Tiki
1081 Words
Ren’s POV
After dinner, I want nothing more than to go out for an evening ride on Rosie—to close my eyes, feel the wind on my face, and forget the many things I’m constantly being forced to think about—but, unfortunately, Arabella Eaton has other ideas.
“The night is still young, isn’t it?” she asks me cheerfully as she drags her miserable-looking eldest son over to me. “Nick, why don’t you take Her Highness out to that little tiki bar you and Caine installed—you know, on the upper west balcony?”
I highly doubt that Mr. Spoiled Vampire Prince and his Social Climbing Beta hand-installed a tiki bar anywhere, but I decide not to point that out.
Nick glances at his mother as if debating objecting, then shrugs and turns to me. “Sure. But lose the guard dog, would you?”
I don’t have to glance behind me to know that Archer is standing there, hovering. Before I get a chance to object, though, Margery seems to appear out of nowhere. “I’ll chaperone!” she says cheerfully. “Don’t worry, Ren—I’ve got my mace on me, if he decides to try anything.”
I don’t find her joke remotely funny, given my mother’s history with Nick’s step-uncle, but fake a smile so as not to hurt her feelings.
“I’ll come, too,” chimes in Nick’s younger brother, Luke, also seeming to materialize out of thin air. Not a surprise; Luke Emerson has had a crush on Margery since we first started coming here.
To the very vocal objections of Archer, our foursome departs at that. Margery is friendly enough to both of them, asking them polite questions about how their years were and what they’ve been up to; I, for the most part, remain quiet. When we reach the tiki bar, I’m surprised to see that it’s actually very pretty: twinkly lights; live music; candles; sunset in the background. Instantly, I feel more at ease than I usually am at the Night Castle.
Luke eagerly pulls Margery aside to show her around the balcony, leaving Nick and me alone at the bar.
“The Mai Tais are good,” Nick offers quietly.
I consider asking for something else just to be ornery, then decide against it and politely request a Mai Tai from the bartender, who eagerly gets to work.
I glance at Nick and am surprised to find him already looking at me.
“You look different,” he says after a second of silence. “Than you did last year.”
“Think that tends to happen when you only see each other one month out of twelve,” I point out lamely. “You do, too.”
He nods, not laughing at my weak joke, but not looking insulted, either. “You’re, uh… turning eighteen soon?”
I groan for a split second, then catch myself. “Sorry—yeah. I don’t really like thinking about it.”
He raises his eyebrows at this. “Not the usual reaction to turning eighteen.”
“Yeah… it’s just this… true mates thing.” What am I saying? To him, of all people?
He certainly looks interested now. “Really? But I thought… since you’re…?”
Since you’re a hybrid, he was going to say. “I mean, clearly Ramsay Eaton’s wolf half found someone,” I remind him dryly. “And apparently…” I trail off, catching myself. Don’t you dare say what you were about to say.
“Apparently, what?”
I try not to blush, hastily accepting my Mai Tai from the bartender and taking a seat on one of the benches. “Nothing.”
He sits next to me, looking no less riveted. “Someone’s told you you’re their true mate.”
Am I really that transparent?
“It doesn’t matter,” I say, waving a hand. “It’s not going to happen to me. Or, it is, but it’s not going to get the better of me.”
“‘Get the better of you,’” he repeats, accepting his own drink. “Would it really be such a bad thing?”
I think this might be the most we’ve ever spoken—at least a genuine conversation about more than the weather. “Well… yeah. Would you want that? Your free will ripped away from you because of some innate, s****l desire you can’t control?”
For a split second, I catch a flash in his eye—right about the time the world s****l escapes my lips—that sends shivers down my spine.
As soon as it’s there, though, it’s gone.
“If I’m being honest?” he asks me. “Doesn’t sound half-bad. Better that problem than ours, I’d wager.”
“Than yours?”
“Well, it’s just the opposite, isn’t it? When your free will causes you innate, s****l desire for everyone of your kind, you almost want to lose it.”
I’m not sure when my mouth fell open, but I’m sure that at some point during that speech, my jaw dropped. Did he really just admit to me that he lusts after basically every member of his species? And why in the Sun’s Hell did I find that attractive, rather than repulsive?
I really need to get a grip here.
He’s silent for a moment, then sighs, turning away from me. “Sorry. ’Spose that wasn’t a proper way to speak to the Princess.”
Right—moment over.
“I’m not who you think I am, you know,” I tell him as I rise to my feet.
“No?” he asks me, but the interest in his voice has faded now as much as my own has. “Then who are you?”
“Someone who doesn’t owe you that answer.”
- Writer
