WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

9. Olivander

9

Olivander

Both women immediately started in on me.

“Did she just call me a Graykey?” Dori demanded at the same moment the blonde shrieked, “You’re colluding with a Graykey?”

“There!” Dori pointed at her. “She did it again. Why does she keep saying that? Isn’t that the name of that cursed family, or whatever?”

“Yes,” the stranger answered her incredulously. “It is most definitely the name of that cursed family. How do you not already know that? Everyone knows that.”

“Oh.” Brightening with an engaging smile, the earthling explained, “That’s easy enough to explain; I’m not from around here.”

The blonde lifted an incredulous eyebrow. “How could you be from anywhere that hasn’t heard about the Graykeys?”

Instead of answering, Dori huffed out a scowl and set a hand on her hip. “What makes you think I’m one of those Graykey people, anyway?”

“Because you bear the mark of the Graykey curse on your arm, right where it’s located on every other member of House Graykey?”

Blinking down at her tattoo, Dori merely shook her head. “But I didn’t put it there.”

The blonde snorted. “Of course, you didn’t. What Graykey would willingly brand themselves with the mark of a dark curse? They simply appear at birth.”

“Well, mine didn’t,” Dori argued. “I just found this thing on me not even an hour ago.” Spinning toward me, she held the tattoo out toward me, making me flinch away from it, and she demanded, “Is she telling the truth? Is this really the mark of a dark curse?”

I cringed out an apologetic wince. “I…I’m afraid so.”

“Oh my God! Then get it off!” she cried, trying to brush it away with her fingers before she began to outright claw at the skin, only succeeding in making it red and irritated.

“And how exactly do you propose I remove it?” I asked incredulously. “Cut it out with a knife?”

Dori scowled at me for that suggestion, while the blonde stepped closer and hesitantly brushed at the mark with her fingertips too. “So you really weren’t born with this?” she asked as she lifted her hand to make sure no ink had come off onto her fingertips. “It truly appeared on you just an hour ago?”

“Yeah,” Dori answered her, watching the other woman shake her head in confusion. “What does this mean?”

“I have no idea.”

Together, both women turned toward me, and in unison, they said, “What is going on?”

“f**k,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair and gripping the dark locks tightly.

“And why, pray tell,” the blonde went on, setting her hands on her hips haughtily, “do you have a woman in your bedchamber in the middle of the night? Hmm?”

I narrowed my eyes because, seriously? She was the nosy intruder who’d just followed me all around kingdom come, and now she was going to play propriety police?

Who the hell was this woman?

“That’s a good question,” I shot back. “What are you doing in my room?”

“Me?” she cried in surprise. “I had no intention of entering your bedchambers at all; you’re the one who dragged me in here. I’m talking about her.”

“Hate to admit it, Vander,” Dori spoke up, nodding toward the blonde, “but she’s right; you are the one who dragged her in here.”

I shot the earthling a hard scowl, silently warning her that she needed to be my ally in this situation, and I turned back to the tall woman in front of me. “If you don’t tell me why you’ve been following me, I swear to God—”

“You’ll what?” the woman countered, staring me straight in the eyes. “Hurt me?” She sniffed out an amused laugh and sighed before adding, “I don’t think so.”

I blinked.

It never occurred to me until that moment how often I used my size to try to intimidate people. Because as I stepped in closer to narrow my eyes and loom over her, I realized—damn—it wasn’t easy to loom when the other person was right up there with you. My daunting height suddenly didn’t feel so daunting.

The power of my scowl seemed to be broken too. Because she wasn’t cowering in my presence at all. In fact, I think the aggravating woman did the opposite of cower.

Lashes fluttering as she leaned in toward me as well, her nostrils flared with a deep intake before she looked up into my eyes with a powerful hunger.

Unnerved, I pulled back as the one who ended up retreating.

It wasn’t like I’d never seen a woman get aroused by me before; it had just never affected me like this. Baffled by the flare of heat that ignited low in my gut, I turned toward Dori as if seeking help.

This was probably her fault anyway. She’s the one who put ideas into my head that maybe Unity and I weren’t meant to have a passionate relationship together, and therefore, I should relieve my urges with someone else.

And now look at what was happening to me.

But all Dori did was blow out a breath and swipe a hand across her brow. “Whew,” she told me, shaking her head. “Thank goodness you backed off there. You were worrying me for a minute with all the puffed-up-chest looming and the whole I-am-male-hear-me-roar posturing.”

“I wasn’t posturing,” I denied, scowling at her, though, s**t, I probably had been, hadn’t I?

