Chapter 64

Casey was standing in front of the full-length mirror in Kiki’s bedroom when a naked Kiki slipped in behind her, slipped her arms around the platinum blonde’s waist, and kissed the back of her neck, raising a pleasant shiver. “Very sexy.”

“Yeah.” Casey didn’t bother to deny it. The thigh-length white leather skirt and light blue midriff-baring bandeau top were a lot of things, but they were definitely sexy. “This is the first time I used my wardrobe budget. I wanted to make it memorable.”

Kiki traced a hand down her bare ribs. “If we actually get to the party, it’s bound to be that.”

Casey was learning how to deal with Kiki better than she had before they were lovers. She turned, took Kiki’s face in her hands, and kissed her deeply until the two of them melted together. “You told Artemis we would see her there.”

Kiki looked up at her. “I bet Artemis would skip the party if we asked her nicely.”

This was Kiki in a nutshell. She wielded her sexuality like a bludgeon, beating you over the head with it until you rejected her or bought in. If you tried to demur, she would just get more and more outrageous. Rejecting Kiki usually meant your relationship with her was over. For Casey, buying in usually meant agreeing to things she would be too embarrassed to do without a confederate. A few months with Cat and Hal and now Kiki had moved her internal needle of acceptable behavior to places she wouldn’t have even considered a year ago. She stroked Kiki’s face. “Do you want to? The party’s only one more night and I’m pretty sure we’ve got Artemis until Tuesday if we want her.”

“We do, but I think we might end up sharing her with Nick once everybody goes home.” Kiki stepped back. “That outfit does beg for a party, though.”

As Kiki turned away to get dressed, Casey turned to her, “You do remember I’ve never actually been with Nick, don’t you?”

“But you want to and he wants to.” Kiki pulled on a tiny black thong. “If you and I or you, me, and Artemis got him alone in a room, do you think he’d say no?”

“No, but I don’t think I just want to fall in bed with him like he was some rando ... or I was either.” Casey frowned. “I think I like being good friends better than indifferent lovers.”

“And I think you and he think way too much about these things. I know there are some weird guys out there who like you less for spreading your legs for them, but Nick is definitely not one of them. He would bend the world in half for his lovers. If you had any idea what he offered me just because he wants to make me happy...” Kiki smirked.

“I’ve seen what he does for me and I’m not sleeping with him.” Casey sighed and sat on the bed. “If I were sleeping with him, it would be way too much.”

“Ah ... you don’t want to feel like a whore?” Kiki suggested.

“That’s not... !” Casey started to protest, then sighed. She waited for Kiki to fill the silence, but when Kiki didn’t she said quietly. “I really don’t think I’d mind being Nick’s whore. It’s kind of a turn-on, actually. I just don’t want him to think I’m only sleeping with him for what he can do for me.”

Kiki laughed and came over to sit cross-legged on the bed next to Casey. “This is what I mean about you two thinking about these things too much. Nick loves doing things for his lovers. He would do so much more for me if I let him. And he does so much for you and Cat and Monroe and ... probably Cricket and the Parrish girls because he wants you all to know that you don’t have to sleep with him to be treated like a princess. I bet if you asked him to spend millions bankrolling a movie and cast you in it today, he would do it in a heartbeat. There may be things he would do for his lovers that he wouldn’t do for platonic friends, but they’re way up the scale from anything I would think to ask for.”

“Did you ... ask him to cast you in a movie?” Casey asked, not sure she wanted to know the answer.

“No, he offered to cast me in a movie and spend millions of dollars to make it happen,” said Kiki. “I told him he didn’t have to do that. But, he offered it out of the blue and I know he wasn’t asking for anything because I never held anything back.”

Casey didn’t answer and the silence must have said something because Kiki leaned forward to look in her face. “What? You think he wants something I wouldn’t do for him for free? I will not have you impugn my lack of honor like that.”

“Honestly?” Casey raised an eyebrow and got a nod from Kiki. “I think what Nick wants most is to know that people are going to stick around - particularly the women in his life.”

“I totally get that, but I don’t think that’s what he wants from me,” said Kiki.

“You don’t think he wants you to stick around?” Casey asked.

“No, I don’t think he wants me to reassure him that I’ll stick around. That’s not really the Kiki Sato brand.” Kiki suggested. “You’ve known me as long as anyone in New York. I figure if anyone noticed how I’ve changed lately, it would be you.”

“I have. You’re not as wild as you used to be and...”

“Bite your tongue,” said Kiki. “If anything, I’m wilder. I’m pretty much open to anything. Don’t make me fist you to prove it.”

Casey laughed. “You’ve already fisted me.”

“That’s what you think,” said Kiki. “But trust me. I’m wilder than I was. And I’m wilder because I’m really only sleeping with people I know.”

“Like Artemis?” Casey asked.

“I got to know her first, but bad example,” said Kiki. “What I really mean is I’m not sleeping with men I don’t know. It’s really just Nick and Lev right now ... well ... and Dietrich. But, really, I’m only open to guys that Nick likes and ... really ... women I think he would like. Do you know why?”

“Because you like Nick and want to stick around?” Casey suggested.

“Probably true, but not the really important part.” Kiki rested her head against Casey’s shoulder. “The important part is that I trust Nick’s judgment about people and I know mine is terrible. Plus, I think he and Pilar are going some wild places sexually and I want to go there too.”

“That’s ... a pretty good reason.” Casey stroked her friend’s hair. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“You told me you were turned on by the idea of being Nick’s whore. Is this a bigger secret?” Kiki asked.

Casey laughed. “No, I suppose not. I was just going to say that Pilar kind of scares me ... way more than Nick does.”

“That is hardly a secret. Pilar is straight-up terrifying. She would have you strapped to a table and gangbanged by demons if it served her purposes.” Kiki said.

“By demons?” Casey frowned.

“Yeah, have you watched any of my demon gangbang hentai yet?” Kiki asked. “It’s really hot and I have some seriously intense demon gangbang fantasies myself. Pilar is more likely to make them come true than anybody I know.”

Casey gave her a doubtful look and Kiki bounced into an upright position. “Okay, no literal demons, but the closest you can come to it in the real world, I bet. If she were with some bad dude who liked hurting girls, I’d stay a million miles away from her. But, she’s with Nick and she wants to make Nick happy and Nick would never be happy if he or Pilar put us in a situation where we weren’t safe. So, I can trust that all the demons will be clean and healthy and respectful when they’re not calling me a filthy whore and mercilessly fucking every hole in my body. Nick cares and Pilar is absolutely shameless. Together, they can fulfill pretty much any fantasy.”

Casey sighed. “I don’t think I could agree to be gangbanged by demons.”

“Not your thing?”

