Goddess, gwyllgi males made my head throb with all their posturing.
“Good for you.” He smiled at Midas, his lip smeared with crimson. “Guess you figured out what you want after all.”
“Yeah.” Midas locked gazes with me. “I did.”
“I’m going to brush my teeth.” I swept into the bathroom then paused to glance over my shoulder. “When I get back, I expect you both to have finished punching each other.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Ford got to his feet. “I’ll do my best not to ruin his toothpaste-commercial smile.”
“I would appreciate that.” I shut the door and left the men to sort themselves out, but I pulled up short at the sink when I noticed Ambrose sitting on its edge. “What do you want?”
The shadow swung his legs and stared at me.
“I don’t get it.” I kept my voice soft. “What is it?”
He pointed at my chest and then at his.
“Not helping.”
He pointed at my chest and then his and then the door.
“We’re leaving in five minutes.” I gave up on him. “Don’t get ants in your pants.”
An involuntary shudder rippled through me.
Ugh.
Ants.
Heaving a sigh with lungs he didn’t have, Ambrose hopped down and gave me room to brush my teeth with the individually wrapped supplies I located under the sink. The vacation from reality had been nice, but it was time to get back to the city.
An incoming call from Bishop coaxed a sigh out of me, so I answered while I flossed. “Yesh?”
“Where are you?”
“Somewhere you’re not.”
“I get the sense you’re miffed about Blithe.”
“Miffed?” I cheesed for the mirror, checking my teeth. “Who says miffed anymore?”
“You’re pissed I shut you out. That better?”
Just to annoy him, I made chomping noises.
“Kid, I would apologize, but I’m not sorry. Blithe is bad news, and her club is the epicenter of this mess.”
“What’s your deal with her?”
“I have no deal with her, and that’s the problem. She wants to marry me off to her son. Forge an alliance. Seize control of the city. Crush other species under her boot. That kind of thing.”
“That sounds like something you should have told me before now.” I tossed the floss. “It’s the coven’s MO, minus the marrying-you bit.” I searched the far corners of my brain but came up empty. “I didn’t realize you had a thing for guys too.”
More than once, he had dated women. Nothing serious. Just fun and done. Maybe guys had been in the mix too. It’s not like Bishop advertised his personal life. Goddess forbid someone else be on the receiving end of the team’s collective romantic wisdom.
“I had a thing for one guy,” he corrected me. “He turned out to be a raging momma’s boy, beautiful but spineless, so we broke up. End of story.”
“A raging momma’s boy?” I squinted at the phone. “Are you telling me Blithe’s son is the guy you dated?”
“Blithe has been meaning to get around to taking over the world for the last five centuries. All she’s done in that time is addict herself to Faerie-grade drugs and push out one very beautiful and very annoying son who sticks his nose where it doesn’t belong and always comes running when she crooks her finger. He’s her enforcer, and she trained him to be a nasty piece of work.”
A nasty piece of work he had called beautiful twice in one conversation. “Um…”
“You begin to see why I don’t want you anywhere near her.”
“I understood, on some level, that Midas had fae blood.” I washed my face but couldn’t meet my eyes. “I’m still wrapping my head around the fact I had no frakking idea how much fae blood everyone else and their mommas have in this city.”
“You’ll get there.” The jerk had the nerve to laugh. “Now where are you?”
The last several hours spent on pack land had pulled me out of a tailspin and given me a glimpse of what life might be like if Midas and I continued down this path. I didn’t want to share it. No, that wasn’t it. I didn’t want to tarnish it.
“I’ll be back in the city in two hours.” I winced at my rumpled dress. “I’ll change then head to HQ.”
“I’ll put in calls to the team, see who’s available for—”
“Lisbeth.” I thumped my forehead on the mirror. “I met her last night.”
“That’s…interesting.”
“It totally slipped my mind.” I bumped my head again. “What kind of person forgets something like that?”
“You really remember her?” He sounded thoughtful. “Huh.”
“What does that mean? Why aren’t you having a fit?”