“You totally were,” she shot back. “I was beginning to wonder if you were the type who had no qualms about hurting women to bend them to your will. And if you were one of those, then I was gonna be like, I’m out. And then I’d have to find someone else to help me get back home.”

“Oh, don’t worry about Olivander,” the blonde swore with a reassuring smile. “He’d never harm a woman. Rest assured there. You’ll always be safe in his company.”

I squinted at her, wondering how she’d come to this conclusion after she’d watched me get rough with the wench at the tavern and then after I pinned her to the wall mere moments ago. This definitely wasn’t the night for me to show off my chivalrous side.

But she kept telling Dori, “He is the kindest, gentlest Bjorn you’ll ever meet. Why, he’s been known to save butterflies caught in spider webs.”

Distinctly remembering a time when I’d done just that for Unity when she was little because she’d started to cry, afraid of the butterfly’s imminent demise, I shook my head before frowning at this woman.

“And just who the hell do you think you are to know so much about me?” I demanded.

“I…” Her blue eyes widened with concern before she fumbled out a bunch of sounds that didn’t make much sense. “Er, um, you—well, I—I’m in love with you,” she blurted with an encouraging nod. “Yes. That’s why.” She turned back to Dori, explaining, “I know about all the High Cliff princes, and Olivander is by far the most handsome, smartest, and gallant one of the lot. Currently third in line to rule right after his nephew, Ashe, he’s never done anything to besmirch anyone, from peasant up to royal.” Glancing my way with an affectionate smile, she sighed. “No man could hold a candle to his worth. He’s...perfect.”

I swallowed uncomfortably, not sure how to react to such praise. And a strange, affectionate yearning welled from within, making me want to lift my hand and merely trace the contours of her face.

Between us, Dori nodded her head in understanding and pointed at the other woman. “Ah,” she said as if figuring everything out. “So you’re a royal groupie, huh? Makes sense.” Then she glanced at me. “You get a lot of admirers who follow you around, professing their undying love for you, do you, prince man?”

“Um. Not really,” I said dryly as I uneasily eyed the blonde and hedged a cautious step away from her, glad that Dori’s question had broken me from her spell. “Erick’s had a handful over the years, but this would be my first.”

Blue eyes twinkled as the woman smiled proudly over her exclusive status. “I’ll happily be your first,” she claimed, the lusty play on words causing a strange heat to stir through my c**k.

When she lifted her hand toward my hair again, I narrowed my eyes and batted her fingers aside. “You won’t be my anything, and I’d appreciate it if you’d stop doing that.”

“Yeah, sorry, honey,” Dori told her as she hooked her thumb my way. “But Vander here’s a married man.”

“No, he’s not,” the blonde announced at the same moment I gave Dori an odd look and said, “No, I’m not.”

The earthling squinted in confusion. “But I thought you told me…” She tipped her head to the side, not even bothering to finish the sentence because she was so baffled.

“He’s mated,” the other woman clarified. “Not married.”

“O...kay,” Dori answered slowly, her eyes blinking rapidly before she asked, “So married and mated aren’t the same thing?”

When the other woman whirled to me and demanded, “Is she serious?” I knew it was going to be a long night.

I scrubbed both hands over my face and sighed.

“As I said,” Dori tried to explain with a wincing smile. “I’m not exactly from around here, so sorry, I’m not sure how all this works.”

“Obviously,” the blonde murmured. “Where exactly are you from, then?”

“New Orleans,” Dori answered with a bob of her head.

The other woman blinked. “Um, alright. Is that—is that in Corandra or something?”

“It’s in the U.S.”

The blonde glanced at me, one eyebrow lifted.

So Dori clarified, “On Earth.”

“Well, this is great,” I announced loudly, my sarcasm in full swing as I jerked up my hands in defeat. “She knows too much now.” I scowled at Dori. “Either we have to hire her on as your new companion and keep a close eye on her to make sure she keeps her mouth shut, or...” My gaze met a pair of wide blue eyes. “We have to kill her.”

The blue eyes widened. “I vote for being her companion,” their owner said, immediately shooting her hand into the air to cast her ballot.

“Yeah…” Dori said slowly. “I’m not with the whole let’s-kill-someone policy, either. So count me in for the companion thing too.”

I huffed out a slow, heavy breath and studied the stranger. I wasn’t fond of the idea of bringing her into the fold. I had no idea who she was, why she’d been following me, or what her motive was for wanting to be my assistant, to begin with, but I guess I could buy the whole I’m-in-love-with-you story she was feeding us. It would answer the question of why she’d followed me in the first place and why she’d applied for the position. But for some reason, the theory just didn’t ring true in my gut.

