by Kate Pearce
Wasn’t this what every girl wanted? A knight to her queen—someone willing to take the hard road because he knew it was right and good.
Maybe what he was saying was true and she’d acted hastily by taking Harvey. She thought she’d known what she was doing that night when she slept with him. She wanted her queen’s gifts to bloom under the touch of someone she knew and trusted. But Harvey wasn’t just a friend with benefits. Harvey had something she needed as queen—his level head, his tenacity.
But… Ollie had something, too. He made her heart bloom.
“Fuck,” she whispered.
“Is that a request?” He grinned.
“I’m confused.”
“I know, baby. I feel it. But, it’s okay. It’s a lot to take in. Like I said, I can be patient as long as I’m near you.”
She nodded, and loosened her grip on his arms. “I’m sorry to be a party pooper, but I haven’t slept well in a couple of weeks. Can I just…hold your hand until I nod off?”
“Such a simple thing, and you act like it’d be a chore for me.”
“I promise I’m a lot more fun than what you’re seeing. I’ve been known to dance on bar tops in my day.”
“Yeah?” He turned down the covers for her.
She scooted to the middle of the bed and reached for his hand.
“My buddy Jeff owns a bar, and clean freak that he is, he’d find that appalling.” He relaxed with his back against the headboard and crossed his legs at the ankles.
Tess snuggled close to his side and gripped his hand for dear life, being fairly certain he wouldn’t be bothered by it. His presence must have been like what those Vikings felt when they saw land after being at sea for so long. It was comforting and filled her with awe about the multitude of her blessings.
Her eyelids were heavy, but she wanted to savor the feel of him just a while longer. “Jeff. Is he…”
“Like us? Yeah. His bar is called The Longship. He’s got it kitted out with all kinds of Viking kitsch, and all the locals think it’s charming, but all the folks in the gang are in on the joke.”
“Gang?”
“Well, no better word for it. We don’t gather formally like Afótama do, but we do hang out in small groups. Me and Jeff are in the same motorcycle crew.”
“Are they all big like you?” That many giant men in leather…fuck. Her thoughts had gone to a decidedly pornographic place, and since she’d slammed down the gate on sex she needed to think fluffier thoughts, and immediately, or his hand wouldn’t be the only thing she’d be holding.
“Oh, most are average height. We tend to either be tall or stocky. Jeff’s taller than average, but he’s lanky. He makes up for his lack of bulk with attitude.”
Tess rubbed her eyes with her free hand and giggled. “He’d get along swimmingly with my cousin.”
“Remind me not to get on her bad side.”
“Don’t worry, I will. I like you too much to throw you to the shark.”
It shocked her to hear her own words out loud, but she meant it. Fuck, she liked him.
10
“Unlock it.” Harvey shifted the weight of the breakfast tray to his other arm and nodded toward Tess’s suite doors.
Nadia crossed her arms and laid her head to one side, staring at him. She held her full-to-bursting key ring in her hand and tapped it gently against her ribs.
He didn’t need words, because everything she needed to say was in her expression. She may not have been the most gung ho lady-in-waiting, but he knew she took her job seriously because her grandmother’s wrath was a mighty thing.
So was Tess’s, but no other Afótama besides Harvey had bore witness to that yet. It’d been a long time since he’d seen that side of her. Two years.
“I’d like to state for the record that what you’re doing is foolish, and you’re fucking with the queen’s prerogative,” Nadia said.
“She’s my mate. We’ve been halfway bonded since we were kids.”
“Whoopdie-fucking-do. That guy thinks she’s his mate, too, and maybe he’s right.”
“Whose side are you on?”
“I’m on my queen and cousin’s side, believe it or not. You don’t have any close relatives left, so you don’t know what it’s like tuning in to the turmoil in her head. Maybe she can block everyone else out, but she can’t block family if we really try. We check in because that’s what family does, and up until last night, she was sinking under the weight of her gig. Now, her mind’s quiet. Her quiet makes me calm. I like calm. Don’t you?”
