the other man was, too. I liked that.
Doyle moved a little more and I was suddenly aware that his body was very happy to be pressed up against my ass. The sensation pushed me further out of the drowsy sleep. I couldn't see a clock, so I didn't know how long we had until the alarm sounded, but however long we had, I wanted to use it.
Music sounded. It wasn't the alarm. It was Paula Cole's "Feelin' Love," which meant it was my phone. I felt Doyle and Frost wake instantly. Their bodies tensed, muscles ready to spring out of bed for some emergency. I'd noticed that most of the guards woke like that, unless I woke them with petting and sex, as if anything else always meant some crisis.
"It's my cell phone," I said. Some minutia of tension slid away from their tensed muscles. Frost reached one long arm down to the side of the bed and began to rummage in the clothes pile, which was where all the clothes had ended up last night.
One of the interesting things about the Treo was that it could play an entire song, and that's what it was doing as Frost fumbled through the clothes. For me to reach the ground someone would have needed to steady me so I didn't fall out of bed, but Frost could reach the floor easily. There was no tension in his body as he finally held the phone back up in the air in my general direction.
We were far enough into the song to make me debate once more on the song as my main ring tone. It was fine until it played too far into the song in public. The sexually explicit lyrics didn't bother me, but I kept waiting for some little old lady or mother with small children to protest. So far no one had, or maybe I'd just gotten to the song in time.
I unlocked the phone and was suddenly talking to Jeremy Grey, my boss. "Merry, it's Jeremy."
I sat up, searching for the glowing face of the bedside clock, afraid I'd overslept. The blackout curtains in the main bedroom made the light not helpful. "What time is it?"
"It's only six; you're hours from needing to be in the office." He sounded grim. Jeremy was usually pretty upbeat, which meant something was wrong.
"What's wrong, Jeremy?"
The men had both rolled over on their backs and were watching me. They were tense again, because they, like me, knew that Jeremy wouldn't call this early for anything good. Funny how no one ever wakes you up with good news.
"There's been another fey murder."
I sat up straighter, letting the sheet pool in my lap. "Like the other one?"
"I don't know yet. Lucy just called."
"She called you, not me," I said. "After the mess my presence made of the last murder, I think I'm probably persona non grata."
"You are," he said, "but if I feel I want you and your guard's opinion she's left me a very explicit message. She said 'Bring whatever employees you think will be the most helpful on this. I trust your judgment, Jeremy, and I know you understand the situation.'"
"That is an odd way for her to ask."
"This way when you show up, it's not her bad, it's mine, and I can make the case for needing you better than she can."
"I'm not sure Lucy's superiors aren't right, Jeremy. Her having to come save me made her lose the only witness we had."
"Maybe, but if a fey, especially a demi-fey, wants to run they will. They disappear better than almost any of us."
He was right, but ... "That's true, but it was still a mess."
"Bring only guards who can do enough glamour to hide in plain sight. Bring more guards; two wasn't enough from what I saw on the news."
"If I bring more guards, it's more people to hide," I said.
"I'll have some of the other people meet us there, so we all show up in a mass. We'll hide you with numbers, and leave Doyle and Frost at home. They don't do good glamour, and they're too damn noticeable."
"They won't like that."
"Either you're Princess or you aren't, Merry. If you are going to be in charge, then be in charge. If you're not, then stop pretending."
"The voice of experience," I said.
"You know it," he said. "If I need you, meet Julian here." He gave me the address to meet so we wouldn't show up in a car that was associated