Gameboard of the Gods (Age of X, #1)(111)

“Hey, you’ll be back in the game soon,” he said, trying to reassure her.

Mae put her hands behind her head and sighed. “I should’ve just skipped the funeral.”

He shifted to his side to look her in the eyes. “She asked for it, Koskinen. She provoked it. You’ve got a hundred witnesses.”

“People keep saying that, but it doesn’t matter. I should’ve done the noble thing and walked away.” Thinking about Kavi was killing some of the afterglow happiness. So much for a reprieve. “The only upshot is that I didn’t cause anything worse than a quick hospital stay and physical therapy.”

“Not that quick,” he said. “She’s still hospitalized.”

Mae sat up abruptly. “What? It’s been three weeks! It takes a fraction of that time to set and bind a broken bone. She should be home recovering on her own.”

“I’m no doctor. That’s just what I heard. Addison was over there the other day after getting in a fight—defending your honor, by the way.”

Mae barely heard him. She was still reeling from the news. Why in the world would they still have Kavi at the base’s hospital? True, she’d been pretty messed up afterward, but there was no way she’d still need intensive treatment…would she?

“Just let it go. It’s over and out of your hands.” Whitetree gently drew her back down. “One more time?”

Mae nodded, if only to have an excuse not to think about Kavi. When they finished, he offered to stick around for more, but she declined. He asked if he could use the shower, and she directed him to it and the towels. Pushing Kavi out of her head, Mae just tried to lie in bed and revel in her body’s satisfaction. It didn’t work, because her mind wandered to Panama and the tantalizing way sex had been drawn out there. Plebeian men might not have been able to keep up with pr?torian frequency, but they more than compensated with the ability to make sex last and build up the anticipation with long lingering touches….

Mae suddenly grew angry at her traitorous thoughts, especially in the wake of her current mess with Justin. She almost considered asking Whitetree for a third time, if only to blot out her memories, but was no longer up to it. When he finished in the shower, he encouraged her to come out to the Maize party with him, but she declined. In a particularly gallant gesture, he told her he’d wait around until she showered. It would have been perfectly normal in the world of pr?torian sex for him to take off.

She was halfway through blow-drying her hair when she heard him knock at the bathroom door and call her name. She turned the dryer off. “What is it?”

“That guy’s here. The one you were with at the senate.”

Mae was certain she’d misheard. She put her robe on and stepped outside. In the living room, she found that Justin was very much there and also very, very drunk. He held out a bottle of ree to her.

“I come bearing gifts. But I guess next time, I should call first.” Mae could only stare in disbelief. She wasn’t ready for this. She still needed to process the revelations in Mazatlán. And Emil.

Whitetree pulled on his shirt and kissed her cheek. “My cue to go. Call if you change your mind.”

As he left, Mae thought that a glass of ree might not be such a bad idea after all.

“Get some water,” she told Justin. “I’ll be right back.”

Whatever was about to happen, she wasn’t going to do it half-naked. She put on a T-shirt and flannel pajama pants. Her damp hair wasn’t particularly elegant, but as she returned and looked at Justin, she doubted he’d even remember tomorrow.

He’d ignored the water order and sprawled out on her couch, with his arm tossed over his head. She sat down in an armchair opposite him and waited expectantly.

“So was that his one time?” Justin asked. “No second date for plebeians, right?”

“Why are you here?” she demanded. She reminded herself that she’d promised to be patient with Justin, in light of his mental state, but it was kind of hard under the circumstances. “It can’t be just to interrogate me about my personal life.”

“No,” he said in agreement. “That was just a bonus. You wouldn’t believe all that’s happened since I saw you earlier.” Considering she’d been asked out by a senator and ordered to perform an assassination, Mae was pretty sure she could believe any number of things had happened. “Did you know Tessa’s a terrorist? She invaded the senate. Er, the gardens.”

Okay, that wasn’t one Mae had expected. “How much have you drunk tonight?”

“I’m serious,” he said, studying her face. “She and some of those stupid kids climbed the garden walls. Bad enough for any of them, let alone a Panamanian citizen.”

He was actually serious, she realized. “Is…is she in jail?”

“No. She had the astonishing and improbable good luck of being caught and brought home by two pr?torians. Two pr?torians who are big fans of yours.”

Mae closed her eyes for a moment. “You can’t be serious. Not Val and Dag.”

“They drank half my liquor cabinet, you know.” He paused. “Okay, that’s an exaggeration. There’s plenty where that came from.”

For some reason, it bothered her that Justin had met her friends. There was nothing illicit about it, but it was just something she’d never shared with him. “That’s why you’re here? Do you want me to reimburse you for what they drank?”