Page 4 of Moonstriker (The Summertide Chronicles #4)

Chapter 4

Aubrey

Kit Moonstriker. Son of Cove Moonstriker, the man who’d spent my entire life ruling a quarter of the Summerlands. In a house full of important people, of course he was one of the most important. And like every rich person I’d ever spent much time around, he’d managed to clock me as a nobody before I’d ever said a word to him.

Probably my no-brand-name clothes or the way I stood.

I didn’t know anything about clothing brands, so I couldn’t have placed his, but just the way he stood was like defiance in human form. His shoulders tall and straight, held almost rigid, and his head straight up from his neck, like his spine was a fused steel rod. I’d never met anyone who didn’t slump at least a little. Even the Sunrunner had stood in a comfortable slight slouch, like a normal freaking person.

Kit Moonstriker walked like he was in a parade, or being inspected by the military, or something like that. Like he knew everyone was watching him, and he meant to be impressive.

And of course everyone was watching him. He was beautiful. His ass was as on display in those ridiculously tight pants as if he’d been wandering around naked, a perfect bubble only highlighted by the eye-catching red fabric that barely held it in. Clearly, this was a man who spent a lot of time in the gym doing squats to get and maintain that kind of perfection.

And why not? It wasn’t like he needed to have a job and earn a living like the rest of us.

He seemed to be aimlessly wandering through the hallways, but before I had a chance to suggest he should give up and go get someone who knew what they were doing, he stopped in front of a door and poked his head inside. Then he opened it the rest of the way, waving to the room inside like it was the prize on a game show. “Here we go. Cedar Suite. You can tell by the smell.”

My mother had a cedar chest when I was a child, and I remembered the scent with fondness. Sure enough, there it was when we went into the room. Light and airy, but no less distinctive for that. The streaky reddish wood the furniture inside was made of was a giveaway as well.

And the chalet was full of rooms named for different woods? Once again, it was a reminder of just how much money these people had. In my childhood, with the exception of that one wooden chest, the names of woods were at most to indicate veneers or paint colors. Who had the money for real wood furniture, let alone specific extra-expensive types like cedar and walnut?

“I’ll take that case,” Aunt Titania said to Kit, motioning to the case of hers he held in one hand. “The other is Aubrey’s.”

He gave her an over-the-top melodramatic bow and held out the bag to her, then when she took it and headed for one of the doors, he turned toward the other. Toward...my room.

I dropped Aunt Titania’s suitcase and rushed over, like somehow if he took my bag into the room I was going to be staying in, he’d see into my very soul. It didn’t matter that I’d never seen the room before in my life; it only mattered that I keep him out of it.

“I’ll take that,” I told him, grabbing the strap of my bag. “You can go get your lunch, and we’ll be along in a while.”

He turned toward me, the movement so smooth it felt like he’d been expecting to do it, planning for how to turn while looking the most graceful a person could look. He lifted a single snowy brow at me, judgment radiating off the expression, and something about it made me draw myself up to my full height. If he was gonna judge me, darn it all, I was going to use everything I had at my disposal, and the one thing I had for sure was the fact that I was over six feet tall, with broad shoulders and an imposing physique. Maybe I’d only been in one fight in my whole life, but he didn’t know that.

He didn’t react like most men did to the full size of me, either, and I couldn’t say it surprised me. He was probably used to having a bodyguard or something, and guys like that were often my size. On the other hand, he did look me up and down, assessing and...my cheeks flushed at the frank sexuality of the expression on his face. The tiny smirk that played across his lips told me he knew he’d surprised me.

“And you know where the dining room is?” he finally asked after a long moment of silence.

Truthfully, I had no idea where the dining room was. I also didn’t much care in that moment. I was willing to starve the entire time we stayed at the chalet in order to get rid of Kit Moonstriker. To not have him in my space, looking me over like I was a poor, sad little disappointment.

“Oh, I’m sure we can find it,” Aunt Titania said, coming out of the other bedroom and heading toward where I’d dropped her bigger suitcase. “You don’t have to hang around on our account, Kit. We appreciate you showing us up here, but it’s not like it’s your job to show us around. Plus your brother and sister just arrived, and I’m sure you want to see them.”

He grinned and shook his head. “I was staying with them in Verisa before this. I know from the way Frost acts you’d think we haven’t seen each other in years, but that’s just because I left home when I couldn’t put up with his mother anymore, and we didn’t see each other for a long time before last month.”

At that, Aunt Titania’s face scrunched up. “Well that’s about the most relatable thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Honestly, I always wondered how four kids put up with Delta. She’s...” she bit her lip, as though only just realizing she was talking about his own aunt. Mother? Honestly, I was a little confused, since apparently the others were his siblings, but not his father’s children.

“Insufferable?” he asked Aunt Titania, no hesitation to insult his relatives.

I couldn’t say much, since my own father had been terrible and hateful. If I wanted this Delta to be a saint that he was inappropriately maligning, that was only because I didn’t want to agree with him on anything. Except that Aunt Titania also didn’t like her, which meant she probably was awful.

Aunt Titania giggled, her shoulders shaking. “I haven’t seen her in a long time, but when we were young she was...very serious. And opinionated.”

“By which you mean judgmental,” he said, sighing and leaning against the bedroom door. Then he seemed to remember himself, shaking his head and reaching down to the strap of my bag. “Sorry, I forgot I still had this and you wanted it.”

He pulled the bag off and handed it to me, just like that. Like he hadn’t been intentionally being an ass at all. I didn’t have a lot of faith in people—or in him specifically—but it was...good. No need to fight for what was mine, which I’d probably be terrible at. No need to argue with him or explain my wish to not have him in my room.

