Date Night (2 page)

“Excellent,” Anso said. “We can give the children their farewell hugs and still be on our way in time.”

Olivia lifted Anso’s wrist to check his watch and smiled. He’d allotted half an hour for goodbye kisses. Considering the triplets’ fondness for being fussed over, that should work out about right.

~

“
IS
that a drool mark on my jacket?” Ty asked in mock outrage from the sub’s back seat. “Anso, your son has no self control.”

“
My
son! What happened to your Three Musketeers model of parenting? All for one and one for all?”

Seated in front, Olivia watched James smile at the other males’ pretend

bickering. Their official security escort cruised beside them like sharks, but - per James’s preference - he drove the racy tangerine colored submarine they rode in.

James’s latest transportational toy seated four on its soft leather, could go from zero to a hundred knots in under twelve seconds, and - most impressive to Olivia -

ran on ambient energy.

Like a rock star surrounded by sober roadies, their group progressed up Grand Street in downtown, headed for the Opera Hall where tonight’s festivities would kick off. The Abydian Sirens were performing
Rigoletto
. Because their voices truly were magical, a complement of faeries would be in attendance, in case the sirens’ influence unintentionally went awry.

Olivia supposed the risk of audience hypnosis added spice to the proceedings.

The faeries added spice for her. They were responsible for the enchantments that allowed cities like Oceana to exist in the mundane world. Native Oceanans viewed the fae with a mix of resentment and gratitude. It was nice to have powerful benefactors, though a bit like being beholden to snooty Parisians. Olivia had met few fae, and only for brief periods. She hoped to remedy that tonight. She found faeries fascinating, and all this queen stuff ought to have perks.

Speaking of queen stuff, Olivia had her usual studying to do.

She dug her mini-tablet out of her beaded clutch. Turning it on, she searched for the file the Royal Press Office should have sent her on tonight’s most important guests. When she didn’t find it, her decollete broke into a sweat. She squirmed around to face the back seat. “Anso, did you get the cheat-sheet from the press office? My copy isn’t here.”

“Oh that,” he said. “You’ve been working so hard lately, I told them we’d wing it tonight.”

“You told them we’d wing it!” More than Olivia’s cleavage was sweating

then. Memorizing everyone’s names and interests was the one social task she could count on getting right.

“Don’t look so worried,” Anso said. “You can smile and nod if you don’t

know who someone is. You’re the queen. No one will dare complain.”

Olivia tried to swallow, but the giant lump in her throat made it difficult. She told herself not to panic. If she had to smile and nod, she would.

So what if she spent the whole evening stammering?

“I can’t stand it,” Ty said, covering his face. “Don’t tease her. It’s like watching Bambi freeze in a sub’s headlights.”

“Don’t
tease
me?” Olivia repeated in confusion. “Do you have the file or not?”

“Not,” Anso said. Before she could do more than squeak in dismay, he leaned forward to cover her clammy hand with his. “It doesn’t matter. We’re not attending the opera or dinner.”

“We’re not? But ... what about the King of Tantallon? What about making

sure Ty’s parents really leave?”

“Already gone,” Ty said with a brilliant smile. “I waved them off at Atlantic Station this morning. Plus, Tantallon will consider it a personal favor if Anso

‘unavoidably’ can’t show up tonight. His wife has a terrible crush on Our Majesty

- not that I blame her.”

Olivia turned wide eyes to Anso for confirmation.

“It’s true,” he said, smiling fondly. “I didn’t mean to upset you. We just wanted this to be a surprise.”

Relief flooded her, steadying her enough to punch James’s arm in annoyance.

“You
all
were in on this? One of you might have spilled the beans!”

“Ow,” James said, but not like she’d hurt him. “Spilling the beans would have spoiled the surprise.”

Olivia flounced around to face front again. “I’m an accountant. We tend not to like surprises.”

Though she didn’t glance in the rear view mirror, she was pretty sure her other obnoxious spouses were amused. That was the downside to having three

husbands. They had a built in all-boys club. James was flourishing in this dynamic more than she’d expected. She’d never thought of him as lacking in male company, but she supposed Ty and Anso served as brothers as well as lovers to him. She couldn’t begrudge him his happiness. She was happy herself. And if the trio
had
been overly repentant for tricking her, she’d have thought they were taking her social anxiety too seriously.

