Life was good. So very good. Since she’d met Mas and Niall, she’d been truly happy. Now, if she could get her business stable and making a regular income, and if she knew what had happened yesterday…“I bet Niall and Mas will find out. I bet they’ll tell me tonight.”
Aurelia danced around the room one more time then settled down to work. Work. Answering business e-mails. It felt so good to be working.
* * * *
While a trillion may have been somewhat of an exaggeration, there were several hundred e-mails waiting for Mas when he finally logged on to his computer. He worked through them as quickly as he could, dealing first with ones from important clients or close friends. Nevertheless, it was after two before his rumbling stomach made him stop work to buy some lunch, and he’d by no means reached the end of his in-tray.
He ran down the stairs then walked briskly down the sidewalk toward the nearest restaurant that served take-out. Today he couldn’t spare the time to choose from the menu or go to his favorite coffee bar. The backlog of work dictated this be a brief break. Consciously, he pulled his shoulders back and drew deep breaths of air into his lungs, trying to make this short walk at least a tiny effort at a workout.
I traced the call center demons through violet, indigo, blue, and green. It’d be really interesting to know if they were tracked all the way to red. Damn shame I can’t afford the time to find out. Although that little search program I wrote for Clivendens would work, if I used various words for red. After all they used teal instead of blue, and jade instead of green. Hmmm I wonder…
“Ah, go for it,” he encouraged himself when he was back in his office. Mas typed one-handed while shoveling forkfuls of special fried rice into his mouth with the other hand. “Blush, brick, burgundy, cardinal, carmine, cerise, cherry, claret, coral, crimson, fuchsia, garnet, magenta, maroon, pink, puce, red, rose, ruby, russet, salmon, scarlet, titian, vermilion,” he typed into the program, running through a paint color chart then going back to add in “amber” as well.
“Okay, if they haven’t used one of those colors for red, I’d be mighty surprised. None of their other colors were particularly imaginative.” Mas smiled and hit execute, leaving the program to run in the background while he grabbed his coffee and took a long drink from the cup.
“Now, back to work,” he sighed.
* * * *
Two weeks later, Aurelia felt like a fairy princess in her new gown. It was the most beautiful—and most expensive—dress she’d ever owned, but the layers of pink lace frothing around her feet and breasts made her skin glow with a healthy pale-pink, and the soft touch of the silk underlay against her skin was dead sexy. As soon as Niall and Mas had seen her in the gown, their suit pants had tented in the most interesting way, and she was almost ready to swear Niall’s eyes had crossed.
Unfortunately, the sex wouldn’t be happening for many hours yet, but she knew the men had planned something special for when it was time to be alone. Meanwhile, the caterers were bringing out platters of tiny delicacies, the waitstaff were serving champagne, the background music was not too loud and not too soft, and Aurelia didn’t think she’d ever been this happy in her life before.
She’d been concerned that the guests might form into little groups instead of mixing, as they were drawn from very distinct groups—Mas’s friends and clients, Niall’s clients, friends, and a few former marines, and her own friends and family. Yet somehow they seemed to blend well, and no one seemed to be lonely or left out.
Her new nipple ring rubbed against the silk of the gown’s lining, reminding her again of the vows they’d taken today to care for and cherish each other. No vow could make her love these men more than she already did, but speaking the words in front of other people made it more real.
Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter
The Courtship Wars 2 To Bed a Beauty