both six feet, both handsome enough to model, which they had done briefly in their early twenties to raise startup money for their detective agency. Julian's jacket was a deep burgundy satin over a pair of ordinary, but designer, burgundy-brown, pinstriped pants. He wore shiny black loafers with no socks, so that you got flashes of his tanned feet as he moved gracefully through the room. His eyes were hidden behind yellow tinted glasses that on anyone else would have clashed with the clothes; but on Julian they looked just right.
I started to rise to greet him, but he said, "No, no, my fair Merry, stay seated, I'll come to you." He walked around the couch, eyes flicking to the four men still standing in the archway. "Ethan, darling, I've told you time and again that the sidhe warriors are not doing a thing to attract our business away from us. They are merely more exotic, more beautiful than anything we have on staff." He took my hand and gave it a negligent kiss, before flopping gracefully down beside me, one arm flung across my shoulders so that we sat like a couple.
He spoke back over his shoulder, "You know what Hollywood is like, Ethan. Any star guarded by a warrior is guaranteed publicity. I think some people are making things up just so they can be escorted."
"That has been my experience," Frost said. The unnamed muscle standing closest to him flinched. What stories had Ethan been telling the others about the Unseelie?
"And who wouldn't wish to be accompanied by you, Frost?" Julian said.
Frost just looked at him, grey eyes very still.
Julian laughed and hugged me. "You are the luckiest girl I know, Merry. Are you sure you won't share?"
"How's Adam?"
Julian laughed. "Adam is purrrfectly wonderful." And he laughed again. Adam Kane was Ethan's older brother and Julian's lover. They'd been a couple for at least five years now. When they were in private where they didn't get hostile comments from strangers, they still acted like newlyweds.
Julian fluttered his hand in the air. "Come, gentlemen, come and sit down."
I glanced back. No one had moved. "Doyle and Frost won't move until Ethan and the new man do."
Julian turned around to look at them all. "Frank," Julian said, "our newest recruit." The man was tall, lanky, and looked young -- fresh-faced, wet-behind-the-ears young. He did not look like a Frank. A Cody maybe, or a Josh.
"Nice to meet you, Frank," I said.
Frank looked from me to the still-scowling Ethan; finally he gave a small nod. He looked as if he wasn't sure that being friendly to us would help his chances of staying employed.
"Ethan," Julian said, "all the senior partners discussed your views on the sidhe warriors. You were outvoted." His voice had lost all of that teasing quality and was now low and serious and full of something very like a threat.
I wondered what the threat was. Ethan Kane was one of the founding partners of their firm. Could you fire a founding partner?
"Ethan," Julian said, "sit down." His voice held a note of command I'd never heard before. For just a second I wondered if I'd gotten the wrong twin. Jordon was more likely to turn to force, while Julian was more the joking diplomat. I studied his profile, and, no, the dimple was just a touch deeper at the corner of his mouth, the cheeks a fraction less sculpted. It was Julian. What had been happening behind the scenes of Kane and Hart to put such hardness in his voice?
Whatever it was, it was enough, because Ethan started moving down the steps. Frank followed him. Doyle and Frost watched them for a moment, then slowly followed them around the room. Ethan sat on the section opposite me. Frank sat down like he wasn't sure he was allowed. He placed himself far enough away from Ethan not to crowd him.
Doyle sat on the other side of me opposite Julian. He'd made a point of sitting there and forcing Frost one seat over. He'd murmured, "Meredith needs to concentrate." It hit me suddenly that he'd been calling me Meredith for a little while. I was usually "the princess" or "Princess Meredith," although he'd called me Meredith at the beginning when he first got to L.A. He'd distanced himself with language about the time he distanced himself physically.
Frost was clearly not happy about the seating arrangements, but I doubted that anyone but one of us noticed. The slight stiffness to his