“Tess’s wellbeing is my utmost concern. I want her to thrive here and reach her true potential. No one knows Tess like I do, believes in her like I do.”
“I hear you. I get you. I swear I do, but this situation requires delicacy. None of us know how to navigate it, and I suggest that you stay on the high road at all times. Do you get me?”
Given that nasty snap to her voice, he’d be stupid if he didn’t at least pretend.
“I do understand. Please open the door, or have you forgotten she skipped dinner last night?”
She sighed. “And, of course, that’ll be my fault when Nan finds out.” She uncrossed her arms and flipped through the keys. “I hope they’re decent. I’m sure Mr. Gilisson is lovely to look at au naturale, but I’ve seen enough of Tess’s naked ass in two weeks to last me a lifetime. I do wish she’d keep up with her underwear.”
Harvey growled, and Nadia growled right back as she pushed the key into the lock.
“Remember what I said,” she said before pulling the handle.
“I’ll try my hardest.”
“Do better than that.”
Nadia stepped into the dim room, and Harvey followed on her heels, pausing in the entryway just long enough to see that Paul Bunyan motherfucker was still mostly dressed, and on top of the covers.
Tess, under the covers, snuggled against him as if he were her port in the storm.
That was supposed to be Harvey.
Tess wasn’t prone to letting her guard down like that, so the guy was either a masterful liar, or in two weeks, she’d grown desperate for companionship.
“Wake her up gently,” Nadia projected telepathically, “And let her wake him up. Don’t be an asshole.”
“The asshole is the one in my queen’s bed.”
“At least he’s dressed.”
Harvey would have almost preferred them to have fucked and to be sprawled out on the bed—to not touch while they slept. He could deal with the idea of two people caught up in the heat of passion only to pull apart when they were done with each other. Their chaste embrace seemed far more intimate a thing. It indicated the giving and taking of comfort, and that’s something Harvey hadn’t been providing Tess with in the past couple of weeks. He’d been there to prop her up so she could be the strong queen she needed to be, but he hadn’t been there when she needed to decompress. She’d closed him out, choosing to suffer alone.
He set the covered tray on the right nightstand and sat on the vast expanse of empty bed next to Tess. He gave Nadia a probing look, and she shook her head and twirled the key ring around her index finger. “This is your rodeo. I’m just here to run down the day’s schedule. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.”
It was the potential “killing” that worried him. It was a possible outcome of hólmganga.
He sighed and leaned over Tess. Pulling her hair back from her face and away from her ear, he whispered, “Rise and shine, doll.”
She let out a sleepy little groan and rolled onto her back, stretching her arms over her head. “Hmm?”
“It’s morning, princess. I brought you breakfast.”
Her forehead furrowed before she even got her eyes open. She blinked rapidly and rubbed her tired eyes with her fists. Then she looked to her right, saw the sleeping giant beside her, and then back to Harvey. She stared at him as if she didn’t know what had happened—who they were.
“You all right? Do you…” He cut his gaze to the
stranger to make the reason for his query clear. “Do you need some space?”
“Fuck, I must look a fright.” She closed her eyes again and shook her head. “No, it’s okay. He’s the reason I was able to sleep so deeply. What’s that smell? What’d you bring me?”
“What do you mean he’s the reason you were able to sleep? Let me guess—the big thug offered to slip a little something into your nightcap.”
“No. His skill set is just…” She shrugged and turned her gaze to Nadia who was still standing by the door like a coward. “It’s unique. Crowded in here, huh?”
Nadia cleared her throat and shoved the keys into her sweatshirt pocket. “I hate to roll you out of your bed like this on your first full day on the job, but we’ve got some time-sensitive business to deal with. We need to fly into Santa Fe.”
“Why?”
“There are some Afótama up there who’ve requested a meeting and, for a variety of reasons, they can’t come to us. Normally, Lora would have found someone to send in your stead, but they impressed on her the urgency of the situation and said they could only discuss it with you.”
