By the Lake (Brave New World Book 3)

Chapter 13

All was not cool.

All was perfect!

Karim, the idiot, I loved him now more than ever. Like a best friend, of course.

I had no idea how he had convinced the Queen to make a trade ambassador to Ris' homecloud no other than my trouble-making self. Maybe Karim had told her this would be a horrible punishment for me. I would, after all, have to visit often that sunny and treeless place in the sky. As well as spend days amid winged uglies to inspect the goods they were going to deliver weekly to our kingdom.

Maybe Karim wasn't doing this as much for me as for himself, worried that here I might cause more trouble for him and choco girl.

Who cared? What mattered was that I could be with Ris. Up in the sky, we didn't need to hide our togetherness. No one would mind if instead of inspecting the would-be-delivered produce, I inspected my tiger. As often and as thoroughly as half-humanly possible.

To sweeten things up even more, Karim had given his full approval of my relationship with Ris. He hadn't phrased it like that, of course. No, the Prince had diplomatically demanded that Emissary Ris personally provide me with a place to stay during my visits to his homecloud. Also, Emissary Ris had to keep me busy indoors so that the sun didn't burn me into a vegetable crisp.

So, all was perfect.

Well, almost everything: my tiger was no dancer at all.

"Come on, tiger, shake that tailed booty!"

An exasperated grunt.

"I know you've got the vertical moves - I've seen you with a sword."

A snort-like grunt. "I left it at the entrance."

"Which is good. The guards would have shot you had you had a weapon in combination with this look on your face. Aren't you happy?"

A frustrated grunt. "Your new duties start as late as in two days. And I just overheard your prince tell his mate he would turn me into target practice if I disappoint you."

I giggled while swaying to the live music from side to side beside him then in front. "And then Tisvali said that he would turn your tail into a necklace for me."

A very unhappy grunt. "He spoke of a souvenir for you, not necklace."

"But that's how I'll wear your tail if you disappoint me, tiger." I winked at him, and swayed a bit closer. "You better find me a very nice place to stay up on that homecloud of yours."

A low rumble. Next thing I knew, his tail was around my ankle under the hem of my dress.

Did he seriously think no one would notice?... Mmmm, that agile tail of his against my naked skin...

"I know the perfect place, my Dei-dre."

"It better be in the same place where I will be doing most of my inspections... Long and thorough inspections, just so you know. You must be present for those."

He uttered another one of his low rumbles, and I knew two days would be too much to spend apart.

I missed the sounds he made. I missed his sweet words in between the grunts and growls. I missed his sense of humor. And I missed the feel of him against my naked skin as our bodies moved in perfect sync. Two more days without all of that? Curses and double courses!

I stopped my dancing to cock a hip and put a hand on it. "Hey, tiger... You know what?"

A disappointed grunt was the reply I got. Did my tiger want me to keep dancing for him? Well, something could be arranged in two days...