Page 44 of Night’s Fall (The Four Realms #1)

That was less than two weeks away!

And I was in the middle of a job.

“Yes,” I said. “ Is that a problem?”

“If you ask my mother, yes. If you ask me, we’ll make it work.”

“Aleksei—”

“The only raised-voice row I ever got into with my mother, and my father was right at her side when it was happening, was after years of hoarding chunks of my allowance, and I bought my first company.”

I tried to imagine Queen Calisa yelling.

I couldn’t do it.

“Raised voices? You mean shouting?” I queried.

“Yes, them to me and me to them. They were incensed that I not only wished, but fully intended to have a life and my own pursuits away from the Palace . My brothers and sister still live there. That was another row, without shouting, when I moved here.”

“Will they expect us to move back there when we get married?”

“No. They’ll expect us to move into Spikeback Castle in Crimson Park in midtown. That’s where the heir apparent lives when he marries and starts his family.”

Occasionally, I’d take a walk in Crimson Park . Or the gals and I would go there and have a picnic and beings watch. I’d been born and raised in Nocturn , and when I was younger, we’d sometimes have school trips to the park.

I’d seen Spikeback Castle probably hundreds of times in person.

It was a gothic fantasy in purple-tinged stone with a cerulean tile roof.

It was compact, but tall (four stories), sporting an abundance of narrow, arched windows, dormers between turrets, and chimneys.

Its famous features were the three turrets that adorned the front, one in the middle, the other two on the sides, and the eerily, always calm reflecting pool (not a fountain) in front of it.

The architect who built it had done it with an eye to intimidation and instilling fear.

It was beautiful, of course. But there were occasions, when the moon was full and falling behind it, it appeared dark, forbidding and otherworldly.

And at all times, day and especially night, when the gothic spires and masonry were reflected in that pool, it seemed to trick the eye, making it mysterious and spooky.

It had been where the first Royals lived before they built Celestial Palace .

I loved Celestial Palace for its sprawling grace and elegance.

I adored Spikeback Castle because it was dark and ominous, even on a sunny day, and it spoke to the primal shifter in me.

But I didn’t know if I wanted to live there.

“Are we going to do that?” I asked.

“We is plural, so I’ll take you there, give you a tour, and then we’ll discuss it.”

At his words, everything, all at once, settled in me.

He was the one with the money, the status, the title, the prestige, the control.

But in that one sentence, he made it clear that we would make decisions about our life.

We .

While I was processing the heady fullness of that feeling, Aleksei continued talking.

“I failed miserably with my first business, Laura . I was young, had a university education, never worked a day in my life, outside my studies or royal duties. I thought I knew it all. I knew nothing. I had to find a partner to infuse capital into it, or I’d have to close it down, lay off one hundred and twenty-five employees.

Fortunately , that partner was Sirk’s father.

He’s a shark, but instead of forcing me out, he took me under his wing and taught me everything I really needed to know.

He’s still my partner in a number of ventures. ”

“Did you meet Sirk first, or his dad?”

“Sirk. At Red Lair . First year. We were both twelve.”

I loved knowing that about him and his friend.

“My mother heard the business was failing, and she used that to try to force me back into the fold. It only made me more determined to figure it out,” he shared.

“And you did.”

He inclined his head.

I smiled. “ Go you.”

He smiled in return and explained, “ What I’m saying is, I know it can be done, spending time in pursuits that nurture you, challenge you, along with doing your duty to the throne.

Yes , if I were to give it all up, my time would be consumed with accepting more invitations, attending more events, taking royal trips, even spending more time in the Center , playing politics.

But if that was my life, like it used to be, I would be deeply unhappy, as I was then.

I’d put on a neutral face, but behind the mask, I’d hate every minute of it.

If you find you love it and wish to move out of your chosen field to concentrate on it, that will be your choice.

But if you don’t, then we’ll find a balance for you, like I have. ”

It meant a lot he would back me on that play.

