Page 40 of Love & Heart Braking

Should be back around midnight. I’ll call you when I’m back.

Mwuah!

Cerys the Amazing

Going now was probably for the best. Devereaux had hinted about joining me all the way back from the Dethnels last night. His predator would go crazy waiting for me to get out, so maybe it would be better to inform him after the fact.

Whistling, I folded the note. Then again. Then again.

I held up the final design. “Good, huh?”

The man didn’t seem impressed with my paper dart. Tough crowd.

Returning to Yearning Hearts, I cracked the door open and tossed the dart inside, wincing at a low groan and slap of skin.

Nope, nope, nope!

I shut the door and hoisted my tote into a better position. “Ready!”

Striding past Sneery McGee, I entered the carriage and peered around. My ass cheeks were already informing me that these cushions weren’t hire carriage cushions. And nothing else in the interior would apply to the description of hire carriage either. “We’ll be working together. Got a name?”

The man sat directly beside me. Far too close.

Dick.

I smiled at him and waited.

He raked my frame with his cold gaze. Apparently my body didn’t pass whatever standard he maintained for the unfortunate females in his life. “I’m above your paygrade, heart elemental.”

The man rested an arm over the back of the cushioned bench seat behind me.

Wouldn’t be mad if my curse blasted him through the roof, but I’d never been more turned off in my life, so the chances of that were approximately zero. His sneer rendered what could’ve been good looks to cold ugliness. “You should smile more, Above Your Paygrade. Hey, how about we go with Paygrade for short?”

His face twisted, enhancing his cold nastiness, and I turned my huge grin toward the window.

“Where are we going anyway?” I asked.

He surprised me by replying. “The Ventrams’.”

Probably should’ve included that on my note. “Never been there. Nice house?” The earth guardians were another of the top four, and they’d been directly involved in this shit from the start.

Paygrade ignored my question, removing his arm from behind me.

Annoyance had its place in a female’s toolbox. Nothing else but dropping my tote onto his testicles would’ve had him retreating to a more comfortable distance.

Unfortunately for him, he’d shown me his weakness.

I started singing the latest tune from Son of Thunder. “Jupiter kept good order. He was as powerful as they came. He preferred thunderbolts to lightning. Yeah, yeah, thunderbolts to lightning.”

How to phrase this nicely…

I sucked at singing.

“Love the chorus, don’t you?” I asked, then belted, “He saw Juno across the pond. His queeeeeeeeen.” I gave full throat to the high note.

“Be quiet!” Paygrade snapped.

I stopped singing. “You just had to ask. Sheesh.”

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