“Not specifically, but what I really mean is that I don’t think I could agree to do a lot of the things that could very much be my thing. And I get the sense that Nick is really big on talking things out before they happen.” Casey said. “It’s way easier to do things once you’re in the moment than to talk about them when you’re not turned on.”

“Well, you could always take a collar like Emily has. That’s kind of the whole point of the sex slave thing. Or, you could just stick around and wait. Nick is just getting his feet under him and Pilar is an excellent corrupter. Once he learns to trust his instincts...” Kiki closed her eyes, sucked in her breath, and trembled.

“Demon gangbang?” Casey asked. Kiki nodded.

Rather than talk any more about it, Casey leaned in, kissed Kiki, and slowly pushed her back to the bed. She couldn’t say out loud how much this conversation had turned her on, but she could show it pretty well.

When her hand glided between Kiki’s legs, Kiki opened her eyes, wriggled away, and got off the bed. “We should finish getting ready for the party.”

Casey laid back on the bed. “Shit, maybe we should just call Artemis, ask her if she knows any demons.”

Kiki was back at her closet. “It would be a shame if you got all tarted up for nothing. That will definitely be the sluttiest outfit you’ve worn in public.”

“You didn’t know me when I was doing cosplay.” Casey sighed and sat up.

“No, but that was play. You weren’t you. You were always painted blue or something, right?” Kiki reminded her.

“Not always. I showed a lot of my own skin. And a convention is not like a closed set at all. I’ve been pretty naked in some big crowds before.” Casey pointed out.

Kiki pulled out a red dress that looked like it was made to fit a much smaller woman. When she pulled it on, it clung to all her curves, came down to mid-thigh, and had a strategic cut-out that exposed her stomach and the bottoms of her breasts. “Let’s go show those Stone girls what it takes to catch Nick’s attention.”

“You were wearing way more than that when you caught his attention,” Casey reminded her.

“I know, but I think it would be fun to start an arms race and see what they wear to the next party.” Kiki smirked.

Casey laughed and forced herself to push away any worries that they were overdoing it or would embarrass Nick. They were dressed very sexily, moreso than she would feel comfortable wearing to a club without a security entourage, but they would hardly be the only ones at that party. A lot of the Stone cousins were unafraid to look their sexiest this weekend.

On the ride to the hotel, they chatted mostly about the people they’d met that weekend already. Now that Kiki had pointed it out, she did seem to be judging the people she’d met based on whether she thought Nick would like them. Casey finally had to ask, “You really are thinking about who you can bring to Nick’s bed, aren’t you?”

Kiki nodded. “I tried it with Jenny right at the beginning. I knew she wouldn’t be good for him, but I thought he’d be good for her and he wouldn’t care as long as she was hot. That was a mistake. Nick needed to be broken in to the idea that one of us might recruit for him and he’s not in a rush to sleep with just anyone. I knew he didn’t need to be, but plenty of guys who don’t need to be are anyway. Now that Pilar’s gotten him used to the idea, I’m looking for someone who will prove that I understand what he wants now.”

“Like Artemis?” Casey asked.

“Like you, honestly. He definitely likes Artemis, but I’m pretty sure they would hook up if we just left them in a room together. Anybody can see that. But, finally getting you two into bed together, that would be something.” Kiki kissed Casey’s shoulder.

Casey felt her breath catch and closed her eyes. After a few seconds, she said, “All right. Please do that.”

Kiki rested a hand on her bare leg and leaned forward. “Really?”

Casey nodded. “God, yes. Forget all that stuff I said about not wanting him to think I’m a whore. Do you remember that thing with him and me on the way to Milan?”

“When you asked him to pose as your pretend boyfriend and you posted it to Instagram?” Kiki asked.

Casey nodded. “God, I really was hoping he would just say he wouldn’t pretend to be with me when he was already with you and Pilar and whoever he was already with at that point and then I could be all coy and say something like, ‘Well, we could fix that’ and then get dragged off to join the Mile High Club. And then he was so sweet about it and that made me want him so much worse.”

Kiki’s eyes widened. “And you’ve been sitting on that since Milan?”

Casey sat back against the car seat and whined. “This is exactly what I mean! I can tell you that right now because I’m so horny, I could scream. But normally I’m kind of shy. Don’t laugh. It’s true.”

Kiki shook her head. “I wasn’t going to laugh. I get the shy thing. I was going to say, ‘Leave everything up to me. I’ll take care of it.’”

Casey’s eyes widened. “Really?”

“Would you like that?” Kiki asked.

Casey bit her lower lip and nodded. Kiki ran her fingers up Casey’s inner thigh and teased just under the skirt. “Then leave it to me, all right.”

Casey nodded and stayed quiet for about thirty seconds. “How...”

Kiki held up a finger and shook her head. “No questions. Just leave it to me.”

Casey sighed and nodded again. She was dying of curiosity, but they were close to the hotel and she knew it would be better if she didn’t get her questions answered. Instead, she reflected on how thoroughly she’d fallen in love with Kiki after a year and a half of resisting her charms.

She was glad she’d resisted. Even if she’d accepted she was attracted to women other than Cat, she also needed to really embrace the idea that she could be in love with more than one person at a time without diminishing how she felt about any individual. Loving only Kiki would be incredibly painful and expecting her to love only you back would be a nightmare. But now, within the context of all her other relationships and all of Kiki’s other relationships, it was easy to imagine herself as being part of a couple with Kiki. She’d already been daydreaming about joining Kiki the next time she went to Japan for work or traveling around Europe together or maybe just going down to SXSW together. Austin was perilously close to home and, as much as Casey’s family was acclimating to the idea that she and Nick were in a non-exclusive relationship, they would not react well if they realized how close she and Kiki had become, but the danger was part of the fantasy.

At the party, people checked them out and some whispered among themselves, but a lot of the whisperers were dressed as sexily as either of them. The whispering was about who they were and, more importantly, who they were to Nick.

Kiki asked around and they eventually found their way to the table where Artemis and several of the Ramshackle Stones were sitting. Dinner had been served, but they weren’t eating much of it. Instead, they were having a very animated, seemingly very emotional conversation. Several typed rapidly on their phones while carrying out the conversation.

Casey paused for a moment, not wanting to interrupt, but Kiki plunged right in. “Hey, guys. What’s going on?”

Artemis looked up first. “Kiki, Casey, hi ... What’s up?”

“Not much with us, how about you?” Kiki sat in one of the empty chairs at the table. “Everything okay?”

“Definitely not. What’s the opposite of okay?” Carl answered.

“Not okay?” Casey suggested.

“Screwed, we’re so very fucking screwed,” said Carl.

Kiki looked around. “Why? What happened?”

“You haven’t heard? Maybe people are keeping it quiet.” Vanessa said hopefully.

“If they are, it’s so they can have us all killed without anybody making a fuss,” said Carl.

Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Dramatic much? We don’t even know what really happened. Maybe it’s just getting blown all out of proportion. It is social media, you know. Maybe it wasn’t even him. I haven’t seen any pictures or anything.”

Kiki sighed, took her phone out of her purse, set back, and held it up. “Could someone maybe explain this to the hot Asian girl with a direct line to a billionaire and his team of fanatically loyal assistants?”

“That’s kind of the problem,” said Daisy. “It seems like Churchmouse had an ... incident with Nick.”

Kiki looked back at Casey and indicated she should sit. “Casey, you know Artemis. These are the rest of the Ramshackle Stones from Sarah Lawrence College.”

“Sara Llewellyn,” Carl corrected her immediately.

“Right, that one. These are a bunch of Stones who live together at a college up in the boonies somewhere. Churchmouse is their leader.” Kiki said. Having explained, she turned back to Daisy. “Did Nick and Churchmouse get in a fight?”

“No, not exactly...” Daisy winced.

“Churchmouse apparently blew chunks all over our billionaire cousin in an elevator ... and now he’s not answering his texts,” said Carl.

“Neither are Paul or Holly.” Daisy held up her phone.

“Oh ... I don’t think that has anything to do with this,” said Artemis. “They’re at the Loft - or at least they were a few hours ago and probably still are.”

“How’d they wind up getting that hot ticket?” Carl grumbled.

Kiki didn’t look up from typing on her phone. “I invited them ... at Artemis’s request.” Before anybody could ask a follow-up question, she added. “I’ve got a field agent coming over to tell us what she can tell us.”

“That’s me.” Natasha stepped up to the table and waved. “How can I help?”

“Have a seat, please. There’s a situation and my friends could use some information. For starters, do you know where ... Churchmouse is?” Kiki asked.

“Wesley Church-Stone,” Vanessa added.

Natasha sat and brought out her pad. After a few taps, she said. “He’s ... in a room upstairs. He wasn’t feeling well and is a little bit dehydrated, but there’s a paramedic with him and he’s going to be fine.”

“Did he throw up on Nick in an elevator?” Carl asked.

Natasha nodded, not losing her professionally friendly smile. “There does appear to have been an incident like that, yes. Apparently, it’s gotten some attention on social media?”

“We saw it on Twitter,” said Vanessa.

“We’re Wesley’s housemates. Will Nick be murdering all of us or just him?” Carl asked deadpan.

That got a quick twinge of uncertainty before Natasha restored her smile and went on. “I wouldn’t worry. Everybody I know who works with Nick says he’s very un-murder-y.”

“Do you know why Churchmouse isn’t answering any of our texts?” Vanessa asked.

Natasha’s fingers never stopped moving on her iPad. After a moment, she said, “The guard who’s with him just messaged me. Wesley is in the shower and left his phone in his pants. He’ll probably get back to you shortly.”

“Why is there a guard with him?” Daisy asked, suddenly sounding more concerned.

“Probably suicide watch,” suggested Carl.

“We enact a strategy of keeping guards positioned and available in the event of potentially chaotic situations, particularly when Nick is involved. People rushing to get out of an elevator could lead to someone getting trampled. The guards are there to prevent injury.” Natasha tapped a few more times, then swiped back and forth. “You’re all from Sara Llewellyn College? You live at the Ramshackle?”

“Y-e-es...” said Carl dramatically, looking back and forth.

“Nick has asked the staff to formally invite each of you to brunch at the Loft tomorrow at one pm. He wants to talk to each of you about your plans and how he might help you make them a reality.” Natasha held up her iPad and gestured with it.

“Seriously? How old is that message? I’m sure we’re not invited now.” Carl demanded.

Natasha held up her iPad and gave it a little shake. “The message is current. Nick would like to see you all as well as your housemates Sun-hwa, Paul, and Wesley at brunch. He’s looking forward to talking to you in greater depth than he’s going to be able to manage during the party tonight.”

“It sounds like a trap.” Carl opined.

Natasha tapped on her pad and, after a moment said, “Zola, one of Nick’s shift captains says it is not a trap and that you would be giving up a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if you didn’t go.”

“That sounds exactly like what somebody setting a trap would say,” offered Daisy.

“If it is a trap, you should probably go anyway. You’re not going to make things better for yourselves if you make him chase you down,” said Kiki.

“That ... is not reassuring,” said Vanessa.

“That’s why I said it before Natasha could say something reassuring. If Nick wanted to do any of you harm, he could do it, but I’ve known him as long as anyone here. He doesn’t have a vindictive bone in his body. You’re all going to be fine, including Churchmouse. You should relax and eat your dinner,” said Kiki.

Reluctantly, one by one, the Ramshackle Stones picked up their forks and started to eat. As Kiki was turning to release Natasha, Carl said, “Still, there’s a long way between not vindictive and wanting to be really helpful. Maybe we shouldn’t ask for too much.”

Natasha looked to Kiki for guidance. Kiki said, “Natasha, would you excuse us, please? It sounds like people want to discuss strategy and it would be better to not have that discussion passed around with Nick’s staff.”

“Of course. If you need anything I can help with specifically, you can message me directly.” Natasha rose and addressed the rest of the table. “I hope I’ve allayed some of your fears and that you enjoy the rest of the evening.”

Once she’d left, Kiki said, “I don’t know if this can really sink in without getting to know him, but Nick is a super-nice guy. He didn’t grow up rich and he’s really careful about not becoming another rich asshole. If he planned to help you before Churchmouse threw up on him, he almost certainly still does. Nick is very good to his friends and dislikes making enemies, even ones he could harry to the ends of the Earth and crush without breaking a sweat. Get to know him before you judge him and talk to him like he’s just like the rest of us because he’s really just like the rest of us - except that he has access to a nearly limitless bank account.”

“I can confirm that,” said Casey, glad to be able to contribute. “Nick is just one of the most humble, genuine guys you’re ever going to meet and he wants to help everyone. So, talk about what you’re passionate about and let him offer to help.”

People paused, considered that, looked around, and went back to their food. Then, Artemis said, “What if one of us has a really big ask ... like six figures big.”

Casey opened her mouth to answer and then paused. She really had no idea how Nick was budgeting for this group. She was still forming the words to express that when Kiki said, “For that much, it would help to have a personal relationship with him.”

Daisy asked timidly, “You mean ... sleep with him?”

“That’s how I did it,” said Kiki.

After a silent beat Carl said, “I’ll take that bullet.”

“That’s not the only way to get a personal relationship with Nick, though.” Casey protested. “He gave Cat and Hall an apartment at the Loft just because they’re his friends. And he’s probably spent at least six figures on Anne and her kids by now.”

Kiki sipped from her water glass and considered the point. Casey suspected she was making a special effort not to be outrageous. “That’s ... true. But they all got in before Nick made the sixty k rule. He doesn’t put more than sixty thousand dollars into something without some kind of review process with the Council of Elders or something. Emily explained it to me at some point.”

