She's No Faerie Princess (8 page)

Jake raised an eyebrow, his amber gaze much tooinsightful for the pup he was. "Not that it's my place togive advice to a princess, but just so you know, he canget even crankier when he thinks you're beingdeliberately disobedient. Trust me. I speak fromexperience."

"Okay, number one, what is this obsession you folk have with idiotic titles? And letter b, in order for me to be 'disobedient,' your uncle would need to have some kind of authority over me that required me to obey. Which is, by the way, a four-letter word. I don't do obedience."

The werewolf's bark of laughter stopped Fiona mid-pace. She crossed her arms over her chest and gave him herunamused look.

"Sorry," Jake chuckled. "It's just that for someone who seems to be touchy about being called a princess, you sure don't have a problem acting like one."

"Oh, shut up."

Jake grinned and focused back on the game, while Fionabrooded at the reflection of his good cheer in thetelevision screen. Obnoxious brat. That had solidified thefamily resemblance. Two damned werewolf peas in apod. But at least the pup didn't get her hormones raging. Which would have just been weird. And kind of creepy. Itwas bad enough that she should lust after Walker, inspite of his nasty attitude. Was that kinky? Did that makeher some sort of masochist? Maybe heading back to Faerie was a good idea after all.

"Not to be all nosy or anything, but what are you doing here in the first place? I thought Fae weren't allowed on this side of the veil without the queen's permission."

"
Not
 
to be all nosy?" He just nodded and kept grinning. Fiona sighed. "It's really none of your business, but I was trying to get away and relax. Fat lot of good that's done me."

"What did you need to get away from? Tiara too tight?"

She gave him a look that should have eviscerated him.

He winked at her. She beat back the urge to strangle him.

"Not what. Who. Though now I think I just traded in oneform of torture for another. Your uncle could give myentire family a run for its money, and I didn't think thatwas possible."

"Yeah, well, running things is kind of my family's specialty." He flipped off the remote control and resettled on the sofa facing her. "So who in your family drove you off?"

"Are you sure you're Lupine? 'Cause you're as curious as

any cat I've ever met." She sighed and dropped onto the

sofa next to him, since it didn't look like he was giving up anytime soon. "It was kind of a culmination of events. The last straw was one of my cousins. He let all the court intrigue go to his head. He thinks that if we get married, we'll each move up a few slots on the list of Aunt Mab's heirs."

"Would you?" Jake had already asked the question before her words actually sank in. He did a double take. "Wait a second. Queen Mab is your
 
aunt
?"

"My father's sister."

He gave a low whistle. "Wow. No wonder Uncle Tobe isso pissy."

"I don't think it's much of an excuse. It's none of his

business what I do, and no one appointed him in charge

of enforcing Mab's rules."

"Right. You really believe that?"

"Why shouldn't I? He's not Fae, he's never been to Faerie, so what business is it of his if I break some Fae rules?"

"I think he could care less if you're breaking rules in Faerie," Jake said. "But he does care about how it affects us here. It's not like it's out of the realm of possibility for the queen to take it out on us for not guarding the borders if she finds out you're missing. And that's not the kind of trouble Uncle Tobe needs right now."

Fiona sneered. "What? Am I jeopardizing his golfingschedule?"

"No, the negotiations with the humans."

She froze. "What negotiations?"

"The Unveiling negotiations," he responded easily. "They've been at it for almost six months now. The Council is trying to work out a deal to guarantee civil rights for the Others before we let the werecat out of the bag, so to speak."

"Why in the Lady's name would you want to?" Like most Fae, Fiona harbored a bias or two against humans. Not that she disliked them, but she viewed them a lot like humans viewed chimpanzees—as amusing but primitive.

