Serpent's Kiss (Elder Races #3)(78)

He was just debating whether or not he should return Dragos’s phone call or possibly wait for a less pressured time when Carling stepped out of the bedroom. She hadn’t yet opened her suitcases. She was still wearing the hotel bathrobe and carrying a towel. He watched her walk out onto the balcony. She snapped out the towel and her hair fell. A bright flash filled the air as it caught fire. His hand, still holding the iPhone, lowered to his side. Within an instant, the blaze crumbled to gray dust that blew away on the wind.

Vampyre hair. Huh.

He asked, “Are you speaking to me yet?”

She gave him a grim look. “I haven’t decided.”

Fair enough. Women needed time for these kinds of things. Someone knocked on the suite door again. He answered it.

A stylish brunette woman stood in the hall, along with a pair of bellhops and two clothes racks on wheels. The woman had several packages at her feet. When she caught sight of Rune, her artfully made-up eyes widened, and she smiled.

For the first time in his very long life, Rune was tired of all the relentless female attention. He bit it back and said courteously, “Let me guess. Gia, right?”

“That’s right.”

“You work fast.” He stood back, holding the door wide.

“You did say it was urgent,” Gia said. Her smile widened into a grin. “And prorating the tip according to how fast I got things here turned it into a real emergency.” The brunette stepped across the threshold, gesturing to the bellhops to follow. “Luckily it’s a Monday. I got most of what you wanted, but I’ll have to go pick up a few items, like the jewelry, in person. I hope that’s all right.”

“Of course it is.” Rune pivoted backward on one heel, considering the space in the suite. He noted how Carling’s tight expression had faded into a feminine curiosity, but he thought it best not to smile. He told the shopper, “You’d better put everything in one of the bedrooms.” Since he had already set Carling’s luggage in one bedroom, he pointed to the second one.

“Certainly.” Gia gave Carling a friendly nod as she headed in that direction, bellhops and clothes racks in tow. Rune strolled along behind and stood in the doorway, watching as Gia directed the bellhops to put the racks on opposite sides of the room. Carling joined him, her arms folded. She wore an expression he wasn’t sure he could read. It looked like a combination of lingering anger, curiosity and perhaps the beginning of amusement.

Carling murmured, “This seems excessive. I was expecting one or two outfits.”

He gave her a sidelong smile. “I wanted you to have plenty of choices to try out.”

The shopper said, “It’s very simple: men’s clothing is on the rack to the right, women’s on the left. When you’ve had a chance to go through everything, if there’s anything you need returned, just give me a call. In the meantime, I’ll go out and pick up the jewelry and other things.”

“Jewelry is not necessary,” Carling said.

Gia’s smooth stride hitched. Rune said to the shopper, “Pay no attention to anything this woman says. You are shopping for me, not her. She has no fashion sense or any normal feminine instincts. Jewelry is always necessary.”

Gia gave him a wide-eyed smile over her shoulder.

“Excuse me?” Carling said ominously.

He wasn’t altogether sure, but he thought her real anger might have dissipated. There was a glint lurking in the back of her eyes. How could he have ever thought she had no sense of humor? She was brimming with a kind of guerilla warfare humor that slid along the shadows of a conversation and took aim at the unwary. It delighted him so much he had to swoop in to kiss her sour, puckered mouth. “Don’t sulk,” he told her. “It doesn’t become someone of your age.”

She rolled her eyes even as, he was delighted to note, she kissed him back. “Oh, the age thing? You just had to go there, didn’t you?”

“Just teasing, darling,” Rune said. “I’ve seen you at those inter-demesne functions. You wear classic black Chanel with frightening aplomb. When you’re not wearing those catastrophic muumuus.”

“Catastrophic muumuus?” She began to tap her bare foot again. God, he loved that slender arched, imperious foot. It was so pretty, so tempestuous. He looked at her bare toenails.

“I forgot something,” Rune murmured to Gia. “Pick up half a dozen shades of nail polish when you go out, will you?”

Gia gave him a sidelong, conspiratorial smile. “I took the liberty of ordering a few bottles in different shades when I placed your Guerlain order.”

“Perfect,” he said. “Did you get some Christian Louboutin boots?”

“Did I get some boots,” Gia said. She held up a Saks package that she placed on the bed.

“Outstanding,” said Rune.

“Let me take a wild guess,” Carling said. “You brought boots, jeans and a T-shirt.”

Gia gave her a wide-eyed look. “Well . . . yes, that’s one of the outfits I brought.”

Carling strode into the room. “Fine,” said Carling. “I said I would try something new, and I will. Hand it all over.”

Rune watched in fascination as suddenly Gia and the bellhops revolved around Carling. She redefined every social space she walked into. Goddamn, he thought, I don’t love you a little. I might actually love you a lot.