Nadine Book 5

4. Almost Mad

We wake up in the morning with Mary banging on the wall. "Why is it always you 2? Meeting is in 10 minutes. You're going to be late. I'll make up something." Then she walks out.

We get to the meeting about an hour late. "How is the medical area now?"

"It's fine."

"Good."

"Good morning babydoll."

"Good morning. You look... sober."

"I am." He nods. "Finally."

Tre looks like total s**t. Marcus looks like hell.

I stand back up. "I'm taking Marcus."

We go over to the sitting room.

"Good morning sir. Why didn't you sleep?"

"I told Omar what you said about wanting to have had s*x with Tre first. I know that was something I shouldn't have said. I didn't think about it. Omar was trying to figure out the panic attack. I f****d up. I'm so sorry."

I give him a hug. "Yea, you shouldn't have shared that. I understand, Omar was trying to sort out what happened though. Everyone's health is always the priority. I get it. I'm not upset." I snuggle him. "You boys take care of me. I know you are doing your best to keep me healthy and alive."

"That's it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I figured you would throw tables at me or throw me out the window or tell me to never talk to you again."

"For telling my doctor what I said before a panic attack?"

"It was private."

"He's my doctor. It was a panic attack. Honestly, I've never had one before."

"I figured you would hate me."

"You need to relax. I love you. You get yourself worked up. I told you, we can talk about anything. And if we can't talk through it, I'll blow fire at you until you see it my way."

"I love you so much."

"You seem better already, sir." I fix his hair. "You are so sexy."

"So are you."

"Let's go before Dipak yells from across the hall."

We step out hugging on each other. There's a king and some advisors in the hallway. He sees them and his body goes stiff. He stares at them. They stare at him.

He kisses my head. "Go work on titles baby."

Thora comes in my title office about 5 minutes later. "Got kicked out."

"What was going on?"

"That was Marcus's dad. Lots of issues."

"What does he want?"

"No idea. One of his dad's advisors went in there and told Dipak that Marcus has something going on with his mate."

"What an ass. And honestly, all they saw was us hugging. I think he kissed me on the head. And he called me baby. I can see where he would get that. But still, why try to start s**t with strangers?"

"I don't know. It's a bunch of drama. I got some s**t to do. I'll see you when we get summoned back."

"Have fun."

I get the titles fixed and go over to Dipak's office.

I am going through everything and making sure I got it right, not watching where I'm going. I go to Dipak's spot at the head of the conference table. "I need your signature on these 3." I put the papers down and look up at Marcus.

I freeze. He signs them. I put them in the folder with the rest of it and hand it to Frode.

"Sorry everyone. I didn't realize you were still in a meeting when I came in."

Marcus smiles. "It's alright. Was that all you needed?"

"Yea." I go to Dipak's desk and rob the money drawer. Marcus won't even know to say anything.

"What do you need that much money for?"

Shit. "SHOPPING." I run for it.

I get almost to the door at the end of the hallway and Marcus catches me. "What are you shopping for woman? There was 10k in there."

"It use to only be 2k."

"It's 10 because we need to pay someone. Why did you take it like that?"

"I want to go shopping and I didn't think you would know what I was doing."

"You were trying to get away with it while I was sitting there."

I give him a kiss.

"You're lucky you're a good kisser." He smacks my butt. "But you still can't have 10k. You can have 500g and change clothes before you go to the village."

I give him all but 500g back. He's happy as he goes back to the office.

I dress me and Nova like humans, and we go to the village.

"Do you have a personality of a friend? No kissing or hugging?"

"Yes. Would you like that one?"

"Yes."

"It is done."

We get to the music, and she sways back and forth. It's funny watching her.

"Would you like to dance, miss?"

I turn and smile at Elek. "What are you doing here, sir?"

"Trying to get my brother out more. It's hard to do in our village. He likes listening to music."

"Me too. I always get lost in it." I take his hand.

He spins me. "Never thought I would run into you here."

"I don't do this often anymore. I wanted to see if the bakery has any new flavor cakes."

"Yea you do like sugar."

Elroy is laughing his ass off and pointing. Nova is holding a table in the air with one hand and searching underneath it. I freeze. They'll figure out it's me and pull my hair again.

Elek yells, "NOVA GET OVER HERE."

She drops the table and it breaks. "Someone dropped money. I helped them find it. I'm friendly."

I don't think anyone figured it out. "Nova, you can't draw attention to us."

"I was trying to help."

"I know."

Then I hear it from somewhere across the dance floor. "THAT'S THE PRINCESS."

Elek's eyes go red, and he throws me straight up.

I get in the air and flip to a dragon. Everyone cheers.

I have no choice but to go somewhere else. I fly to the barn and get Butter out. A ride sounds nice.

Marcus comes over about a half hour later with his arms crossed. "Now I'm almost mad."

"What?"

"Elek brought Nova back."

"Oh I forgot her."

"Why did he have her? You went and seen Elek, with Nova?"

"No. You really think I would do that?"

"No. But that's what it looks like."

"I would never do that. You told me to take someone with me to the village. I took Nova. We ran into Elek and Elroy. I guess they have a hard time taking Elroy into their village. So they come to ours and listen to music. Elek spotted me and asked me to dance. So I danced with him. And Nova picked up a damn table. She got everyone's attention. Then someone yelled PRINCESS. Elek threw me into the air and I turned to a dragon and flew back."

"Thank you. I feel better now."

"I know you think I'm testing your limits. But I would never intentionally make you think that. I'm sorry it seemed so bad."

He holds out his arms for me. "Come here."

I slide off Butter into his arms. "I love you."

"I love you too." He gives me a kiss.

"Are those people still here?"

"No. Dipak is summoning everyone back now." He hops up on Butter and pulls me up. "I'll take him back with you, and then we can go back in."

I lean into his chest. I miss riding like this.