Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
“I cannot say some of the men I dally with don’t get peeved with me,” Jasmine went on. “But when they do, I drop to my knees,” she lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, “and they get over it just like that.”
“Not that I would do that,” I mumbled. “But just to say, I don’t even know how to do that.”
Twig’s and Mossy’s eyes got large.
“She’s a virgin,” Jasmine told them.
They twittered amongst themselves.
I regretted going to Jasmine’s tent and not Hera’s.
“It isn’t hard,” Jasmine told me. “Suction. Head bobbing. Just mind your teeth.”
Was that all there was to it?
I did not ask.
“Maybe we should commune under the moon silently,” I suggested.
Twig tittered at me.
“I know he had no right to send Dora away, Twig,” I told her. “But maybe I shouldn’t have shouted that at him.”
Mossy tweeted my way.
“Yes,” I agreed. “Sending your child away without your consent or even a farewell is not all right. But again, twice, I lost my temper with him and did not measure my words, and twice he’s made it very clear he does not wish our discourse to go in this way.”
“You want to know what I think?” Jasmine asked.
Both Twig and Mossy peeped that they did.
I said, “I’m not sure.”
Jasmine disregarded me.
“I think you shouldn’t let him think that he can sulk and control you in doing it. All right, so maybe you didn’t handle those situations well. But at the bottom of the discussion, you’re right. And that’s indisputable, Ellie.”
Twig and Mossy nodded while tweeting their agreement with Jasmine.
“In the midst of a melee,” Jazz continued, “you do not toss a Nadirii from the fight and you never make decisions about someone’s child behind their back, also behind their back carrying forward such decisions. How you feel badly that you’ve hurt his feelings, I do not know. He’s acting like an ass. The end.”
She was my friend and therefore likely prejudiced.
I could not deny, however, that she was right.
“This is the beauty of sucking his cock,” she carried on to decree. “He’ll get over it and you no longer have to put up with his sulking. Just give him a climax, and in future, make it clear that was a one off. So if he starts sulking again, there will be no more cock sucking. Maybe ever. That’ll end the brooding right quick.”
I frowned for I didn’t think this was such good advice.
Mossy stretched her lips at me.
Twig appeared to be looking anywhere but at Jasmine.
They agreed with me.
In that instant, a blaze of silver and pewter pixie dust streaked by, along with one that was cinnamony and bronze.
Mossy tittered.
Twig waved at us.
And in a glittering waft of ginger, pearl, butter and fern, they flew off.
“Shaft-whipped,” Jasmine muttered, watching them go. “And I’ve met Rocky and Timber and I can’t say I was impressed with either of them.”
“I thought Timber was committing to Twig,” I remarked.
“Forest chatter, Ellie, you need to keep up,” Jazz said, pushing to her feet. “He’s got another. A female called Web. I haven’t met her. She’s probably lovely. But he’s not, seeing as he’s stringing them both along.”
I pushed to my feet as well, saying, “You’re joking.”
She shook her head and we started back toward camp, doing this with Jasmine talking.
“I’ll bet half the reason for the Night of the Fallen Masters was because our ancestors were sick to death of that very kind of rubbish.” She jerked her head toward where Twig and Mossy (and Timber and Rocky) flew away. “And the kind you’re dealing with from Prince Cassius.”
“I doubt our foremothers slit men’s throats because they were tired of having their hearts toyed with,” I replied.
She stopped moving so I stopped with her.
“And how do you feel right now, Elena, when you haven’t realized he knows precisely how you respond to him, because he’s had that experience, my sister, and you have not? And therefore, he knows precisely how to get you to come to heel. Now you’re all tangled up and worried about hurting his feelings when he sent Dora away and he’s never even met her.”
“It was for her safety, Jazz,” I noted.
“How’s this?” she asked. “Elena, I think it’d be best if your ward goes to The Enchantments with your mother. It’s safer for her there than with us. Do you agree? Yes? Excellent. Shall we talk to your mother together, or would you wish to speak to her yourself?” She shook her head in disgust and recommenced walking. “How hard is that?”
It was not hard.
But a few words.
No resultant shouting.
I would have agreed.
Dora would be safe.
Everyone on their way to their respective destinations.
And then Cassius might hold me while we were sleeping.
Not to mention doing other things on that pallet.
Oh, and not least, we’d be getting to know each other better in other ways as we were destined to spend the rest of our lives together as husband and wife.