"Not much choice." Jake shrugged and disappeared into the kitchen, returning a minute later with a can of soda and a gargantuan bag of potato chips. "It's getting too hard to keep the secret. Then last winter, there was a really close call with a group of human religious nuts who were trying to out us and simultaneously launch a crusade with Others in place of the infidels and Web pages spreading the word instead of troubadours." He grinned and dug out a handful of chips. "I'm taking medieval European history this semester. The lecture hall is overflowing with women."

Fiona laughed. Apparently some things were common tothe male sex as a whole, regardless of species. Shakingher head, she grabbed a handful of chips herself. Shewas a sucker for sour cream and onion. "So your uncle ispart of the negotiations?"

"Nah. The Council handles all that diplomatic stuff, but they appointed the pack to oversee security. The alpha is busy covering the summit itself, so he put Uncle Tobe in charge of making sure none of the folk in the city get out of hand and start trouble. It would be a really bad time for

anyone in the Other community to do something that could scare off the humans. Uncle Walker and the security he put together are there to make sure no Others get out of hand, and if they do, to make sure we keep it quiet and take care of it ourselves. We won't stand for anyone harming a human, but we'd rather punish the perpetrator than the entire Other community."

She suppressed a wince. Hearing about the situation didkind of put her visit in a new light and made Walker'sreaction to it a lot more understandable. If the Othersreally wanted to try to live openly with the humans,setting the terms would not come easily. But it still didn'texplain why he was so determined to keep his hands offher. She was already there, so technically, the damagehad been done.

"Okay, so I'll give him some slack for being under a little stress, but I don't see how that negates the need to act with a little common civility."

Jake gave a short laugh. "The stress has nothing to dowith the incivility, Princess."

"Fiona."

"Whatever." He gave her a look that suggested she might

want to be measured for a dunce cap. "You can't really

be so clueless that you haven't noticed he's foaming at

the mouth over the desire to jump your bones."

"Could have fooled me," she muttered. "My bones were all happily bracing for impact. He's the one who pulled the 'no touch' crap, not me."

"Sheesh, sometimes you old folks are so slow." He took a

slug from his soda can and shook his head pityingly. "Of course he's not touching you. The man's wound so tight, it wouldn't take more than you sneezing in his direction for his trigger to fire. He sure as hell wasn't straining his zipper 'cause he was all excited about seeing me."

"Lady, you mortals can be so annoying."

"Oh, like the Fae are all sweetness and light."

Fiona dusted off her hands on the knees of Walker'ssweatpants and muttered, "I never claimed to be, but atleast I'm capable of admitting when I want to wrap mylegs around someone. And I've never teased anyone andthen cut them off and immediately tried to shove theminto another plane."

Jake snickered. "I doubt my uncle has, either. But if it'sany consolation, I'm pretty sure that if the circumstanceshad been different, I would be in my dorm room asleepright now, and you'd be covered by him instead of hisclothes."

"Right. That makes everything all better."

The nap had sweetened Walker's disposition a bit, atleast enough to keep him from yelling at her as he led theway down the path toward the gate back to Faerie. Apparently, he was one of those types who
 
really
 
neededtheir beauty sleep.

Just because he no longer seemed angry with her,though, didn't mean he'd become her best friend. He wascivil and moderately pleasant, but he'd taken to speakingto her the minimum amount allowed by circumstance.

When he'd been acting like a grumpy jerk, it had been alot easier to keep from feeling slighted by his deliberatelyimpersonal manners.

Over the course of the morning, she'd come to accept thefact that circumstances were going to prevent them fromenjoying the kind of time together she would have liked. The kind where both of them got and stayed naked for aprolonged period. But it still smarted that he seemed sodetermined to treat her something like a great-aunt ofwhom he was not particularly fond. For someone used tobeing lavished with attention to the point of being fawnedover, the lack of such treatment had stirred anunaccustomed feeling inside her. She felt hurt, and thatmade her angry.