“I ... didn’t know that.” Casey frowned.

“That might just be for giving money to charities, though. I wasn’t in the loop on this brunch thing. I guess I’m wearing pants to breakfast tomorrow.” Kiki shrugged.

“So Nick is a kind, charitable, honest, generous guy who will give you sixty thousand dollars if you ask for it, but you have to sleep with him if you want more?” Vanessa looked skeptical.

“No, that’s not right.” Casey held up her hands and tried to formulate the words that would describe Nick’s approach to giving right. She could already imagine this conversation getting back to him and her having to explain what she meant.

“Imagine you’re a djinni,” Kiki said to the whole group. That got a lot of blank stares.

Artemis held up her phone. “Paul just checked his messages and he’s freaking out. What do I tell him?”

“Tell him Wesley chundered on a billionaire and it’s now Paul’s job to make everything better by having sex with Nick,” suggested Carl.

Artemis had brought her phone down and started typing. Now she shot Carl a look. “Not helpful.”

Everyone turned and looked at Kiki and Casey, expecting an answer. Casey had no idea what to say. Kiki saved her by saying, “Tell him everything’s going to be fine. And tell him Kiki said so. Nick’s cool. He knows how to roll with the punches.”

“Does he know how to roll with getting puked on?” Carl asked.

“Yeah, has this happened before?” Daisy asked.

“Not exactly ... Not that I know of,” admitted Casey. Before people could start freaking out again, she said, “But, I get the djinn thing. You know how djinni are supposed to grant wishes, but only like three or there are some other strictures. Imagine that you’re a djinn and you can grant as many wishes as you want and your only restriction is that you have to think that granting the wish would be a good thing. That is the situation Nick’s in ... except that he has a finite mana pool, but it’s really big. So, not a perfect analogy.”

“So, Nick doesn’t want to sleep with us in return for whatever help he offers?” Vanessa asked.

“Nick definitely doesn’t want you to sleep with him in return for the help he offers,” Casey said firmly.

“But, he probably does want to sleep with you,” Kiki added.

“Ri ... wait, what?” Casey turned to her lover.

“What? Nick’s a healthy eighteen year-old and a good guy but not the sort of ‘good guy... ‘“ Kiki made air quotes. “ ... who’s going to pretend not to want to sleep with you if he wants to sleep with you. He’s also unlikely to bring it up unless you’re clearly interested and, even then, you might have to hit him with a clue-by-four.”

“So, Nick might want to sleep with one or more of us?” Vanessa asked, a note of caution in her voice.

“Nick almost certainly wants to sleep with most or all of you. He and I have similar tastes in women and I wouldn’t mind taking you all home for a big naked kitten-pile, but with sex.” Kiki said.

“Only women?” Carl looked disappointed.

“For Nick, yeah sorry. For Kiki ... I’d definitely consider it,” said Kiki.

“Eww, pass,” said Carl.

“Your loss ... maybe,” said Kiki. “I’m pretty sure I’ve never turned anybody straight, but I do like a challenge.”

“Wait, this is all getting way confusing,” said Daisy. “How should we approach Nick when we talk to him?”

“You personally? Answer his questions. Be passionate about what you’re passionate about. If you’re into him and you get a chance to express that, go for it.” Kiki shrugged. “Talk to him like you would to your friend-slash-landlord Churchmouse. Just keep in mind that when Nick vomits all over you, he vomits money.”

“Graphic,” said Carl.

“People are saying Nick never sleeps with less than two women in his bed,” said Vanessa.

Kiki raised an eyebrow. “And... ?”

“And, if you are planning to sleep with him, you’d better be ready for a lot more than just sleeping with Nick, Daisy,” said Vanessa.

“I didn’t...” Daisy squeaked.

“Listen, it’s almost certain that none of you are going to get a chance to have sex wth Nick tomorrow.” Kiki glanced towards Artemis. “Not during this brunch thing, anyway. Nick has not historically slept with people until he considers them friends of his. But just to set the record straight, Nick isn’t going to pressure anyone into doing more than they want to do. There are women staying at the loft right now who are just hair-trigger ready to fall into bed with Nick the first time he applies a feather’s weight of pressure on them to do so and he just doesn’t do it. If you do want to sleep with Nick, you’re far more liable to find yourself having to convince him that it’s absolutely about what you want and not in any way attached to what he’s done or might do for you than to feel any pressure. He will overthink things to death if you let him. Whatever we’re getting up to at the Loft, we’re choosing to get up to.”

The last bit inspired Casey. “Try to forget about sex for a second. Kiki’s right that it’s probably not going to happen in the short term. But if you think you’d enjoy ... not benefit from, but genuinely enjoy hanging out with Nick and the rest of us under less intense circumstances than a family party, say so. The Loft is the coolest environment I’ve ever been in and every minute you’re there is one where your life can get better like that.” She snapped her fingers.

“But you shouldn’t be weirded out by sex because you’ll be surrounded by it,” Kiki added.

Artemis sighed. “What if the person who needs to ask for a big favor isn’t ... What if it’s Churchmouse?”

“What does Churchmouse need all that money for?” Carl asked.

“You remember how he was talking about the oil tank in the side yard being a problem last year?” Artemis asked.

“Kind of, yeah.”

“Well, the town has said it has to be removed and the whole area dug up. It’s going to cost like two hundred thousand dollars,” said Artemis.

Vanessa whistled. Daisy muttered a profanity.

Kiki looked at Casey, giving her a chance to speak first. Casey decided she’d better. “Listen, I don’t think anybody but Nick knows how he weighs numbers like that. But if it’s important to all of you, maybe you should all consider talking to him about it. Then it’s not just ... the guy who puked on him asking for a lot of money, it’s the Ramshackled Stones.”

Just then, Paul and Sun-hwa approached the table looking like they’d dressed in a hurry. Paul asked, “What have we missed?”

“I’ve just offered to let Nick top me in return for a new oil tank,” said Carl dryly.

Nick had been working with Tanvi, Stone-Stryker Concierge Service, and by extension Gibraltar Security for months and thought he understood the service they were providing him. He asked for things and they provided those things to the best of their ability. Then he paid them for those things. He understood in principle that he also paid them to be available and to anticipate what he might want, but he hadn’t really understood how much more their jobs revolved around anticipation than responding to actual requests until he found himself being hustled down a hotel hallway with vomit all down his shirt and pants and guided into a hotel room he’d never seen before. He’d barely registered what had happened in the elevator and it was already over and twenty yards behind him.

