That hurts.”

“I wasn’t expecting you. Did you bring…” Simone let her words off and cut her gaze to Dasha then back to Heath’s second-in-command.

“No. Still at home.”

“Boo.”

“What am I missing here?” Dasha asked.

Ethan dropped his arm over Dasha’s shoulder and kissed the top of her head. “I’m certain she’ll tell you about her recent exploits and conquests in due time.”

Simone cringed.

“Simone…” Dasha scolded.

“What?”

“What have you been up to?” Dasha had always suspected there was a little something-something going on between Simone and Thom, but she hadn’t wanted to meddle. Still, Dasha had found strange the fact that Heath didn’t take offense to Simone and Thom’s undisguised affection for each other. Dasha was more convinced than ever that there was something happening that she hadn’t grasped.

She looked up at Ethan, who whispered, “Everything’s fine. I promise.”

Dasha wanted to trust her friend, but trusting was hard to when she was missing a huge chunk of information.

Simone twirled the end of one lock of her curly hair and cleared her throat. “Not really a conversation suitable for…uh…public consumption.” She cut her gaze to the pale, black-eyed, barefooted, dark-haired stranger on Thom’s bike. “So, who’s this?”

“Who are
you
?” the stranger asked. “You’re not the princess.”

“She’s Prince Heath’s princess,” Thom said.

The guy’s eyes bulged. “Heath has a mate?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Wait. And you bloody do too, don’t ya?”

“Yep.”

“You fuckin—”

“I’m sorry,” Simone said through clenched teeth. “Who are you?”

“Fuckin’ Colin, is who.”

Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a breath. “He’s going to help us with…a
problem
. Dasha, he’ll be going through the portal with you, but he’ll do his own thing on the other end.”

Colin slid off the bike and hauled his too-large pants up.

“Uh…does he need something to wear?” Dasha eyed the guy from head to feet. He was tall like Ethan, but leanly muscled. He had a swimmer’s build rather than a quarterback’s. “He might be able to fit something of Perry’s.”

“Is Perry around?” Thom asked.

“Maybe not,” Dasha said. “I think he and Matt were going to go get haircuts. If he’s not in the room, he probably wouldn’t mind you taking what you need. He’s probably the most laid-back of you beasts.”

Ethan pinched her ass and then started for the suites, dragging Colin along with him. “I’ll show you a
beast
,” he called over his shoulder.

“Maybe later.”

I hope so, anyway.

She turned to Simone and Thom and cleared her throat. “Spill it.”

Simone blinked. “Spill what?”

“Are you two fucking?”

Thom raised his eyebrows and passed a hand over his hair. “No need to hash words, aye?”

“Are you? Are you cuckolding Heath?”

“No,” Simone said.

“I need more words.”

“The situation is complicated.”

“I need more words than that, too.”

“Okay.” Simone groaned. “Suffice it to say that fairy commitments make a weird snowflake-shaped configuration sometimes and, occasionally, there are people like me with a certain amount of power who don’t get just one lover.”

“What?”

“Like I said. It’s complicated.”

“But you both have mates.”

Thom nodded.

“And…they
know
that you’re…”

“Well, we don’t fuck when they’re not around.” Simone scoffed. “That’d be rude.”

“Okay, so you have…an
arrangement
.”

“Yes. That’s a polite enough label. We have an arrangement ordained by the same weirdoes who threw Heath and me together. If anything were to ever happen to Heath—knock on wood—I’d become Thom’s, and so on. The connections keep the flow of power among the leadership stable, I guess.”

“Elaborate on that
and so on
.”

Simone chuckled dryly and smiled with obviously false cheer. “Maybe later?”

Dasha narrowed her eyes at her friend. “I’m not going to forget, so don’t get your hopes up about that.”

“The situation isn’t as perverse as it sounds,” Thom said, chuckling.

“Probably not for you. How many people do
you
get to fuck?”

His sharkish grin was his only response, and Thom wasn’t much for grinning.

Oh, boy.
Dasha wasn’t sure she even wanted to know anymore.

