“Why not?” Nuala asked.
“Because…” Kett said, scrabbling for an excuse that wasn’t because I don’t want him to have any reasons for us to be together. “Because I haven’t mentioned it yet, and I’m looking for the right moment so I don’t, you know, freak him out.”
Nuala nodded. “Very sensible. All right, we won’t say anything.”
The footmen opened the double doors again and Wilden opened his mouth to announce Bael, who walked straight past him, threw his arms wide, dropped his bag on the floor and cried delightedly, “Kett!”
And Kett’s hormones performed a standing ovation. Gods’ pieces, she thought as her body straightened up and her feet carried her over to him without her brain intervening. It’s only been a few hours since I saw him. And he’s a certified lunatic. I just told my family so.
Which was why, for sure, she walked right up to him and kissed him hard on the mouth, her arms going around his hot body, her legs trembling as he licked into her mouth and ran his fingers through her tangled, smoky hair.
“I’m pleased to see you too,” he said, grinning.
Kett’s heart was thumping so loudly she almost couldn’t hear the rest of the room.
He’s here. He’s hot. You forgot to ask him about the cave and the symbols.
Yes, that was why she was clinging to him like a limpet and breathing in his scent with her eyes closed. Because she wanted Bael for information.
“Sure you don’t have a boyfriend,” her brother said. One of the girls giggled. The duchess muttered something under her breath about impropriety.
Kett decided something. Curling her arm around Bael’s neck, she murmured in his ear, “If you can get Duke and Duchess of Fuck-off out of here,” she indicated them with a flick of her head, “I will go down on you the minute we’re in private.”
Bael didn’t hesitate. Swinging around, he presented his hand to the duchess.
“Howdy,” he said cheerfully. “Wow, what a wig. I didn’t know dead cats were in fashion.”
There was silence until they heard the front door slam behind the duke and duchess.
Her father broke it. “I don’t know who the hell you are,” he said to Bael, “but I like you.”
“Amen,” Tane chimed in. “Why were they still here?”
“Short of calling the guards, I’d run out of ideas,” Nuala apologized.
“Question still stands,” Beyla said.
“Big, mad and loud, eh?” Eithne gave Bael an up-and-down. She grinned.
Kett scowled.
“Bael, this is my family.” She faltered in the face of their delighted smiles. “Family, this is Bael.”
He beamed at them all. “Hiya, folks.”
“It’s wonderful to meet you,” Nuala said with a little more fervor than Kett might have liked.
“It’s even more wonderful to meet you,” he replied, bestowing on Nuala a smile that actually seemed to be genuine.
“Kett’s never brought a boyfriend home before,” Beyla told him.
“Usually for understandable reasons,” Tane said.
“Am I your boyfriend?” Bael asked Kett brightly, and she groaned.
“Hey, anyone who gets rid of a pair like that is okay by me,” Tyrnan said, which Kett considered rather rich considering his almost-allergic reaction to Eithne’s boyfriend-who was a garda, a fine, upstanding pillar of the community, and who had the honorable intention of marrying her.
Unlike Bael, who’d just been described as a lunatic, snogged Tyrnan’s daughter until her body turned to liquid then been so insulting that the thickest-skinned duchess in the Realm had nearly vomited in disgust.
Yet her father liked him. Well, he was Tyrnan of Emreland.
“Come to think of it,” Kett enquired of her famously indelicate father, “why didn’t you tell them to fuck off?”
“Your father has refined his manners of late,” Nuala said.
Kett blinked.
“I know, we were shocked too,” Beyla said.
All five of them regarded Bael, to whom Kett realized she was still clinging. Crap. Well, it wasn’t as if they thought she was still a virgin, she thought glumly. And at least Bael looked good-far too good, considering the journey he must have had, sans dragon.
Really good, actually.
She cleared her throat and tried to disentangle herself from him. He held on, grinning like a maniac.
“So, you’re Kett’s family,” he said. “Nice to meet you. This is a great house. Sorry I was so insulting but Kett promised me filthy things if I got rid of them. And hey, you don’t look too upset so I guess it’s all okay, right?”
Kett covered her eyes.
“Hey, your dad likes me,” Bael said, hugging her to him. “Right? Sorry, Kett didn’t give me anyone’s names. It’s almost like she’s ashamed of me or something.”
“Not ‘almost like’,” Kett muttered. She opened her eyes to see Nuala beaming at Bael. Ah, crap. Nuala’s greatest mission in life was to make people happy. Since getting married and having babies had made her so blissful, she was determined that it would work for everyone else too.
There was a light in her eyes that Kett didn’t like one bit.
“All right,” she sighed. “This is my dad, Tyrnan of Emreland. He used to be a highwayman and owns a sword that can kill kelfs.”
Bael looked like a little boy at Yule. “Really? The Naimlà? You’re kidding.” He gave Kett a delighted look. “You didn’t tell me your dad was a kelf-killer!”
“He’s not,” Kett said.
At the same time her father said dangerously, “I’m not.”
“Tyrnan has a sort of informal treaty with the kelfs,” Nuala put in quickly. “He holds the sword in safety and promises not to let anyone else use it.”
“Oh,” said Bael, deflated. “Why?”
“Because he’s normal,” Kett said, in the face of overwhelming evidence. One of her father’s best friends was a kelf. Tyrnan had grown up in the sort of house where the serving kelfs were considered affectionately, as sort of pets. Not real people, but nice to have around and quite useful, like horses.
Quietly thanking the gods that kelfs were not indigenous to the Realm of Peneggan, she continued, “And this is my stepmother, Nuala.”
She didn’t add that Nuala was a princess. That sort of thing was only useful for impressing people, and she really didn’t want to impress Bael.
Bael kissed Nuala’s hand and she dimpled prettily at him. “You hardly look older than Kett,” he said gallantly, and Tyrnan snorted.
“She isn’t,” Kett said drily.
“Just as well then,” Bael grinned. “And you must be twins,” he said to Beyla and Eithne, who giggled in harmony.
“Triplets,” they chorused.
“There’s another one of you?” Bael asked happily.
“Yep,” Tane said. “Me.”
Bael put his head to one side and regarded the petite blonde girls, just like their mother, and the dark, stocky boy, much more like his father.
“Right,” he said. “You look like Kett.”
“I do not,” he and Kett yelped at the same time.
Bael grinned. “You have this two-part harmony thing going on here,” he said. “It’s cute. Well, folks,” he picked up the duffel bag he’d slung on the floor earlier, “not that it hasn’t been wonderful to meet my darling girl’s family,” here he gave Kett a squeeze, which made her scowl and Nuala beam, “but I really need some private time with her. Shall we retire, sweetheart?”
“I, er…” Kett panicked, remembering her earlier promise to him. “I haven’t finished eating.”
“I’ll have a tray sent up,” Nuala said.
“And Bael will need a room,” she attempted, because she knew if they shared one, she’d end up sleeping with him again. And while sleeping with Bael was always going to be wonderful, she really didn’t want to deal with the whole mate issue anymore. Best to make it clear to him that-