Tanvi seemed to have reacted to things even before they happened. One floor down from where Churchmouse and the others had gotten into the elevator, she was shouldering people aside and guiding Nick through. One security guard met them within a few steps of exiting the elevator. A second joined them halfway down the hall. When someone called out to him from behind, he looked back and there was a third guard blocking the hall, keeping anyone from following.

As soon as they were in the room, Tanvi was unbuttoning his shirt and stripping it off of him. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Nick couldn’t help but smirk. “I think this may be the fastest anyone has ever been proven thoroughly wrong.” Less than five minutes earlier, he’d overridden Tanvi’s suggestion that they wait for the hotel to set up an exclusive elevator ride for them by saying it wouldn’t hurt anything if they had to ride down with a few people.

Tanvi gave him the faintest of smiles and gripped the hem of his undershirt meaningfully until he raised his arms and let her strip it off. “Most of the time, you’d have been right. We left a margin for emergencies, but every second counts now. It would be unfortunate if Bunny thought you were deliberately late when you didn’t mean to be.”

“Why...” Nick started to ask, but was interrupted by a soft knock on the door. One of the security guards opened the door a fraction, saw who it was, and admitted five more people: Zola, Olga, Natasha, Sioned, and a security guard he didn’t immediately recognize filed in. That gave him a moment to think about his own question. During the course of planning this event, he’d made a number of decisions that showed only a limited respect for people’s wealth or position in the family. If he wanted to establish himself as a bomb-throwing anarchist, making Bunny cool her heels waiting for him would be a pretty good way to do that. “Right, let’s not give that impression. Instead of asking the others to wait for us, can we ask them to go on ahead and assure her any delay is because of a mishap, not deliberate?”

“We can, of course. Kick off your shoes, please.” Tanvi said and Nick complied. She unhooked his belt and reached in to undo his pants. “If that’s what you want to do.”

Nick caught her wrists. “Explain why I might not want to, but ... in the bathroom. The only time I’ve ever been naked in front of this many people was in nightmares.” As he turned to go, he frowned and thought back, unsure if the statement was strictly true. It was, but the numbers were closer than he’d originally thought.

Tanvi followed him into the bathroom. “You’ve chosen some very ambitious allies for this meeting. If they go in first, they may try to set the agenda differently than you plan.”

Nick sighed, opened the shower, and turned it on. “I’m inclined to trust my allies, even without a script. Is there a reason I shouldn’t?”

“Would you send them in first if you were meeting with Threnody?” Tanvi reached for his pants again.

Nick took a step back. “I can get my own pants off. Take care of yourself. And if I didn’t send my allies in ahead of me to a meeting with Threnody, it wouldn’t be because I didn’t trust my allies. Are you saying I should treat Bunny the same way I treat Threnody?”

“Not at all, but I wouldn’t assume she’s an ally either. She has her own agenda. Let’s focus on getting you clean first. I’m not ... time-sensitive.”

Nick stripped himself naked in one move and stepped in the shower. “You’re not coming to the meeting?”

“It’s not essential. Zola can take over just as effectively and I can monitor things from here if it gets tricky. I’ll brief her now and send someone else in to help with your shower.” Tanvi offered.

“I don’t need anyone to help with my shower.” Nick growled, a little annoyed. He appreciated the rapid response to all this, but he was still an adult. He closed his eyes and considered what Tanvi had said. “I ... don’t know Zola as well as I know you. Are you sure she’s up to speed?”

“For the purpose of this meeting, she knows you as well as I do ... and I’ll be reachable.” Tanvi craned her neck so he could see her smile. “This is what we do, Nick.”

Nick scrubbed himself with soap while he considered it all. Finally, he said, “Fine, contact Opal, tell her while we’re delayed, and ask her to communicate with the others that they should go straight to dinner. She’s had the most contact with Bunny and, if she wants to set her own agenda, it’s probably already set. Zola can come with me. But get as close as you can as soon as you can, please.”

Tanvi tapped away on her ever-present pad. Nick waited for her to pause. “And take like five minutes here and now to clean yourself up, please. I’ll be in a better headspace if you weren’t covered in puke the last time I saw you.”

Normally, it was difficult for Nick to tell when his assistant was particularly eager to follow an order, but this time she was out of her sari and stripped down to her skin in less than thirty seconds. She stepped into the shower in front of Nick, ripping the cover off a bar of soap she’d grabbed off the counter.

For a couple of minutes, they each washed themselves without speaking or touching. Then, Tanvi sighed as she reached for a bottle of shampoo. “It got in my hair.”

She tilted the shower head downward and took a half step backwards as Nick took his own half step forwards to help. When she brushed against him, his cock was already semi-hard and got much harder instantly. She looked down and back at it, smiled, and stepped forward again. Nick adjusted the shower head to an even tighter angle with the wall. Again, then fell into busy silence, Nick rolling his eyes at his libido’s resilience in the face of revulsion.

A couple of minutes later, Tanvi stepped out of the shower. “I’m going to send someone in to coordinate with you if we have any questions, all right?”

“In ... to the bathroom?” Nick asked, then to clarify where his mind was going. “Not the shower, right?”

“I was thinking the bathroom, but I can ask for volunteers if you need someone closer.” Tanvi towelled herself off and spoke with such deadpan that Nick had no idea if she was teasing him or not, but he affirmed the bathroom would be fine. A minute later, she was wrapped in a robe and closing the shower door on her way out.

The next agent came in immediately. Nick could see enough of her shape through the frosted glass of the shower door to recognize her. “Hey Olga, how is Churchmouse doing?”

“Churchmouse...” Olga drew out the name as she tapped on her pad.

“The guest who was sick ... something Church-Stone, I think.” Nick offered.

“Ah, Wesley Church-Stone is with Greg in 2225. There are a number of questions about how you’d like us to deal with him.” Olga answered.

“Like a guest who’s sick,” Nick replied. “Who’s Greg?”

“Gibraltar event security specialist Greg Earheart, in from Toronto for the party.” Olga answered immediately.

Inside the shower, Nick scowled. “Get a field agent in there and a nurse or something. Make sure he understands that he’s still my welcome guest, that we’re not detaining him, and I’ll talk to him at brunch tomorrow if not sooner, but that I’m in a rush right now. In fact, try to track down everyone who was in the elevator and make sure nobody thinks I’m going to freak out on them, please.”

“So, to confirm, you don’t want to remove him from the guest list for brunch tomorrow?” Olga asked.

“No, I really want to talk to him about his setup at Sarah Llewellyn. Not a lot of people have worked out how to manage a self-sustaining commune. It might be a good model for other projects I’m looking at.” Nick answered.

For a minute, the only sound was Olga tapping her iPad. Nick asked, “You disagree with my judgment?”

“Even if it were my place to agree or disagree, I wouldn’t here. I think it’s inconsistent with what the team expects you to do and most of the training I have for dealing with situations like this ... not to mention what I’ve seen in the field.” Olga offered.

