Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
“Okay, well…” She took a step away. “I’ll leave you two to it.”
With that, she turned and started walking, immediately bumping into Jasper, followed closely by Ulric.
“Hey,” Jasper said, bending down to smile in her face. “Just the lovely lady I was looking for. Niamh said you needed help finding a dark corner.” He spread his palm across his chest. “Is that to bang me specifically, or are you looking for help finding someone else? Either way, I’m in. It’ll be easy, too. This place is full of corners and willing partners.”
“It is very easy to find a willing partner,” Ulric chimed in. “I mean, besides us, because we’re always willing. But any Dick here would follow a woman blindly, it seems like—”
“Very sexually frustrated,” Jasper said, nodding exaggeratedly.
“Well, yeah,” Ulric replied. “They go about it all wrong. They’re sleazy and pushy and act like they’re trying to steal something.”
“Did you hear that one guy? He called the girl a slut when she wouldn’t give him any, which is the very definition of not being a slut.”
“That just means he thought she was a slut going in, figured she would be an easy lay because of it, got pissed when she saw through him, and then tried to shame her for his crushed ego. Small dick energy.”
“Well, right,” Jasper put in, “but how are you going to look down on women for banging, and at the same time expect to be banged? There is zero logic there. Zero. Celebrate the fuck, that’s what you gotta do. Celebrate the ladies who will give you the fuck. These guys are making their lives infinitely harder. It’s very confusing.”
“But helpful for us.” Ulric grinned at him comically.
“This is true. Janes are even easier to please than shifters. Anyway, Aurora, all of that aside, you can have any Dick you want on account of your being super hot. Or us, obviously. We’ll get you that big O, no problem. You’re not as tightly wound as you usually seem.” He used two fingers to point at her eyes. “I see that glitter, baby.”
“We just need a direction so we know how best to fulfill your needs,” Ulric finished.
She stared at them incredulously, which they wouldn’t know because they were not nearly as good at reading body language as Tristan.
“I kinda just want to have fun without it getting back to my dad,” she finally said. “Like…dancing. Slow dancing.”
Ulric pointed at her, his eyebrows raised. “Grinding? Is that what you’re really saying? I can’t tell.”
“Come on.” Jasper took her hand, heading toward the rope. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Okay, but being down there stresses me out,” she said.
“We got you, baby girl.” Ulric put his hands on her shoulders. “We’ll be your bumpers. It’ll be okay, you’ll see.”
Aurora glanced back at Sue as she let Jasper pull her along. He stood at the bar by himself, drink in hand, watching her go.
If their positions in the pack were different, she’d drag him with her, or stall the guys for a bit and go hang out with him until he found another group to join. But he was the beta, and she was a nobody right now. Pack protocol said that she needed to give him distance, regardless of how he’d helped her not one hour ago.
With a sigh, she followed Jasper and let herself laugh as she did so. Niamh had been right—these guys seemed like the cruise directors for people who wanted to let their hair down. She’d found exactly what she’d been hoping for.
TWENTY-ONE
Jessie
The next evening, after a really fun time hanging out and dancing in the club, I stood in front of a mirror with a grim expression. The fun and games were over. It was time for business. Tonight was the mage dinner.
“This can’t be what they are going for,” I said in my bedroom, looking at my reflection. This time, it wasn’t my clothing choice that I was waffling about—it was Sebastian and Nessa’s.
“Why, what’s wrong with it?” Tristan stood from the bed, having come in a moment before to discuss the placement of the gargoyles tonight. We needed to keep them far enough away that none of the mages would know they were on hand, but close enough to get to us in a hurry if things went south. We had a strict limit on numbers for tonight, and I didn’t want the mages to know, until it was too late, that I was breaking it.
“I mean…” I pulled my arms away from my body, looking down at the baby-blue ballroom-type dress. Lace dappled with little blue roses crossed the top of my chest and connected with the fitted bodice, perfectly contoured to my body. Sebastian and Nessa had gotten my size correct with impressive precision. The skirt puffed out over the hoop, reaching all the way down to the floor and dragging a little in the back. White gloves adorned my hands, up to my elbows, and a glittering diamond bracelet circled my wrist, jewelry I’d brought along. “Give me a black choker and a pair of glass slippers and I’d be Cinderella.”