Olivia wasn’t helpless, she was just shy.

“Where are we going anyway?” she asked.

Anso reached around one side of her seat to squeeze her upper arm. From the other, he nuzzled her cheek. Wereseals were good nuzzlers. When they performed the playful caress, it meant deeper than human things. Unable to help it, Olivia unbent more.

“We’re going somewhere you’ve never been before,” he rumbled.

“Somewhere I think you’ll like.”

Olivia twisted around to kiss him, lingering over his soft firm mouth. Anso’s lips warmed underneath hers, which made hers warm in turn. One of Anso’s nicest qualities was that he never took sex for granted, perhaps because he’d been forbidden from having it with women for so long. When he pulled back, he gave her a hooded look that was for her alone. Of course, that it was for her alone didn’t prevent the others from noticing.

“Don’t make me jealous while I’m driving,” James joked. “I only found this place once before.”

James’s London blue topaz eyes glowed with banked excitement, a reaction he and Olivia didn’t display as often as real wereseals. Olivia sat back in her seat and smiled, asking no more questions. If James was this stoked, their destination had to be good.

They and their security left the city’s winding underwater streets by one of the north exits. Probably they’d driven through downtown to throw her off the scent.

Oceana’s suburbs were populated by low square houses painted in sunny colors and twinkling with round windows. Aquatic plants and corals formed the gardens, though - apparently - there was a fashion to have live starfish line your front walk.

As they flew over, she was entertained to see many of the paths had straggled considerably from their intended shape.

Suburbanites could stay air-locked all day if they chose. Pressure tubes connected their garages to their homes. Olivia hadn’t yet learned to like transitioning from breathing air to breathing water, but these days she could do it without handholding.

Once past the tidy suburbs, they entered wilder lands. Valleys dropped down into the sea floor, with rocky crags to mark their edges. Schools of fish scudded in and out like swift clouds, drawn by patches of vegetation and other food. The fae had created a sun and moon for Oceana, to compensate for living deeper than natural light could reach. Undimmed by the city’s artificial illumination, the moon ruled this waterscape. Their small flotilla of subs seemed to cut through a mysterious blue lagoon.

“Here we are,” James said, nosing down into a narrower and still deeper

trench.

A cave mouth appeared before them, an opening in the glassy black basalt stone. The subs’ powerful headlamps glittered off the surface as if it were extra wet.

“Only we’re going in,” Anso said. “Our escort will wait outside.”

That was interesting. The guards went with them most everywhere. Also

interesting was that Anso’s voice had grown husky. Olivia felt all sorts of nerves perk up. They hadn’t made love in a week and a half. They’d been too busy with jobs and children and had fallen into bed like logs. Sleep was important, but so was sex - especially to people with needs like theirs.

James drove them into the cave and up. The water was dark, but clear enough for him to navigate without radar. They passed two large electrum engines anchored on the walls, the gold and silver alloy ideal for holding spells. Wherever they were going, it had been magically modified.

“Is the water getting warmer?” Olivia asked curiously.

All the men were grinning as they broke through the surface.

The sub windows took a moment to clear, but then she saw they’d reached a huge cavern. Everywhere she looked, candles burned: on ledges, in candelabra, in votive holders beside a steaming saltwater pool. As James steered them up to a small wooden dock, she saw more tapers illuminating a white-clothed table. The silver-domed platters that sat on it suggested dinner was waiting there.

“Welcome to the Queen’s Grotto,” Anso said.

While she gawked, James popped the sub’s gull-wing doors.

“Wow,” Olivia breathed, only half paying attention to Ty and Anso assisting her onto the dock. She spotted a bedroom on an upper ledge farther off, partially draped by a shimmering red curtain. A trail of rose petals marked a path to the bathing pool, beside which tempting jewel colored bottles sat. The whole place was a dream fit for a romantic princess - or an accountant queen, she supposed.

“How did you pull this together? It’s amazing!”