Nick sighed and leaned back against the wall. There had been a brief moment when he realized what had happened and was angry at Churchmouse, but it had lasted only a few seconds. Once he saw security corralling his cousin and the others, the anger was replaced with concern that his team would overreact and that people would be afraid of him. “A big part of the event team doesn’t know me and, at the risk of making assumptions, they’ve probably worked for a lot of rich assholes. I’m not going to freak out on somebody for getting sick or seeing me with puke on my shoes.”

“I’ve studied your dossier, but there are some things it’s hard to get from the written word, particularly when the writers go to great lengths to avoid terms like ‘rich asshole.’” Olga offered.

“Well, I try not to be one. Hand me a towel, please.” Nick turned the water off and opened the door a crack. “If you ever think I’m being one, you should feel free to say so. I do hope my friends will beat you to it, though ... that’s if you choose to stay on, of course.”

“I would very much like to. Thank you. I look forward to working for you.” Olga said.

Nick knew Olga had been trained to look forward to each job, regardless of who it was for, but he couldn’t help thinking she might actually mean it. “Get everyone cleared out of the living room and wherever they’ve set up my clean clothes. I know you’re all trained to be comfortable around naked people, but I’m not.

“Yes, Nick.” Olga slipped out of the room.

Opal would have liked to chat with her sister on the way back to the hotel from the Richard Rogers theater, but true to recent form, Pearl had already tucked her earbuds in by the time they were in the limo.

Pearl wasn’t exactly in a snit or, if she was, that snit had started about a month before her sixteenth birthday and lasted almost a year now. It didn’t seem like Pearl was particularly angry about anything, just remarkably self-contained ... and irritated at anyone who tried to demand her attention when she hadn’t given it freely. Mostly that irritation was directed at Opal, but that was largely because they’d spent much of the last year traveling around the world together. With their father officially retired, Opal had taken it upon herself to give Pearl the education that would allow her to wield the power and wealth that her shares of Stone Oceanic Power afforded her just as their father had done for Opal herself. Thus far, Pearl was much more interested in the operations of their cattle ranch back home than their far-flung oil concerns, but Opal hoped something would spur her interest.

Of course, she reflected, Pearl was roughly at the age Opal had been when she’d started planning how to wrest control of the business from their father. Maybe it was just as well she not be too interested in oil.

The thought reminded her of business she’d put on hold before the play started and miraculously not thought about once in the intervening hours. Considering that the business would have a significant impact on what they paid to have liquified natural gas transported for the next ten years, that was a remarkable accomplishment and high praise for the musical she’d just watched. She opened up her email client and scrolled to the top. Even on a Saturday she could get dozens of genuinely important emails in an hour all of which needed her personal input. Her factotum Aina and Aina’s three assistants knew her business as well as she did and pre-screened anything that could be redirected to an underling for consideration.

She started at the top and worked her way down. An aboriginal rights group was agitating to rewrite a mineral rights contract that had been signed less than two years earlier. They had no legal leg to stand on. The ink wasn’t even dry. But the negative publicity such a demand would generate if the company didn’t handle it well could cost them a lot more than making some sort of concession. The next email was about a complicated land use and oil exploration deal in Western Sahara that would probably trigger another war if handled poorly. The Moroccan government wanted a billion dollars a year to lease her a big patch of otherwise completely useless desert for solar farms, roughly twenty times SOP’s initial and still very generous offer. Plus they wanted the lease to be for eight years which wouldn’t even give them time to recoup what it would cost to build up the infrastructure. That might be the point. If she were dumb enough to accept such a deal, they would have her over a barrel when it came time to renew. But combined with the fees they wanted for oil exploration, it was like they didn’t want to deal with SOP at all. There was some piece of the puzzle missing.

She was still trying to puzzle out what was going on there when her phone chirped with a call from Tanvi, Nick’s assistant. Tanvi was on a short list of numbers that always rang through because a call from her was effectively a call from Nick. She answered immediately.

After a quick exchange of salutations, Tanvi said, “We’ve had a call from Bunny Stone. She wants to have dinner with Nick and a small number of his chosen allies. Nick is hoping you will attend as one of those allies. May I tell him you’ll attend?”

“Of course. I haven’t seen Bunny in person in years now. When is the dinner planned?”

“At 7:30,” said Tanvi.

Opal realized there was no date attached, meaning the dinner would be tonight. She glanced at her phone. If she got in a place now, she could probably be in Los Angeles by 7:30, but it would be tight. “Pacific time, I assume.”

“No, eastern time. Bunny is in New York. The invitation is for dinner at her apartment in the Dakota,” said Tanvi.

Opal paused for a few seconds to gather her thoughts. Finally, she said, “Do you know how long it’s been since she left California?”

“I don’t specifically, only that it’s been quite some time ... and that the last time she was reported as being in New York was early in 1997,” said Tanvi.

“So, it’s safe to assume she’s in New York specifically for this dinner. Is Nick aware of that?” Opal asked.

“He’s been fully debriefed.” Tanvi affirmed.

“Who else is on the guest list?” Opal asked.

“Pilar, Inez, Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone, Goldie Masterson-Stone, and his grandmother Rachel,” said Tanvi.

“Math...” Opal winced. “Since when are Nick and Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone allies?”

“Nick met with her in Angola last month and asked her to come to New York to consider joining the ACCD council.” Tanvi paused a moment. “I see you and she have had some contentious interactions. Is that going to be a problem?”

“Not from my side, but she may have issues with being cast as allied with a world-poisoning exploiter who cares more about profits than human lives.” Opal pointed out.

“Yes ... perhaps you two could ... discuss your differences before dinner?” Tanvi suggested, then reminded her, “Nick wants you both there.”

Opal sighed and pushed her hair back from her face. “Make sure she knows I’m on the guest list and if she doesn’t back up, ask if she’ll take a call with me before the dinner. Aini can work out the details. Is there anything else? I’m almost at the hotel and I should get changed.”

When Tanvi signed off, Opal gestured to Pearl to remove her earbuds, but Pearl was already taking them out. “What’s up?”

“Can you work with Aini to get you to your party tonight? Nick is having dinner with Bunny and he wants me there as one of his allies,” said Opal.

Pearl scowled. “I guess. Do I really have to go to that stupid under-eighteen party at the Loft?”

“Not if you don’t want to,” Opal shrugged.

“So, I can go to the real party?” Pearl looked excited.

Opal sighed. The answer should be no. The last thing she needed was tension with Nick because she’d let her underage sister go to his adults-only party, but their suite was in the hotel where the party was taking place. Short of keeping her little sister under watch, there was no way that forbidding Pearl to go would work. She sighed. “I tell you what. Why don’t I pretend I didn’t hear you ask that question and you work very hard to not run into me there?”

