comfortable if she waited for you in your rooms.”
Gregory didn’t flinch under the hard stare Lore turned on him. In fact, he put on a show of being resolute for their audience of banquet attendees as by this point he realized many were following this conversation closely.
“You might discover the offensive nature of your implication does not serve you well, Gregory. Have a care how you handle this situation, my friend,” Lore warned sharply.
Lore had felt the room suddenly chill at the thinly veiled insult to Kenna. He glanced around and found not only hard faces turned to the royal table but some men had a hand on the ceremonial swords they wore for the period feast. Apparently not all the swords were props.
Gregory obviously interpreted those ridged faces as support for his position. Most of those men had to be Gregory’s countrymen, the original homeland of the Keepers. That Gregory would so fundamentally misread this overwhelming shift in the room’s loyalties was a sad reality. One Lore had no idea how to explain, much less warn Gregory about. A part of him couldn’t care less if Gregory came to an abrupt and humiliating understanding of where loyalties stood. The logical king portion of his brain knew that would be a serious error.
A soft body leaned around Lore. Kenna smiled at Lore and asked in a cheerful voice, “It would be helpful if you introduced us, my lord. I would very much like to meet my lord Leionoff.”
Lore raised his brows at that big fat lie, but he felt the room hanging on her. Each grim Keeper waited to see how this played out. She was attempting to defuse the growing hostility with a display of civility and normal introductions.
“Of course, the events of the day precluded that introduction. I apologize,” Lore responded. “Gregory Karoly Leionoff, First Advisor of Kersonovia, may I present Kenna MacKelsey,” Lore made the introduction quietly as Kenna and Gregory nodded to each other.
Kenna kept a tight lid on her instinctive revulsion and smiled in a show of courtesy. There were too damn many quick-tempered men around who could tune her in. Learning to mask her emotions seemed an imperative as she felt the room relax marginally. The stress of being the one whose actions or emotions affect this large a group of people frightened her. It was a responsibility she never dreamed of holding, didn’t want to have, couldn’t put down.
Yet there was Lore. His complete openness to her and commitment to see his responsibilities through, even when his world was altering in ways that should have knocked him off his game, gave her a measure of his strength. How he did that wasn’t as important as his ability to provide a soothing shield in this moment.
He was projecting protection, enclosing her in a calm cocoon where all she had to do was listen normally to people talk. Somehow he’d taken up the job of blocking her enhanced senses for her. Giving her a rest as her strength to do it herself faltered with exhaustion.
The feast didn’t end with the food and it was after midnight before Lore was finally able to rise from the table and say their good nights.
On the short walk to his rooms, the connection enveloped them. In him she found barely restrained lust wrapping around her. He didn’t conceal his needs. The lust between them was mutual, but this level of intensity should have frightened her. It didn’t because of what else passed between them. The heat she found in him lived in herself, but his drives were much more complex than that. She had to look down at the floor to shield her expression and her blush from the ever-present Yuri and Thomas.
Lore was beyond smiling. A few more steps and she would be his alone. It seemed an eternity had passed between this morning when they’d discovered each other and now. In a way it had.
The reality he’d woken to this morning was a memory. The world they lived in now was peopled by unknown entities whose existence he could not deny
Gregory didn’t flinch under the hard stare Lore turned on him. In fact, he put on a show of being resolute for their audience of banquet attendees as by this point he realized many were following this conversation closely.
“You might discover the offensive nature of your implication does not serve you well, Gregory. Have a care how you handle this situation, my friend,” Lore warned sharply.
Lore had felt the room suddenly chill at the thinly veiled insult to Kenna. He glanced around and found not only hard faces turned to the royal table but some men had a hand on the ceremonial swords they wore for the period feast. Apparently not all the swords were props.
Gregory obviously interpreted those ridged faces as support for his position. Most of those men had to be Gregory’s countrymen, the original homeland of the Keepers. That Gregory would so fundamentally misread this overwhelming shift in the room’s loyalties was a sad reality. One Lore had no idea how to explain, much less warn Gregory about. A part of him couldn’t care less if Gregory came to an abrupt and humiliating understanding of where loyalties stood. The logical king portion of his brain knew that would be a serious error.
A soft body leaned around Lore. Kenna smiled at Lore and asked in a cheerful voice, “It would be helpful if you introduced us, my lord. I would very much like to meet my lord Leionoff.”
Lore raised his brows at that big fat lie, but he felt the room hanging on her. Each grim Keeper waited to see how this played out. She was attempting to defuse the growing hostility with a display of civility and normal introductions.
“Of course, the events of the day precluded that introduction. I apologize,” Lore responded. “Gregory Karoly Leionoff, First Advisor of Kersonovia, may I present Kenna MacKelsey,” Lore made the introduction quietly as Kenna and Gregory nodded to each other.
Kenna kept a tight lid on her instinctive revulsion and smiled in a show of courtesy. There were too damn many quick-tempered men around who could tune her in. Learning to mask her emotions seemed an imperative as she felt the room relax marginally. The stress of being the one whose actions or emotions affect this large a group of people frightened her. It was a responsibility she never dreamed of holding, didn’t want to have, couldn’t put down.
Yet there was Lore. His complete openness to her and commitment to see his responsibilities through, even when his world was altering in ways that should have knocked him off his game, gave her a measure of his strength. How he did that wasn’t as important as his ability to provide a soothing shield in this moment.
He was projecting protection, enclosing her in a calm cocoon where all she had to do was listen normally to people talk. Somehow he’d taken up the job of blocking her enhanced senses for her. Giving her a rest as her strength to do it herself faltered with exhaustion.
The feast didn’t end with the food and it was after midnight before Lore was finally able to rise from the table and say their good nights.
On the short walk to his rooms, the connection enveloped them. In him she found barely restrained lust wrapping around her. He didn’t conceal his needs. The lust between them was mutual, but this level of intensity should have frightened her. It didn’t because of what else passed between them. The heat she found in him lived in herself, but his drives were much more complex than that. She had to look down at the floor to shield her expression and her blush from the ever-present Yuri and Thomas.
Lore was beyond smiling. A few more steps and she would be his alone. It seemed an eternity had passed between this morning when they’d discovered each other and now. In a way it had.
The reality he’d woken to this morning was a memory. The world they lived in now was peopled by unknown entities whose existence he could not deny
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