And besides, even if it was true, I wasn’t fond of how susceptible I felt to her in return. My nerves were strung taut, making my entire system seem like it was on full alert. I couldn’t honestly remember ever being this attracted to anyone before. It was more daunting than I cared to admit. And I didn’t want to invite any more temptation from her than I absolutely needed to.

Yet none of that seemed like a plausible enough reason to end her existence. It might be dangerous to entrust her with our secrets. Both my life and Dori’s hinged on her silence, maybe even Erick’s and his family’s. But for some reason, I felt it in my bones that this woman I’d never met before could be trusted where it mattered most.

So I muttered a curse and rolled my eyes, not quite able to believe I was allowing this. “Alright, I guess she stays.” Squinting my eyes at her as if to threaten her not to make me regret my decision, I said, “Finally feel like sharing your name yet?”

“M-my name?” she repeated, her eyes widening.

I nodded. “You do have one, correct?”

“Of course. I just—uh—it’s…”

“My God,” I groaned, turning my gaze to the ceiling. “If you’re going to lie, don’t even bother. Just tell me what you want to be called. I don’t wish to think of you as merely the blonde forever.”

“The blonde?” she said, blinking at me as if I’d lost my mind. But then she grabbed a lock of her hair and looked at it. “Oh, that’s right,” she murmured to herself. “Still blond. Okay. So, um…” Winding a pale lock around one finger as she clicked her tongue thoughtfully, she finally brightened a second later. “Ooh. How about Amara? I’ve always liked that name.”

I rolled my eyes. “Whatever.” Motioning toward Dori, I introduced, “This is Dori. She comes from an alternate dimension called Earth. It’s not located in the Outer Realms at all.”

Fake Amara’s mouth dropped open. “For real?”

“For really real,” Dori confirmed on a serious nod.

“So the stories in Indigo’s journal were true?” Amara murmured to herself, sounding amazed while her eyes darted back and forth as if she were putting all the pieces of a puzzle together.

I narrowed my eyes, stepping toward her. “How do you know Indigo? Or about his journal?”

“Oh! Well, I—I mean, he, um—” Breaking herself off before she said too much, she cleared her throat and grew somber. “He and I were traveling companions. Years ago. But that was—that was—yeah. A while back. I snuck into his pack when he was sleeping one night and read the journal. Without his permission.” She trilled out a nervous laugh and bumped her elbow against mine. “But who doesn’t know Indigo? Am I right? How is he these days, anyway?”

She lowered her gaze guiltily to the floor, and it landed on a dried leaf that had fluttered inside earlier when I’d opened the clear rock. Blinking at it curiously and probably wondering how it’d gotten inside, she bent down and picked it up to twist the stem between her fingers before she promptly tucked it behind her ear for decoration and returned her attention to me.

I squinted at her, remembering someone else who used to like wearing autumn leaves in her hair.

Unity? I almost said aloud.

But no. There was no way this could be Unity. I would feel her in my mark if she was my mate. I’d sense her presence and her emotions and everything.

Besides, Unity had flaming red hair and lavender-gray eyes. She was nowhere near a blue-eyed blonde.

And yet, if she’d grown a handful of inches and worn off the baby weight she’d had in her face when she was twelve, I could almost swear the shape of both their jawlines and the slant of their eyes, and maybe even the point of their noses, would match.

I started to lift my hand toward her mark, aching to tap it and see what would happen before I realized what I was doing, and I jerked my fingers back to my side to curl them into a mortified fist.

I had no idea who this woman was, but she wasn’t Unity.

“Is he still as irritatingly cheerful as ever?” she asked innocently, having no clue what I’d almost just done.

“Indigo’s the reason I’m here, actually,” Dori spoke up bitterly, tearing my attention from the other woman. “He, and his mate, or wife, or whatever y’all want to call her, went to Earth and traded places with me so someone could stay there. But Vander here’s going to help me get back home. Isn’t that right, buddy?”

“Wait.” Amara turned toward Dori with wide eyes. “Indigo’s on Earth? I thought he was in Far Shore, leading Queen Nicolette’s army. When did he go to Earth? And did you say mate? When did he get mated? Who’s his true love?”

Exhaustion blanketed me as I wearily gazed back at her. This was going to be a long, long night.

“I need a drink,” I muttered, spying my half-empty decanter sitting against the far wall on the mantle above the fireplace.

And I stalked over to fetch myself one.