“Who’s Lora?”
Nadia made a waffling hand motion. “She’s half secretary, half communications maven. She controls the flow of information going out of this building and fields appointment requests for people who need to meet with your staff.”
“I’m still trying to get used to having a staff.”
“Well, really, it’s Nan’s staff, and no one will be upset if you decide to clean house and choose your own. Lora’s damned good at what she does, though, so I’d suggest you at least meet with her before you fire her.”
Tess sighed and rubbed her temples. “No one’s getting fired. Not yet, anyway. Right?” She looked to Harvey with uncertainty in her eyes.
It was good to know she still needed him for something—that she hadn’t shut him out completely just yet. “Status quo makes sense for the moment. I wouldn’t advise shaking things up too fast. It would unsettle everyone and put undue tension on the psychic web.”
“Works for me.” She pushed herself upright and straightened her nightshirt. “What time do I need to be ready?” she asked Nadia.
“The flight’s arranged for noon, so you’ve got about ninety minutes to get yourself together. When it’s time, I’ll come get you. I need to go work out the details of our overnight accommodations just in case. The usual place Nan stays at is under renovation so we need to find someplace else that’s secure.”
“I doubt it’ll be a big deal if we stay at a plain old Marriott.”
Harvey nudged a cup of coffee into Tess’s hands and passed over the sugar dish. She scooped two heaping spoonfuls into her mug.
“You know me so well,” she said with a grin.
Damn right, he did.
“Security’s always a major concern for the queen,” came that voice Harvey had hoped he wouldn’t have to hear this morning.
Ollie sat up and surveyed the occupants of the room. He nodded at Nadia, and she returned the gesture.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Must be a relative. You and Tess resemble each other.”
“I’m Nadia, also known as the thorn in our queen’s side, chief confidante, main dress zipper-upper, schedule-keeper, and all-around nag.”
“You’re her aide. Wow. I’m surprised that gig still exists.”
Nadia shrugged and looked from Ollie to Harvey and back again. “It’s temporary. Just until the consort situation gets worked out. Once that gets squared up, she won’t need me.”
Tess sighed and rubbed her temples again.
“You seem to know a hell of a lot about Afótama customs for an outcast,” Harvey said. He leaned forward and looked around Tess to make good eye contact with the other man.
“If there’s something you’d like to accuse me of, please speak it out loud so I can state my offense. I don’t like fighting first thing in the morning, but if you want to pick one, feel free to start.”
“Stop,” Tess whispered. “The noise is back in my head and there seems to be an extra tug of curiosity this morning.”
Nadia grunted. “People want to know about you, is all. Like I said, Lora controls the information going out of this place, so a lot of what they know about you is spoon-fed. Of course, anyone with enough curiosity and the right Internet search phrase can find out things you probably don’t want to have bandied about the mental web.”
“Nope.” Tess took a long sip of her coffee, and leaned her head back against the headboard. “The best I can tell, though, everyone’s fine and not in need of anything critical at the moment. I’ll ask Nan if I’m interpreting that correctly before I leave.”
Ollie looped his fingers around her right wrist, and she offered him a wan grin. “Thanks.”
“Hardly a burden, Tess.”
Harvey’s teeth ground.
“Uh, Ollie, I bet you’re starving,” Nadia said. “You want me to bring you up something?”
“He’s got two functioning legs, and he can walk himself down to the kitchen and get his own meal,” Harvey said. “Or maybe he’ll decide he wants something more familiar. Perhaps from his own kitchen.”
“Harvey,” Tess said with a scold in her voice.
“I am hungry, Nadia,” Ollie said. “I had dinner on the road last night right before I got here and haven’t had anything since. I don’t have a problem with finding the kitchen myself and pouring a bowl of cereal.”
Nadia waved a dismissive hand at him. “They’d never let you do it for yourself. I’ll have something sent up along with your messages, Tess.”