If they had been alone, she probably would have takenthat temper out on Walker's broad back, but Jake haddutifully returned to the apartment after his exam andnow brought up the rear of their little procession. Whilehe looked and sounded as disgustingly good-humored ashe'd been all night, she couldn't help but feel less like thetwo Lupines were ensuring her safety on the trip backhome and more like they were running her out of town ona rail. She kept getting this itch under her skin and feelingthe urge to look down and make sure she hadn't beencovered in tar and feathers.

"Do you think you'll have any trouble getting back into Faerie without being seen?" Jake asked, lengthening his strides until he walked almost next to her.

"No. The other side of the gate was in the middle of the woods when I left, and I doubt I've been gone long enough for it to have relocated. If anyone were going to

see me go, it would be on this side."

"That's why we waited for twilight. Fewer people around and the low light will keep any who are from getting a good look at what's going on. Uncle Tobe knows his stuff."

Jake wasn't shouting, but he hadn't bothered to keep hisvoice down, either. Fiona knew Walker could hear whatthey were saying, but he didn't even twitch a muscle toindicate he cared. Probably thought speaking woulddelay her departure by four nanoseconds.

"I have no doubt. He certainly seems efficient when he

puts his mind to something."

"That's one way to put it." Jake grinned.

They turned off the end of the path and broke through thearea of trees and brambles that separated it from theclearing around the Faerie gate. The glade was borderedby the woods on one side and by tall rock formations onthe other, and Fiona could see charred scars on theground where the demon's foulness had scorched theearth beneath it.

Walker halted and turned to face them, but his eyes wereon his nephew, not Fiona. "Jake, keep an eye on thedirection of the path. I don't want any humans getting lostand wandering in to see this. The last thing we need ismore trouble."

Jake nodded, then turned and grinned down at Fiona,grabbing her to him for a quick hug. "It was nice meetingyou, Fiona. Give us another couple of months and thencome for a real visit. An authorized one, okay? I'll take

you to this great little Thai place. It's BYOB, so you can buy the beer and contribute to my delinquency as a minor."

She couldn't help smiling back. "I might take you up onthat, kid. And if not, you'll have to come visit mesometime. If you think beer makes you delinquent, waittill I pour you a glass or two of Faerie wine."

"Come on, Princess," Walker cut in, his tone brisk. "Time to go. I've got to patrol tonight, and you need to get back home before any of us get in trouble."

Fiona narrowed her eyes and turned on him. "Don'tworry, Fluffy; I'm going. We're back at the gate, no oneknows I was ever here, and in another seven seconds I'llbe out of your life for good. Which suits me fine, givenwhat pleasant company you've been for most of my timehere."

Walker didn't bother to look repentant. He just gazeddown at her with his distant expression and his old-goldeyes and quirked an eyebrow.

Somehow, that one little gesture completely snapped hercontrol.

Later, she might have to claim that she'd been having anepileptic fit or maybe that she'd just lost her balance andfallen onto his lips. Somehow she'd find a way to explainwhat had made her throw herself at the grumpy werewolfwho barely seemed inclined to give her the time of day. But for now, she just needed one more taste of him.

It was exactly the way she remembered from that onebrief tease in his apartment. He tasted like aged Faerie

wine and felt like unfettered temptation. Inexplicably, he made her forget every single thing she wanted to lambaste him for and just sink fast beneath the deepening, drowning pleasure.

Damn, he played dirty. Especially given that she'd startedthe game.

That didn't stop her from drawing every last drop ofenjoyment she could get from the kiss, and she got a lot. The stroke of his tongue, the nip of his teeth, the dark,erotic flavor of him. She drank it all in until her head wasspinning and her knees were weak and she felt thewarmth of magic flaring between them. The sparkeventually penetrated even Walker's thick skull. She feltthe tenor of the kiss change, felt him ease back. Then hishands were on her shoulders, and he pulled her awayfrom him, stepping back for good measure. He seemedalmost desperate to put some distance between them,but Fiona couldn't help but notice that the fingers he hadclenched around her shoulders were having troubleletting her go.