Phoenix Found (Brothers of Fire #5)

Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Perrin was doing everything in his power to avoid dwelling on last night. He was also doing his best to stay in his office and out of sight in case he ran into Oliver. It was one thing to kiss him on the roof but another to act as though they were friends. He was staff, and Oliver should be a prince, or a duke, or something of the realm.

It hadn’t taken him long to find Oliver’s estate, Maison des Arbres. It was one of the properties that got checked over and cleaned once a year. The main house did, anyway. The smaller buildings…he’d studied the photos from twenty years ago, and they hadn’t appeared too sturdy then. Two decades without maintenance wouldn’t have done them any favors.

Someone needed to clean it before Oliver went to see it. No one wanted to be handed a dusty house that was crumbling into the earth. He made a couple of calls and arranged for the house to be cleaned and aired for a short stay. The other buildings, he’d assess when he took Oliver.

He’d committed to that last night, and he blamed the kiss and the way Oliver looked at him and pressed against him. He should have known it would never be only one kiss.

What it was, he didn’t know.

A mess.

That’s what it would be.

He was an experiment while Oliver found his feet or spread his wings or whatever he was doing.

And?

Like he hadn’t hooked up with people for absolutely no reason and without even knowing their names. But this was different. This was like screwing his boss’s son. Or the boss’s brother. Both of which were bad and broke his one rule. He didn’t mess around with the people he worked with, as the castle gossip was fierce and unforgiving.

Everyone knew about Everest and what he’d been getting up to before the most recent bodyguard had managed to tame him. Everyone whispered about who was sleeping with who and working with shifters meant it was impossible to keep those things a secret. They smelled lust and sex, and they recognized the other person by scent.

While he’d showered, he wasn’t sure he removed all traces of Oliver from his skin and clothes. Not that he’d wanted to. He may have spent a little too long in the shower contemplating what might have happened next had they been anywhere else but on the roof.

He’d raked his teeth over his lower lip and shook his head. Corrupting an innocent phoenix was not what he wanted on his resume, and he was sure he’d be looking for a new job if he got caught.

No one would listen if he claimed Oliver had insisted. So while Oliver had promised that his brothers wouldn’t create any trouble, it wasn’t a promise worth anything.

The kiss couldn’t happen again .

He’d be professional and treat Oliver the same as everyone else.

Something which shouldn’t be hard—though he’d be hard around Oliver. He shouldn’t have used braiding Oliver’s long dark hair as an excuse to touch him. That had been his first mistake, and from there, it had been one capitulation after another.

Yet he couldn’t quite regret it.

Oliver knew what Perrin was and had still kissed him. That was a very short list of people. So short, there was only one name on it.

That wasn’t a good enough reason to even contemplate kissing him again. From the heat in Oliver’s eyes, Perrin was sure he wanted more than kissing next time.

He should have kept his mouth closed and let Oliver take the chaste kiss before walking away instead of offering something a little more intense.

He groaned and leaned back in his chair.

A sharp wrap on his half-open door made him sit up straight. “Come in.”

“I didn’t expect to find you here. I expected to go traipsing all over the castle to find you.” Alice sat opposite him. They were siblings, which was quite obvious as they shared the same pale hair and green eyes, but that was where the similarities ended.

“Let me guess. Mum or Dad sent you to tell me to do the right thing and make myself miserable for the rest of my life.”

She pressed her lips together.

“He already told me off last night for stalling.” Perhaps his prospective bride was putting the pressure on to move things along. Were her parents demanding she marry? “I doubt you’re going to tell me anything new.”

“I don’t think you should marry out of duty because your future wife deserves better. However, our kind needs your contribution.”

Perrin rolled his eyes. Discussing his contribution to ghoulish kind was not what he wanted to discuss with his youngest sister.

“Look, just because you prefer men, something Dad wants to forget, that doesn’t need to stop you from fathering some kids.”

“I really don’t?—”

“He’s not going to let up. They talked about you for hours last night. They want to bring the woman over here as they think that will make all the difference.”

Perrin rolled his eyes. “Yes, I’m only gay because there are no female ghouls that I’m not blood-related to in Mont de Leucoy.”

She grinned a little too widely. “What if you left to go and meet the woman yourself? You used to talk about travel.”

“So did you.”

“Then we both got jobs and became boring.” She glanced down and plucked at the sleeve of her sweater. “If you go first, it might make it easier for me to also have a little adventure. I only have four years until I’m thirty.”

That was the age they were supposed to marry and start a family according to tradition. Although for women, it used to be younger. Even though their parents had been reminding him for the last two years, now that he was almost thirty and he hadn’t signed the agreement that began the process, his father was putting the pressure on.

“Meeting this woman isn’t going to make me want to marry her and have three or four ghoulish babies.”

“You don’t need to marry her. She’s got to do her thing for our kind as well. She’s probably feeling the same pressure. Maybe she has a boyfriend… ”

He stared at Alice, the one he always considered good and obedient. She wasn’t here for him; she was here about herself. “I’m guessing this boyfriend she has is also paranormal.”

“You would be guessing correctly. He’s a bear shifter.” She leaned over the table. “It’s the king’s valet’s son.”

They’d grown up around each other, and Perrin had always thought the bear shifter nice enough. “You hated him growing up. You’d growl at him, and he’d growl back. I expected you two to maul each other.”

“Turns out we quite enjoy that.” She gave him a bright smile, then licked her lower lip. “I understand why you like men.”

Perrin shook his head; he was not having this conversation with her. “I don’t want the details.”

“I’m just saying we have the same problem, and if you don’t pull off a miracle, I’m fucked.”

Great, so if he messed up, he ruined not only his life but also his sister’s. “You think the solution is for me to leave Mont de Leucoy and visit this woman hoping she doesn’t want to marry me?”

Alice gave him a glare that he had seen far too many times on his mother’s face. “You’re smarter than that. It’s not as though she has to come by steamboat from America. We have email and video calls.”

“I’ve been avoiding everything to do with her.” Because he wanted nothing to do with her. He wanted the whole thing to go away.

“Yeah, how’s that been working for you?”

“Just get out. I don’t need more problems.”

“I’m trying to help.”

“You’re trying to help yourself,” he snapped.

She shrugged and pushed back the seat. “If it works for you, it will work for me.” She took a few steps toward the door. “What put you off your chicken hearts?”

“None of your business.” He was definitely not discussing his Oliver problem with Alice.

“Did your boyfriend catch you eating them? Don’t worry, I finished them.”

Perrin stood. “They were mine!”

Alice skipped out the door, laughing. “Finders, eaters.”

“Hyena.” He called after her, but the corridor was already empty. He leaned on the door frame.

For the first time in his life, he wasn’t sure he wanted to leave the castle. He wanted to see Oliver stretch his wings and fly.