She stepped through the doorway without another word, and the trio on the bed sat in awkward silence.
Tess fiddled with her coffee mug. Ollie glowered at Harvey over Tess’s head. If Harvey was cowed at all by the other man, he didn’t show it in the glare he directed at him.
He was older. He probably had Tess by about ten years. Sometimes that wasn’t a problem, but at that age, a man would have a lot of baggage. The last thing Tess needed was extra baggage. She had enough of her own.
Tess cleared her throat. “What’s on the tray?”
Harvey pulled his stare away from Ollie and reached for the nightstand. “Oh, I figured you’d want something easy this morning after all the hubbub of last night.” He settled the tray over her thighs and lifted the cloth cover. “The chef nearly laughed me out of the kitchen when I asked for that.”
“Hot damn.” She handed her coffee mug to Ollie and reached for the little carafe of milk. She poured it over her Cocoa Puffs and grabbed the accompanying spoon. “And what’s in that omelet?”
“Everything you like, sweetheart. Three kinds of cheese, jalapeño peppers, tomato, and a bit of sausage.”
“What kind of sausage?”
“Hot, of course.”
The grin she gave him was more than enough payment for enduring Chef’s haranguing about the cereal. He’d had to run home and dip into his kids’ stash because Muriel didn’t eat the stuff. Harvey loved seeing that fucking smile and knew how rare it was.
He did that.
“You always did take care of me,” she said, and shoveled a spoonful of chocolate cereal into her mouth.
“Better than anyone.” He cut his gaze over to Ollie again, and as expected, the other man fixed a death glare on him.
“Knowing her belly isn’t the same thing as knowing her heart,” Ollie projected.
“Did you get that nugget of wisdom from the inside of a fortune cookie?”
“The gods have ordained this match. You’d save yourself a lot of energy and embarrassment by letting her go. But don’t worry.” Ollie twirled a length of Tess’s hair around his fingers. “Eventually, the heartache will dull and you’ll find focus in other things.”
“Thanks for the advice, but you’re mistaken if you believe I’m going anywhere.”
“If you want her to be happy, you would.”
“She was happy before you
got here.”
“Oh?”
They let the topic drop, because a young staffer stood in the doorway and rapped on the frame. “Sorry to interrupt,” the girl said. Her eyes were wide as she studied the scene. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, but he wasn’t going to bother saying so. In fact, he preferred to test the staff and see whose loose lips needed dealing with. For as long as Harvey had known Muriel, she’d prided herself on her efficient and discreet senior staff. This girl was new, though. Why hadn’t Chef come up himself?
“I’ve got breakfast for Mr. Gilisson,” she said, and she shifted her weight from one pristine white sneaker to the other. Nervous. She couldn’t have been on the job very long.
“Come in, please,” Tess said. “What’s your name?”
“Erin, ma’am.” She bowed ever so slightly, careful not to drop the tray.
“Please stop doing that. If you ever see me sitting on a throne and twirling a scepter, bow all you want, but if you haven’t noticed, I’m not that kind of queen. I’m just a conduit.”
Erin shook her head so violently the contents of the mug on the tray splashed. “Oh, no, ma’am. You’re more than that. So much more.”
Tess put a hand on Harvey’s wrist, and he felt a surge up his arm and through his torso that felt like he’d touched an exposed live wire. He couldn’t pull away. Couldn’t move at all.
Briefly, the room around them disappeared along with Erin leaving nothing but a white void in all directions.
Then they were back.
Tess pulled her hand away and looked at him with terror, and obviously Ollie had saw and felt whatever it was, too, because he pulled his hand away from Tess and rubbed the palm as if it had been burned.
“Everybody’s so much more optimistic,” Erin said, oblivious to their distress. “At least the young folks are. We tend not to pair off when there’s too much stress on the network, and now that you’re here, it feels…” Erin rolled her gaze up to the ceiling and chewed on her bottom lip. “Just feels fresh.”