Pearl feigned a yawn. “Yeah, now that you mention it, I’m pretty beat. I’ll probably just watch some American Netflix and have an early night. Maybe I’ll review some of those spreadsheets I was CC’d on to help me doze off.”

Opal shook her head, unwilling to take the bait. Instead, she asked a question she already knew the answer to because she’d heard a few notes when Pearl pulled her earbuds out. “What were you listening to?”

“The soundtrack. I missed some of the stuff Eliza said at the beginning.” Pearl looked out the window. “American history is weird.”

“All of human history is weird if you drill down deep enough.” Opal smiled, pleased to see that something about this trip had impacted her sister.

“Didn’t the Stones fight in the American Revolution? I didn’t hear us mentioned anywhere,” Pearl complained.

“I think some did. You would have to ask Inez for the particulars,” Opal suggested.

“In case those spreadsheets don’t knock me out? Inez has like the best gossip ever, but only if you want to know about people who’ve been dead for like a hundred years,” said Pearl.

And just like that, the petulant sixteen year-old was back. Still, Opal wasn’t about to give away an open engagement with her sister. “Have you ever asked Inez about a cousin you actually know personally? She has the best gossip, period.”

“I ... thought she was just a historian.” Pearl hedged.

“She’s a Stone family historian, an ally of Nick’s, and by extension an asset to us. But history isn’t just dead people, certainly not our family’s history. History is happening today ... in New York.” Opal ignored her sister’s eye-roll. “Like at dinner tonight with Bunny. It could be a very big deal.”

“Why? I thought you talked to Bunny all the time.” Pearl frowned.

“I talk to her at least once a month via video chat for trustee business. I haven’t seen her personally in years. But more importantly, she hasn’t been in New York since before you were born.” As she spoke, something clicked in Opal’s head and she ran with it. “Actually, most importantly, she hasn’t been in New York since a few months before Nick was born. And now she’s back to talk to Nick only a few months after he took control of his trust. That suggests she’s been waiting to do something until the Grayson-Stone money was back in play.”

Opal thought she knew what that was, but she didn’t want to say it out loud even to her sister. Instead she added, “Before Nick was born, Bunny told the trustees at the time that there was an heir waiting in the wings, but warned she’d come down like a ton of bricks on anyone who interfered with his life. That warning was dire enough that apparently even Threnody kept her hands off.”

“Oh yeah? Does Nick have a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead, too?” Pearl asked.

Opal frowned. “No, I don’t think so. Why... ?”

“Never mind. Pop culture reference.” Pearl sighed and got out as the car stopped in front of the hotel.

As she headed upstairs and got ready for dinner, two questions occupied Opal’s thoughts. The first was why he’d chosen to invite Inez Rodriguez-Stone to dinner. Other than herself and Pilar, none of Nick’s guests were who Opal would have advised he bring. She understood why he would want his grandmother there as one of his few close living relatives, but the Masterson-Stones were Nick’s tenants, Inez wasn’t really involved in family politics at all, and Mathilde spent all her time digging wells in the wilds of Africa. They could all swear their undying loyalty to Nick and not give him any real advantage in the family. Having invited the Bhatt-Blackstone woman before they had any real connection suggested he knew that such an invitation was a huge bounty that could form the basis for future alliances, but he hadn’t followed through with the obvious choices like Reggie or Jesse. For that matter, if he’d invited Kaius, it could have seriously weakened Malcolm’s hold on Shreveport.

The best answer she could come up with was that Inez’s presence was meant to be a message to Bunny - that whatever happened at the dinner would be known to the family shortly and part of the official history eventually. Once people learned Inez had been there they would ask her about it and she would tell them everything in excruciating detail. There would be no secrets.

The implication of that interpretation was that Nick must think Bunny had something nefarious in mind tonight that she would want to keep from the family. Opal hoped she had a few minutes to call Nick about this before they met with the other guests at a coffee shop a couple of blocks from the Dakota.

Those plans had been relayed to Opal by Aina, who called a second time to say that Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone had declined the offer of a call before the dinner, but would be happy to talk to her at length afterwards. Opal wasn’t looking forward to that meeting, but if they were both going to be Nick’s allies, she should probably take it.

Just as she’d finished dressing, she received another call from Tanvi’s number. But when she answered, she heard an unfamiliar voice. “This is Zola, one of Nick’s shift captains. Nick has a request for you.”

“Sure, what does he need?” Opal asked.

“Nick has had a very minor incident with one of his party guests. It may cause him to be a few minutes late to dinner with Bunny. He’d like you to inform his other dinner guests and to convey to Bunny that this is really just an unforeseeable incident and not a calculated slight.”

“Of course. What sort of incident?” Opal asked.

“An inconsequential one, but it’s caused a hygiene situation that needs to be addressed. He shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes late at the outside,” said Zola.

“All right. I’ll take care of everything.” Opal was already on the move. She called out to Pearl that she was going out and got a wordless response. In the elevator down, she called Aina. “Aina, there’s been a small change of plans. I’m heading straight to the Dakota. Would you please call Pilar at 7:25 and tell her they should just head over. We’ll be meeting Nick at Bunny’s place.”

Aina agreed without question. If the factotum had any opinion about this bit of maneuvering, she kept it to herself. Opal had expected nothing less.

On the ride uptown, Opal pondered the second question she had about this meeting. For decades, the Trustees had been the patriarch and the wealthiest members of the family. That had meant Opal, Threnody, and Jesse and, before them, their fathers in addition to Bunny. But Bunny held her seat by proxy. Nick’s great grandfather, the man who first built the Grayson-Stone Trust into a billion-dollar juggernaut had held it before her as had his father and some number of fathers before him. Jason Grayson-Stone had died in his early forties leaving behind three daughters and no sons and so the fortune had been in limbo until Nick’s biological father came of age. She wondered if Bunny had offered Nick’s father her seat on the board. From everything she knew about Colin Grayson-Stone, she could imagine him rejecting such an offer out of hand as too much bother. Was Bunny planning to offer Nick her seat on the board? Or was she going to be forced to give it up and looking to bargain for something of value in return for a smooth transition?

With Obie in failing health for the last fifteen years, Bunny had voted both the Grayson-Stone seat and the patriarch’s seat by proxy. Anything the other trustees wanted to do in spite of her had to be unanimous and Opal rarely found herself in unanimous agreement with both Threnody and Jesse. Nick assuming half of Bunny’s power could mean an enormous rebalancing of the family’s priorities. History was happening in New York indeed.

By the time she reached Bunny’s apartment door, Opal had been announced by the doorman. Bunny’s personal secretary Yusef opened the door without her having to knock. Graying at the temples but still devastatingly handsome, Yusef had been Bunny’s first of four or five factotums, retiring after a full seven-year stint but returning to take his current role after a short vacation. Family scuttlebutt had it that he and Bunny were lovers and had been since the Stone family considered such things genuinely scandalous, but anyone who’d been stupid enough to share that scuttlebutt too widely had earned Bunny’s abiding opprobrium.

