(Travis) opened the door and found a tall, pale man, a few years older than Travis, standing there in the soft snowfall. With his black hair tied behind his head in a perfect braid, he assessed Travis with a pair of amber eyes. He had the build of someone who participated in a gentleman’s sport. Polo or rowing or fencing. Maybe even boxing.

They’d never met before, but Travis knew him on sight. Quintin Alistair Jeffries III came from one of the most prominent magickal families in the world. Descendants of royalty, the Jeffries were renowned and fabulously wealthy and powerfully influential. People respected the tradition of it no matter how they actually felt about the family. That lineage. The legacy. Especially Quintin, the family’s current pet with that charming smile and eloquent way with words and dazzling eyes. Other people fawned over him. Swooned over him. Doted upon him.

Travis didn’t see the appeal.

“Good afternoon,” Quintin greeted him, all roses and sunshine in his voice, and tipped the brim of his hat toward Travis. “Travis…Graywater?”

The only reason Travis didn’t roll his eyes right in his face was because his mother raised him to be gracious and hospitable. To a point. Which was why his expression remained flat and indifferent.

“Grayweaver.”

“Ah, yes. My mistake.” The cool, confident grin remained on his mouth even in the face of his blunder. “My name is—”

“I know who you are, Mr. Jeffries.”

No doubt he heard the distaste in Travis’s voice. Travis might not outright roll his eyes, but his politeness had limits.

Em laughed. And got up, and came over, and put both arms around his neck: bodies pressed together, one hand playing with Aric’s hair, looping loose blond strands around thin fingers. They were both mist-damp and fully dressed, with muddy boots; Aric wouldn’t’ve cared if the mud were chest-deep, with Em grinning at him like that.

“For now,” Em agreed sweetly, and kissed him: quick but thorough, tongue promising more, lips certain about the request. “Sweep me up in your resplendent conquering arms later. I promise I’ll properly swoon. Food first. And plans.”

“Plans involving giant snails. The classical heroes never had these problems. Jason, Odysseus…”

“Odysseus spent ten years trying to get home.” Emrys handed over stew. “And Jason was a boor.”

“Boor or not, he got to fight dragons.”

“Would you rather fight dragons or snails?”

Aric winced. “It just sounds so unheroic.”

“But it isn’t.” Em perched on the table again. He did not carry a sword—he’d never needed to—but a throwing-dagger or two caught the light. “Not to them.”

Aric flicked a breadcrumb at him. “If a bard ever asks about this, they were eight-foot-long lake monsters.”

On Monday, I pulled into work and caught sight of Lydia and Reed walking the paved path that circled the building, wrapping around the ornamental pond, and back again.

Lydia was always on a mission to lose the baby weight which, honestly, I thought only existed in her head. And I suspected Reed just took perverse joy in showing everyone else up. I almost always walked during my second break to get away from the noise of the floor and went to my apartment gym a few times a week like a normal person to run on the treadmill out of the weather, or swim laps in the pool, so that I didn’t die at fifty, and Reed had muscles like he thought Frank Frazetta might come back from the grave in desperate need of a model to pose on top of a mountain of skulls.

As if she could read my mind, Lydia patted my leg. “It takes a village, hon.”

I squinted at her. It was one thing to say it took a village to raise a kid, it was something else completely to say it took a village to get me a boyfriend. Different, and sad.

As we whispered between ourselves, Reed tapped me on my shoulder, and I turned to see Nathan heading our way. “Shit.”

Everyone looked up then and froze.

“What are you guys doing?” No one said anything.

“Eating.” Reed swooped in and saved the day. “I’m telling everyone how to eat if you want to build muscle. He flexed and I managed not to cover my face. “Greens, lean protein, and avoid sugar. Right?”

He looked around and everyone nodded. Except for Kim and Becca—both wearing baby doll dresses and hair ribbons—who giggled like the creepy dolls their spirits would no doubt someday possess.

“James advised me that riding roughshod over people and ordering them around like junior officers is not universally endearing.”

Captain Ransome grinned at Adrian. “So, I pledge to do my best not to be high-handed and overbearing if, in turn, you promise to tell me before I make you so uncomfortable that you feel obliged to flee the premises. Do we have a deal?”

“I suppose so,” Adrian, said confounded by this turn of events and with the sneaking suspicion he had been outmaneuvered yet again. In this new mood of mutual honesty, with an entente cordiale established, a thought occurred to him. He quickly glanced over his shoulder, reassuring himself there was no one within earshot, before saying quietly, “But I do have a question. If it is so simple for you to find, er, obliging company, then why would you bother with me?”

The captain looked momentarily disconcerted and took another sip of his drink while formulating his reply. At last, he said, “I find you intriguing. As you pointed out, not everyone is an easy, ah, encounter, and I find that strangely refreshing.”

At this unexpected declaration, Adrian felt the dreaded flush start to rise from his neck and over his cheekbones. Seeing this, the captain added naughtily, “And when one is on the hunt, the pursuit of a wild rabbit is so much more diverting compared to a tamed domestic pet.”

“Are you free any time this week? I’ll be here at Nanny’s for the next seven days, and I’d love to take you to dinner.”

And I’d love to be taken. Murphy cleared his throat. “I have patients to see tomorrow, but I get off around five. I’ll be available whichever day is good for you.”

“Friday. Saturday. Sunday. Monday. Tuesday. Wednesday.”

“Which day?”

“All of them?”

Okay, so Murph knew he was grinning like a loon, but he didn’t care. “Works for me.”

“Cool. Come over tomorrow to start, and I’ll grill steaks…That is, if you’re not vegetarian?”

“I’m not, and steak sounds great. And suppose I bring dessert?”

“Sure. Nanny told me you made ice cream for tonight.”

“Yes, cherry-chocolate.”

“My favorite combination.”

“Excellent. I also made chocolate candy clusters—”

“With pretzels or toffee?”

“Pretzels. I didn’t have time to make toffee.”

“You make your own toffee? Oh my God, I think I love you!”

Murphy’s grin felt as if it was about to split his cheeks, but he couldn’t help it. He never thought he’d see this gorgeous hunk again, and now…“If we get married, I am not changing my name.” No way was he winding up being Murphy Murphy.

About My Walking / #AmReading Posts

I started out with this being a Sunday thing, but sometimes I’d rather not mash multiple books into a single post, so now, you never know when you might see one of these posts.

Rather than give a true “review,” which I’m not entirely comfortable doing as an author myself, I share snippets from books I’ve read and enjoyed, letting the authors’ words speak for themselves.

As you’ve possibly noticed, if you’ve been following along, I highlight snippets for reasons of my own which might veer from what is often seen. Sometimes my highlights have more to do with a paragraph simply impressing the heck out of me for its fabulous writerly technique, other times it has to do with the lovely way it gives subtle insight into the story/characters. Still other times simply because it made me laugh.

Anyway, I sometimes add a little commentary, but not always, which is not in any way, shape, or form, to be taken as unwritten commentary. Most likely it just means I’m short on time and/or context isn’t needed to understand what’s happening, and/or my brain doesn’t feel like putting out the effort in that particular moment.

Also, I’m going to try to spread the book love by tacking on covers of more books at the end of the post that I’ve either recently read, am currently reading, or want to read. Not seeing a full post with snippets for any of these books is not a commentary on anything other than how much time I have available in a day either to read or to create a post about what I’ve read. It might also mean I listened to the audiobook only or that it’s a reread that I’ve featured previously, or it’s not M/M so probably not a good fit for featuring on this blog.

Happy reading!