But he needed to know the fullness of it.

“Just before we start filming, and during filming, I’ll need to be at the studio or on location.

Some of the filming will be at the studios north of Nocturn , so maybe a half an hour craft ride away.

I can come home every night. But we’re also filming on location close to the Clan Caves . And that’s a two-hour craft ride away.”

“Not in a JetPanther that gets priority course routes. But just to say, I’m often away for business. Would you expect me to be home every evening?”

“No, but shooting can take two, three, sometimes even four months.”

He pulled me up so we were eye to eye. “ Darling , I can come to you. You can come to me. You have access to transport that will cut the time it takes to make any trip in half. Save nefarious plots getting in the way, neither of us can fool ourselves that the rest of our lives are going to go as smoothly as we’ve begun.

And when it doesn’t, we’ll work it out.”

I was reminded for the first time in days about how angry he got after the assassination attempt, and how he’d communicated that.

I needed to share how that made me feel.

But I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to spoil this moment. I didn’t want to cast a pall on what he thought of as our smooth beginning.

And I didn’t want to make him feel bad.

It had been emotional. He’d given no indication before or since that was something he was prone to do.

He’d been murderously angry at his brother, and although he’d shared his feelings without a single attempt to sugarcoat it, he hadn’t lost his mind shouting and cursing.

“Say it,” he ordered.

I focused on him. “ Sorry ?”

“Whatever’s on your mind that you seem hesitant to share, say it.”

I gave him the side-eye, because I wasn’t real certain how I felt about how quickly he was learning how to read me.

“Laura, we must be able to talk to each other.”

“Okay then, you hurt my feelings, a lot, when you shouted at me after we got back from the gallery.”

It reminded me of my parents , was the part I left out.

He nodded, not seeming offended in the slightest. “ I can’t say I’m always completely in control of my temper, but that was out of line.”

It felt like every muscle in my body relaxed, and I hadn’t realized how much tension I’d held about it since it happened.

Aleksei carried on, “ My greatest hope is that we will never be in that situation again, and therefore, me losing my temper like that won’t happen again. But I can’t say I’ll never get angry, or very angry. The difference is, you put yourself in the way of danger?—”

He touched his fingers to my lips and kept them there when I opened my mouth to speak.

“No, darling, let me finish.”

I closed my mouth, and he took his fingers away.

“In retrospect, I could see it was instinct, and I can just imagine how seeing the male who attacked you played with your head. You were panicked and shouting about a weapon before one was even produced. What you did was understandable. And maybe, when your creature fully awakens and bonds with mine, you’ll understand where I was in those moments, because my response was instinctual too, and I was feeling it double.

I saw my mate in danger, and my creature saw his.

So my emotions were high. That doesn’t forgive me losing my temper in that manner, but I hope it explains it. ”

I couldn’t stop staring even as I asked, “ How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Get more wonderful with every word that comes from your mouth.”

Purple flame flickered in the backs of his sky-blue eyes.

“Germaine told me I had to act like each one formed a drop of nectar,” I went on. “ I haven’t looked at the social tapes, but I figure I bested that and then some.”

He rolled me to my back with him on top, at the same time his hands started roaming.

“I have seen the tapes,” he murmured, dipping his head and scraping his teeth along my neck.

I shivered.

He moved his mouth to my ear. “ Beings are rather enamored with that broach you were wearing.”

“Mm,” I said, making it my mission to memorize the swells and valleys of his back.

“Your ass in that dress though,” he growled at the same time his fingers found a different target and curled around my breast.

“You looked fantastic in your suit too,” I told him. “ But then, you always do.”

He ran his lips along my jaw and his thumb over my nipple.

I shoved my hands into his sleep pants and dug my nails into his behind.

That did it.

In the end, Aleksei had to comm Muriel to tell the beings he was meeting that he’d be half an hour late.

But I allowed myself time to laze and doze before I got myself together, commed Antheme , and headed to my studio.