Even whenIwent on holiday,Ifound a cottage or cabin somewhere and did all the stuffIpreferred to do at home.Ijust did it without it having to be interrupted by work.
I wasn’t ethereality and utter perfection.
I also wasn’t fire.
I was just…me.
“She’s probably been crying in her meditation studio or isolation aquarium for the past month,”Catlasurmised gleefully, as a female was wont to do when another female, especially one born with more than you had, was brought down a peg.
I couldn’t sayPrincessAnnawas more attractive thanCat.Theirlooks were very different.
But she wasPrincessRoyalof a peaceful, affluent realm.Shehad magic (seeing as she was a witch) and natural beauty, nothing enhanced.Shewas rolling in family money.Andshe was, well…ethereality and utter perfection.
Hard not to hold some jealousy for a chick like that.
“Wouldn’t you be, if you lost all the lusciousness that isPrinceAleksei?”Gaylilielasked.
“She was picced cavorting withDolphWindstalkeron the beach onTyball’sGate.Isaw the images on the social tapes this morning,”Itold them.Ithen added, “Oh, and she decided against donning the top of her bikini.Andyes, her breasts are as perfect as everything else about her.”
“She…what?”Catwas aghast.
“I’d say she isn’t utter perfection, considering how richly petty that is,”Ideclared, loyal, as ever, to the prince. “Alekseihas barely been seen in public since the break.Andshe’s topless, on the beach on a party island offLand’sEndwith a hunky screen star who usually dates shifters who are barely majority.Blech.”
Cat’s eyes narrowed on me. “Haveyou metWindstalker?”
LikeIwouldn’t tell her ifImetDolphWindstalkerwhile working one of my gigs.
I shook my head. “Never.ButIhaven’t heard good things.”
“Men that handsome tend not to promote people hearing good things about them,”Catmuttered.
“Well, ifAnnaever thought they’d make up, she killed that fantasy,”Gaylenoted. “NotthatAleksei’sthe kind of guy to change his mind.Outsiderealizing the female he asked to marry him wasn’t the female for him, that is.”
“That wassoout of character,”Catput in. “IthinkIwas more surprised he changed his mind at all, much less that he changed it about her.”
“Seems he dodged a bullet,”Gayleremarked.
“He totally did,”Ideclared. “It’sobvious, as he got to know her, as it came closer to the wedding actually happening and her hooks were sinking deeper into him, she thought he couldn’t get away, or at least not change his mind, since that’s not his style.Andboth realms would want to avoid the scandal.Maybebecause of all that, she let the mask drop.Maybewho she pretended to be was all about theStarknightandDayrisehouses unifying, and once that seemed a foregone conclusion, he got a sense of the real her and wanted nothing to do with it.Youshould have seen the comments on those pics withWindstalker.Shewas not faring well,”Ishared.
“That’s pretty out of character too,”Gaylemumbled.
“Or maybe it’s not,”Istated.
“Well,Alekseiisn’t a waffler,”Catsaid. “Thisis aPRfiasco forAnna, and it was before those pics were put on the tapes.Thismeans the stupidity of theWindstalkermove is undeniable.Everyonewas already speculating it was something about her or something she did that madeAlekseibeg off.Now, they’ll be certain of it.”
“It’s always the female’s fault,”Gaylegriped.
“Yeah, soIeither champion her for saying, ‘fuck it, instead of licking my wounds,I’mgonna lick this hot wolf shifter,’ orIthink she’s an idiot, for the same reason,”Catreplied.
The craft stopped, and we all turned our heads to peer out the window.
What we saw was the glistening black façade, including the equally glistening black double doors, and a line of people down the pavement, queued along a black velvet rope attached to shiny black posts.
No sign.
None needed.
Such was the allure of thePinkandBlackClub.