She turned back to Simone, and leaned in to whisper, “I don’t have to take another mate, do I? I don’t think—”

“No,” Simone said soothingly. “The drive isn’t going to be there for you simply because you’re human, and I seriously doubt that Ethan feels the pull, either.”

“Ethan?” After all the shit she’d put herself through to allow the man to get close to her, Dasha didn’t want to share. “Wait, he’s not going to—”

“Yo!” Daryn stepped around the corner of the office at that moment with Siobhan on her heels.

“Hail, Tommy!” Siobhan called over.

“How goes it, Princess?”

Siobhan grunted and shrugged. Turning to Simone, she said, “I found a guy to do those, uh…” She wriggled her eyebrows lasciviously. “Parking lot
improvements
we were discussing.”

“And by improvements, you mean…”

“You know what I mean. Not even a Barbie doll would be able to fit her Corvette onto the lot while construction is happening.”

“And when is this set to start?”

“As soon as your convention booking leaves.”

“Ooh,” Dasha said. “You should put a note on the website that there’s construction imminent. That’ll probably deter folks from booking.”

Simone stuffed her hands into her pockets and nodded sagely. “I’ll get Perry to make the update. I used to maintain the site myself, and suffice it to say it looked like I did. He won’t let me touch anything on the backend. Says I’ll screw up his code.”

“Where’d that fairy learn to code websites, anyway?”

Thom unfastened his duffel bag from the side of his bike and chuckled softly. “He’s self-taught. He’s always been the bookish type. If he weren’t in this crew, he’d probably be up to his eyeballs in old scrolls trying to glean the knowledge of the elders or some such shit.”

“How
did
he end up on your crew?”

“Well, I can answer that one,” Siobhan said, “since him getting drafted was sort of my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

She let her breath out in a sputter. “Everyone in the realm has to serve Mum and Dad, or the palace in general, right? And for a certain number of years, generally prescribed by how pissed she is at a given person on a particular day. Heath’s crew was just one avenue of service. I believe that Mum assigned Perry to Heath simply
because
he was so unsuitable. Perry had asked for a specific job with one of the teachers, and I told Mum that she’d be silly not to give him what he wanted because he’s so bloody brilliant. But, because I opened my big mouth…”

“She tossed him to Heath.”

“Bingo.”

“We try to keep him at home base as much as we can now,” Thom said. “There’s no reason to have him out adventuring when he’d serve us just as well feeding us Internet leads.”

“I’m sure he appreciates the consideration,” Dasha said.

“I’m appalled that you would think we’d be so blind to the needs of the crew.”

“It’s just hard to think of you as anything but a bunch of motorcycle-riding rogues.”

“Because we all have the exact same personality, right? We’re more or less interchangeable?” Thom smirked.

Dasha sighed. “Stop trying to put words in my mouth. You know damn well you’re not interchangeable.” She certainly didn’t want to swap out
her
fairy for any of the others. They were nice guys and all, but none of them pulled her attention like Ethan.

All four of her cheeks burned at the thought of him.

“Where are you staying?” Simone asked Thom.

“With you, I guess. Do me a favor and call Nadia. I told her you would as soon as I got in. I’m going to go drop this bag and chase down Heath.”

Simone started immediately toward the office and Thom toward the cottage.

Left with Siobhan and Daryn, Dasha folded her arms over her chest and clucked her tongue. “So…am I right to be suspicious that I’m not catching all the nuances of what’s going on between them?”

“Probably not,” Daryn said, “but don’t feel bad. I imagine the arrangement wouldn’t be particularly straightforward to anyone who didn’t have a fairy brain. Ooh!” She damn near tittered with excitement. “Did you hear? Eldora said the elves could take around a hundred Sídhe immediately. They’re making room now.”

“Why does that have you so excited?”

“Because my family is one of the ones that doesn’t have major magic. They’d give up the few piddling powers they have if doing so meant they could leave the realm unmolested. They’d have no problem living at the North Pole for the time being. It’s cold there, but there’s a bunch of them. They’ve got the benefit of body heat and could just huddle together. All you need to do is get word to them.”