I slipped past him into the room, barely taking any of it in as I tossed my bag on the bed and slid right back out, closing the door behind me. It might have had an open toilet in the corner for all I’d paid attention to it.

Aunt Titania was leaning on the couch in the middle of the room, cocking her head at Kit. “So I thought Delta had four kids, and Cove didn’t have any.”

Thank goodness I wasn’t the only one confused.

Maybe I didn’t want to like Kit, but in his favor, he didn’t seem offended by Aunt Titania asking questions about his family. “It’s a long story, but my grandfather made a deal with my mother’s family, and it involved me being claimed as Aunt Delta’s child.”

Aunt Titania screwed up her face again. “I’m so sorry. I think Cove would have been an excellent father, and Delta...” She stopped and ducked her head, flushing. “Sorry. I know I shouldn’t talk about things I don’t know anything about.”

He grinned in return. “Delta was exactly what you think. Maybe a little worse. But my father was still the best, even if everyone tried to make him stay out of my life. He still named me. Still took care of me whenever he could. He’s amazing.”

“He is,” she agreed. “And he’s dating Florian Dawnchaser. Isn’t Florian...younger than you?”

Again to his credit, Kit just shrugged. “He is. He’s a good guy. All that matters is that they deserve this. They both had a difficult start in life, and now they’re making something better together.” Kit’s smile turned almost predatory for a moment, and reached up to run a finger along the tip of his own nose. “Plus Florian almost broke my nose a while back, so I know he’s got what it takes to care for the people he loves.”

Aunt Titania’s eyes bugged, but a moment later her tinkling laughter filled the room.

Me, I wasn’t sure what to say. He approved of someone almost breaking his nose? That didn’t seem right. He also didn’t look like anyone had ever broken his anything. The guys I had known who’d had broken noses had big knobby bumps on them. They also had scars and cauliflower ears and other stuff to show the violence they’d lived their lives with. Kit Moonstriker didn’t look like he’d ever done anything more strenuous than a sweaty workout.

Finally, he pressed off the frame of my bedroom door and headed back toward the entrance to the suite. For some reason, having him farther away from where I was going to be sleeping made me feel like I could breathe again.

When he reached the exit, he turned back toward us. “Did you two want to do some settling in, or do you want to head down to lunch now? I’m sure Zana and the other staff would be happy to bring food to you if you’re not in the mood to be social.”

I scoffed automatically, without even thinking first. Of course he was willing to volunteer the staff to go carrying trays around like they didn’t have better things to do with their time. Only a spoiled rich boy would automatically jump to that.

He didn’t even glance at me, just looked at Aunt Titania. She, on the other hand, seemed to have been entirely taken in by his rich jerk charm. Of course she had. Poor Aunt Titania had been treated like a child and an inconvenience by my father her whole life. Someone giving her the tiniest bit of respect now was like a brave new world, so she was still overwhelmed every time it happened.

“You’re right,” she said, and it took me a moment to remember she wasn’t responding to my thoughts, but Kit’s question. “Whatever it is they’re cooking smells delicious, and we weren’t even traveling that long. We have the shortest trip to get here of anyone.” She turned to me. “Unless you want to eat in the room, Aubrey?”

I shook my head, probably too fast and too much, ending up looking like a dog trying to shake off water. “No, of course not. There’s no reason to put out the staff on my account. I’m sure they have better things to do than cater to me.”

When I turned back toward the door, Kit was looking at me, head cocked in confusion. Of course he didn’t understand that the staff had better things to do. He’d probably never thought anything was more important than himself in his entire life.

Aunt Titania either missed the tension, or she was very good at ignoring it, because she offered him a beaming smile and motioned to the door. “Well in that case, lead on, Kit. I can’t wait to get down to work. Or to see your father again. Or Rain. He was a lovely young man.” Then she paused. “Wait, isn’t Rain the heir to the family?”

“He is,” Kit agreed, and his tone was still quite casual, which was a little odd. Wasn’t Aunt Titania saying that Kit wasn’t the heir to his own family? He didn’t seem to care awfully much. “Rain’s the baby of the family, but we’ve all known since he was five or six that he was going to be the next Moonstriker. A born diplomat, our Rain. It’ll be a good change for the family. Father will get the rest he deserves, and Aunt Delta...frankly, she shouldn’t be in charge of a fishbowl, let alone the lives of the people who live in Moonstriker lands. She’s entirely missing the empathy gene.”

He opened the door and held it, motioning for us to precede him. Aunt Titania did without hesitation, so I followed after a moment, not wanting to be left behind.

“I know all too well what you mean,” she said to him, sighing. “My family wasn’t so great with empathy either. At least it kind of makes sense with a Moonstriker, but for us...it was awful.”

His expression was perfect sympathy as he nodded to her. “It’s against your family’s very nature. People who bond sapphires should always have a feeling for others. It was why Duskbringer lands were always more heavily populated than the other parts of the Summerlands. They had a leader who cared for them, and even more, who wasn’t afraid to say so.” He shook himself then, and waved it off as though it didn’t matter, smiling at her. “Things will be better now. Every family in the Summerlands has someone in charge who cares about its people. Or at least someone on their way to being in charge. Now we can start doing the work to fix the mess our parents and grandparents made.”

I almost stopped dead in my tracks and stared at him. I’d spent a lot of time thinking something similar while working with Aunt Titania trying to fix things in Amalion City, but it had been the last thing I’d expected to hear coming from the mouth of this man. A man in perfect expensive clothes with a perfect beautiful face—a man whose car had to be that red sports car in the driveway that was worth more than the house I grew up in.

Had I been wrong?