Free Azuri Fae by India Drummond Page B

never seen her in anything but jeans.

    “You’re meeting the prince-consort tonight.” She went to his dresser and started digging through his underwear drawer.
     
    “Do you mind?” he said, taking a pair of boxers out of her hands and folding them again. “What difference does it make what I wear?”

    “You have a queen, do you not?” Eilidh said impatiently.
     
    “Yeah.”

    “And she has a consort?”
     
    “Prince Phillip. But it’s not the same.”

    “Why not?”
     
    “A guy like me isn’t going to meet Prince Phillip.”

    “Ah!” she said with triumph in her voice. “But if you did, you wouldn’t wear any of this, would you?”
     
    “I’d probably wear a suit, I guess. You really expect me to wear a suit to meet this guy?”

    “No, I’ve seen what you call business suits. They’re ridiculous.”
     
    Munro sat on the bed and muttered, “At least we agree on something.” Then he asked, “What are you going to wear?”

    He watched as she shifted her clothing into a long, dress. It was a beautiful earth brown with a high, square neckline. It flowed to the ground, hugging her hips in a way he found alluring, even though very little flesh showed.
     
    “You look great,” he said.

    Eilidh quirked her mouth into a grin. “The prince hates it.”
     
    Munro stuffed down the irritation as quickly as he could. Something in her smile told him she enjoyed the idea of annoying the prince, and that bordered on flirting in his book. He went to his closet and pulled out some black trousers and a plain black button-down shirt. “This will do,” he said, trying to put finality in his tone.

    “It’s very human looking.”
     
    “I’m very human. He’ll have to deal with it. Besides, isn’t this a clandestine meeting?”

    She nodded.
     
    Munro rolled his eyes. “Then this’ll do.”

    She looked outside, and he could feel her frustration and eagerness to be on their way. She made no motion to budge from the room, so he took the clothes into the en suite loo to change. He was just about to use the toilet when she opened the door and walked in. “We really should go now.”
     
    He stood there, trousers undone, hand in his shorts arranging himself. “I’m takin’ a piss here.”

    She shrugged. “Well, hurry.”
     
    “Fine,” he muttered and went about his business. She just didn’t understand privacy. If they were going to be bonded for a few centuries, he’d have to get used to it, but she didn’t make it easy. He wasn’t raised to be so open and unselfconscious, but on some things, Eilidh refused to budge. She thought humans were strange and repressed about nudity, bodily functions, and sex. To hear her tell it, faeries had sex if they felt like it, and it was all good and healthy and open.

    Except, of course, if it came to having sex with humans. It bothered him, and he couldn’t help but wonder if that meant Eilidh wanted to have sex with other men. Well, faeries. She seemed to care about him, and he would have known if she’d had sex with someone else since they’d been bonded, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t eventually.
     
    He washed his hands, and she said softly, “You’ve retreated into your thoughts.”

    “Do you want him?” Munro asked. He liked that Eilidh didn’t mind a blunt question. He wasn’t quite used to asking them, but she never seemed bothered when he did.
     
    “He’s mated to the queen. I told you, the royal family mates for life.”

    “That isn’t what I asked you.”
     
    “We should go,” Eilidh said, walking into the bedroom.

    He followed, watching her closely. “Eilidh?”
     
    “Quinton, you should know before we meet him. Prince Griogair has allowed the court to think he and I are lovers, so we would have an excuse to be seen talking alone. He may feel the need to keep up the pretence tonight. It depends who he has to bring with him.”

    Munro’s gut clenched. “But it is pretence, right?” His anger boiled. “The