“Me, huh?”

Daryn shrugged. “Well, once you get inside, I’m certain Ethan’s folks could get word to them. There are means of communication in the realm that don’t exist here.”

“I’m leaving as soon as Colin is ready. Write a note or do whatever you have to do.”

“Who’s Colin?” Daryn asked.

“The hell if I know. Ethan and Thom brought him back.”

As if on cue, the door to the suite Perry shared with Matt slammed and Ethan headed over with the leaner man at his heels.

“Oh,
shit
,” Siobhan muttered.

“What?” Daryn asked.

Ethan immediately looped his arms around Dasha’s neck from the back and pulled her close.

“
That
Colin?” Siobhan asked.

The Colin in question had stopped in front of the vending machine in the courtyard and was peering through the glass at the candy bars. “What the hell was Heath thinking?”

Daryn not-sot-subtly patted down her hair. “Uh, so, who is he?”

“The biggest jerk in the Milky Way. There’s a reason he lives in the swamps.”

Colin sauntered over, his thumbs hooked into the belt loops of his borrowed jeans, feet still bare. His gaze locked on Daryn. His lips quirked up on one side in the most lecherous smirk Dasha had ever had the pleasure—or displeasure—of seeing in person.

He strutted closer—rudely close, at that—and looked Daryn up and down. “My, my. I think you’ll do just fine.” He drew in a long inhalation and moaned. “You smell nice for a land-dweller.” He sniffed again. “Fertile. How do you feel about fuckin’ a man with fins, baby?”

Daryn seemed to be processing the words on a delay. Her smile lingered too long. Then it drooped. Her already-pale skin blanched, and her teal eyes went fiery.

“Bastard.” The slap she gave him across his cheek before stomping away was hard enough to start World War Sídhe.

But Colin just sighed and rubbed his cheek. “She’ll come around, right?”

“I can’t believe this shit,” Siobhan said.

“What the hell just happened here?” Dasha asked.

“Unless I totally just misread the situation, which I doubt, another crew member has a mate.”

Colin chuckled softly. “Aren’t I a lucky duck?”

“You’re a shit-stain, Colin, and I swear to any god who’ll hear me that—”

“That you’ll what?” Hestia popped into the conversation with her usual stealth, frightening Dasha as always, but Ethan didn’t so much as flinch behind her. He must have caught one of her obscure pre-arrival signs.

Siobhan crooked her thumb toward the jerk whose smirk had actually fallen away. He couldn’t very well smirk and gape at the goddess at the same time.

“That I will beat him until he’s nothing but an oil slick in this parking lot if he gives Daryn any bullshit.”

Hestia straightened the shoulders of her robe. “Well. That match was my idea.”

“Pardon?” Ethan asked.

“Oh, yes. I didn’t exactly
forget
, but the matter simply fell out of the forefront of my mind. I arranged the match ages ago.”

“Which is what, in goddess terms?” Siobhan asked tartly. “Fifteen minutes?”

Hestia wagged a finger at the princess. “Careful. I generally only have your best interests at heart.”

“You’d been more or less ignoring us until Simone got your attention.”

Hestia pushed up one elegant,
indignant
eyebrow. “So you think. These things take time, Princess.”

“Is that what you do when you’re away for so long? Think up new ways to make us miserable and then try to sell the misery to us as blessings?”

Even Dasha thought the princess was crossing the line to impertinence, but as she didn’t particularly want Hestia’s attention on her at the moment, she kept her mouth shut.

Ethan seemed to be adopting the same strategy.

“Well, he’s not
your
mate,” Hestia said reasonably. “He’s Daryn’s, and these things aren’t arbitrary. Mate matches never are.”

“So, you think they’re actually compatible? Is that what you’re saying?”

“She certainly smells nice,” Colin said, his smirk having returned.

Hestia poked him hard in the shoulder. “I’m not always going to run to your defense, you scoundrel. Clean up your act. You’ve got a tough road ahead of you. Mate or not, that one’s not going to fall so easily into your arms.”

“I thought fairies were supposed to be easy.”