“Elves,” Anso said, sounding pleased. Because this was Oceana, his answer might have been literal.

“Dinner will stay warm as long as we want it to,” Ty said.

“Will it?” Olivia wagged her brows at him.

Done securing the sub, James hopped onto the dock behind her. “We’re yours to command tonight. We know how hard you’ve been working, between the kids and us and the queening stuff you aren’t totally comfortable with. We want you to know we appreciate it. We all came up with this together.”

She looked around at them, handsome and earnest in their tuxedoes. Ty’s half smile was self-deprecating; he didn’t think of himself as a romantic, but his eyes were as affectionate as the others’. She pressed her hands together before her mouth, trying to contain her tears.

“It’s perfect,” she said, her voice breaking a little.

“You really ought to command us,” Anso said. “You know those two would

especially enjoy it.”

She did know this. Ty and James’s kinks ran to the exotic, an affinity that strengthened the special bond between them. Olivia hardly minded catering to it, not when doing so rewarded her.

At the thought of being commanded, Ty had begun breathing more shallowly.

Loving the prospect of a whole night to play, Olivia’s mouth curved up naughtily.

If they wanted a queen, she could provide one.

“Follow me,” she said, turning to lead the way up the long path of rose petals.

Halfway to the bathing pool, she hitched up her dress and kicked off her shoes.

Immediately, she felt freer. The smooth basalt was toasty beneath her feet, the flower petals as soft as skin. When she reached the edge where the steam curled over, she stopped and faced her men. Above the starched white points of his collar, James’s face was now as flushed as Ty’s.

“I think you should undress,” she said. “You look nice, but servants really shouldn’t wear tuxedoes. You two first,” she clarified to James and Ty. “The king is going to watch while I enjoy myself with you.”

Anso seemed startled by this turn of events. The nature of their mating bond meant he usually needed to go first with her. His royal genes demanded he re-stake his claim on her. They weren’t in heat now, however. He wouldn’t suffer too badly from waiting.

Just enough to be titillating was her plan.

“You can undress
me
,” she said silkily to him.

He bowed to her with the grace of the palace born. “My pleasure, Your

Majesty.”

He toed off his footwear, which she didn’t object to. His dress shoes were awfully nice, and the smooth stone around the steaming natural pool was damp.

Then again, maybe he wanted to feel freer too. His crown could weigh heavily.

Barefoot, he prowled toward her more like a tiger than a wereseal. Whatever his species, there was extra power and suppleness in his frame. When he tugged his bowtie looser on his neck, Olivia’s pussy clenched.

He stepped behind her. He had to. That’s where her gown’s laces were.

Having his strength looming over her where she couldn’t see what he was doing sent a feminine shiver up her spine. Anso’s heat shadow reminder her how much bigger he was than her.

The sense of vulnerability might have overwhelmed her if Ty and James

hadn’t been obeying her orders. They’d found chairs to pull closer to the pool, Hollywood-type director’s chairs with black leather backs and seats.

She had a feeling they weren’t originally intended for holding clothes. They all liked putting on shows for each other.

James folded his garments as he went, years of wifely training having instilled the habit. Ty’s method of disposal was more of a well-aimed fling, which hardly mattered when Oceana’s magical dry cleaners could restore almost anything. She watched two pairs of beautiful muscled arms appear, two lovely chests and deeply cut abdominals.

Heat flushed through her at the display, and then air kissed her bare shoulders.

Anso had lowered her bodice to her waist.

“They’re a pair, aren’t they?” he murmured beside her ear.

They were. Ty was golden with fair hair and sun-kissed skin. James was

olive-complected, but his darker and rougher human body hair stood out by comparison. Ty’s build was that of a warrior, James’s a lean mean machine.

Joining Ty’s guards for their daily workouts had made quite a stud of him. For the moment, James was performing a homey task. He was fully erect as he sat in the director’s chair to peel off his black dress socks. His penis flushed a darker color than the others’, its crest the broadest. Olivia thought his strong tight legs were the best, but James probably preferred Ty’s long gladiator’s pair. Indisputably, Ty had the cutest butt, tight enough to bounce dimes off, with two kissable dimples to top off its narrow cheeks.