Page 32 of Unholy Gambit: Checkmate in Blood
He nodded. “Okay.” He leaned a little closer to the camera. “Okay, Aurélie. Talk to him, tell him you need to tell your…”
He frowned. Hesitated. Blinked once.Twice. “Boyfriend? Is that what I am?”
He looked so perplexed, she’d have laughed if she wasn’t trying so hard to focus on a great big red fire engine instead of her mentor, so Axel wouldn’t see him in her head.
“We have to be dating nine months. It’s in… look in my head if you must, but I’d really rather you just trusted me in this. I’ll tell you when I can.”
“Is there anything else you can’t tell me?”
“Are there more things you can’t tell me?”
He smiled. “Touché.”
“I need to brush my teeth and touch up my makeup. I’d ask you to share your location with me when you’re on your way, but that’s something I can’t know, right? I’ll see you soon, darling Axel.”
Chapter 10
Darling Axel.She meant it, both as an endearment and as a smart-assed retort.
Axel stared at the monitor. His little Aurélie had some sharp talons. He’d annoyed her, and he went back over the conversation in his head to try to figure it out.
The balance of power was off, but there wasn’t anything he could do about that.
No, there was. He could show her how to build solid shields, but then he wouldn’t be able to see in her head.
Logic told him this wasn’t likely to work long-term — his being able to peruse her thoughts and memories at will. Not for someone with a mind as sharp as his Aurélie’s.
And the wordboyfriendfelt wrong. Too juvenile. Too corny. He was hersputnik, her companion, or her?ashiq— her lover, her adored one. No, she knew French, he could work with that. He was heramant.A much better choice for describing him as her lover. Soon, anyway.
Not too soon, though. He'd need to court her first. Properly prepare his Aurélie for her first true penetration. Learn her, so he'd know how to make it magical. Perhaps moredonneur de plaisir, pleasure-giver, thanamant.
Definitely notboyfriend, though. He’d laid waste to too many tender young virgins in his first centuries to be called something so ordinary. His first master had especially enjoyed watching the devastation. The screams.
He shook his head. He knew whatnotto do with his Aurélie, at least.
He grabbed the little bouquet of cookies Tariq had picked up for him to give her. It was quite aesthetic despite the Halloween theme. Tariq thought he was being funny by finding one with spiders, and perhaps the boy wasn’t wrong to be whimsical with this first gift.
She would be getting many, many gifts from Axel, and it was fitting that this first wasn’t serious. He’d read three dozen books on relationships since he’d been told his Aurélie needed him, and most recommended keeping things light to start.
Her smile was self-conscious when she first opened the car door, but it changed when she saw the little bouquet of cookies meant to look like Halloween flowers and spiders. Pleasure and surprise lit her face, and he wanted to kiss her, but he merely handed them to her and put the car in gear. He’d already researched the store she’d mentioned and had the address in his onboard GPS.
“I love it! I almost don’t want to eat them, but screw that.” She broke off part of a flower where it wouldn’t show much and took a bite. “Oh. Yummm. It’s the good kind of frosting, with buttercream.”
She held the bouquet with one hand and aimed her camera with the other, so the piece she broke off wouldn’t show, and snapped a pic. She looked at it and then went to town texting someone. A quick dip in her head told him she was sending it to Ruby, and he smiled to himself. Wanting to share his gift with her friend was a good sign.
“I’m sorry about the way I reacted,” he told her. “I don’t want you to feel as if you need to hide things, and yet, you need to be able to keep your promises. I’ll try to do better, if this comes up again.”
He knew who her mentor was, of course. Her mind was an open book to him. She was playing games online with the current reigning world champion, and the only payment he would accept from her was a promise to tell no one he was teaching her.
Aury turned a little in her seat, so she watched him drive. “I think, maybe, the two of us in a relationship is kind of like two people who’ve never played chess trying to figure it out.”
She broke off another piece of cookie and ate it, thinking. “Except you know how to play… I don’t know, maybe backgammon and checkers, while I’ve only played Chutes and Ladders as a child.”
And here he’d thought he was the one struggling through the idea of a relationship. She was thinking he had the upper hand, so he explained why this wasn’t accurate. “I know about sex, but not relationships. I’ve watched people have romantic liaisons, talked to them during the process, but so have you.”
She settled the flowers in her lap. “Right. We’re both neophytes, figuring it out. We’re going to fuck up. What’s important is that we acknowledge it and move on without repeating the same mistakes.”
The curse word hit him wrong, coming from his sweet Aurélie’s mouth, but he considered how to tell her, and thenwhetherto tell her. She cussed in her head, and that bugged him too, but nothing like hearing the words spoken aloud. Finally, he said, “I believe that’s the first time I’ve heard you curse.” And so casually. So naturally.