“Opal, it’s good to see you again.” Yusef sketched a small bow. “Bunny’s still getting ready, but will be with you shortly. Would you like a drink?”

Opal kissed him on the cheek. “Nothing for me yet. It’s good to see you again, Yusef. Is she still working you like a dog?”

“And locking me in a kennel every night to sleep,” said Yusef dryly. “How’s Pearl? She must be almost seventeen by now.”

“She is ... almost seventeen with all that entails, Yusef. She did descend from her throne of indifference to enjoy Hamilton today, though,” Opal answered.

“Ah, I hope that means you got her to put some clothes on for a few hours?” Yusef parried.

Opal laughed. Pretty much from the age of four until somewhere around thirteen, it had been impossible to get Pearl to keep her clothes on for more than a couple of hours. Fortunately, they’d lived in an enormous ranch house with lots of room for her to run around without scaring the horse. “Yes, I think her naked phase may have passed ... mostly.”

“Ah, Opal.” Bunny emerged from a hallway attaching a small gold hoop earring and wearing a simple but elegant gray silk party dress. Bunny had kept herself in remarkable shape and could pass for twenty years younger than she was, but that still left her looking like a healthy, but gray-haired forty-two year old. “You’re early. How unfashionable.”

Opal was pretty sure that the last-minute earring and suggestion that Bunny had still been getting ready twenty minutes before their scheduled dinner was a ruse meant to give her a chance to make an entrance. Forty years ago, before marrying Obadiah Stone, Bunny had been a moderately successful actress living in Hollywood and she’d never lost her flair for the dramatic. She probably would have given the same show if Opal had arrived on time with Nick and his other allies.

“Nick asked me to come over, apologize for some potential tardiness, and to reassure you that it’s not some nose-thumbing exercise meant to establish dominance or any such nonsense.” Opal offered.

“Ah, probably good you came then. Did you ever meet his father Colin?” Bunny asked.

“I don’t believe so. I was ten or eleven when Colin died,” said Opal.

“Colin might have pulled a stunt like that. He was quite defiant towards any attempt to draw him into the family’s power structure.” Bunny looked around, “Has Yusef offered you a drink?”

“No, he slapped me and told me to never darken your door again. I think he was going down to the dungeon to get a particularly nasty scourge.” Opal answered. She wasn’t sure it was appropriate for the three of them to hold onto an inside joke like that for a decade, but an early and extremely minor incident had blossomed into a series of escalating accusations of her poor treatment at Yusef’s hands, all made in jest.

“I’ll punish him with it after you leave,” said Bunny dryly. “I do hope you won’t make an old woman drink alone?”

Opal acquiesced. “I’ll have whatever you’re having.”

Bunny went behind the bar herself to pour each of them a glass of white wine. “Would it be unwise to serve wine with dinner? My agents keep me informed of course, but you know Nick more personally than most. How far has the apple fallen from the tree?”

“In terms of alcohol? I get the sense Nick barely touches the stuff.” Opal answered.

Bunny brought out the glasses and gestured for Opal to take a seat on the horseshoe shaped couch that dominated the center of the living room. “That’s good. I understand he might take after Colin more with the ladies, though.”

Opal sat and took her glass. “You ... do know I’m here as one of Nick’s allies, don’t you?”

Bunny sat perpendicular to her and waved the objection away. “I’m not asking you to dish any dirt on him. I’m just giving you a chance to correct any misconceptions my people might have passed on to me before I ask Nick about them. I know you better than to expect you to just casually betray his trust.”

Opal sipped her wine and considered that. “I can’t believe I’m saying this already at my age, but things have changed since I was a teenager.”

“I seem to remember that things were already pretty dynamic at the time,” said Bunny.

“True, but I don’t remember anybody in my crowd calling themself gender-fluid and the ones who identified as pansexual were at the fringes. Even among the Stones, most of the couples who had a Third didn’t just come out and say so. But today...” Opal shook her head.

“That sort of thing has been happening for a long time. When I first met Obie, I had a reputation for a bit of wildness because I smoked pot, had appeared topless in movies, and had friends who were openly gay. Plus ca change... “ Bunny sipped her wine.

“Right, but my point is that Nick’s relationships with women can bear some superficial similarity to Colin’s, but actually be much closer to the mainstream than his father was twenty years ago. Nick is keeping a lot of women close to him and I get the impression he’s slept with a half dozen or so of them, but I don’t think he’s on some downward spiral of excess like the one that ultimately killed Colin Grayson-Stone.” Opal shrugged. “He’s just ... young and attractive and rich and really likes women.”

Bunny sighed and looked nostalgic. “Honestly, it would take a lot more than just a steady supply of bedmates for Nick to be another Colin. That boy ... he was only really around a few years after he assumed control of all that money, but we spent twice as long dealing with the fallout. I’m still a little amazed he didn’t father any children until the very end. That was part of why I demanded a strict hands-off policy towards Nick and encouraged his mother and stepfather not to tell him about Colin until he turned eighteen. There was a good chance someone else would have a better claim to the Trust than he did.”

Opal frowned. “So, what happens now if Colin has an older child somewhere?”

“Well, Nick has the field and the money and the lawyers. Black and Stringer spent almost twenty years defending that Trust from all claimants. I doubt they’d hold a grudge if Nick decided to come back and hire them to handle one more.” Bunny swirled her glass thoughtfully. “I was disappointed when Pilar didn’t follow Geoff to Singapore, but I like her for Nick and she’s certainly never lacked for ambition.”

“I like them for each other. Pilar has a ... ruthlessness that Nick tempers. He’s quite an idealist, you know?” Opal offered.

“So, I’ve heard. I understand he was talking about giving away the Grayson-Stone money as quickly as possible when he first found he’d be inheriting it, but that he’s settled down some since then?” Bunny made it a question.

“He’s done a lot of work to make sure that what he does give away, it does some good. I don’t think he’s interested in growing the fortune, though. There’s still a possibility the Grayson-Stone fortune ends with him.” Opal pointed out.

“A lot of our cousins have voiced similar concerns. I’ve had to remind some of them rather firmly that it is, in fact, his money to do with as he pleases. I am glad to see he seems to be drawing closer to the family at large, though.” Bunny sipped her wine again. “Even if he gives all that money away, it has to go somewhere. As long as it’s not one big check to the United Way or some similar foolishness, we can work for that.”

Opal nodded. For a minute, both women sat, drank their wine, and considered each other. Finally, Bunny said, “If I know you as well as I think I do, you didn’t give yourself twenty minutes alone with me in order to answer my questions. What can I help you with?”

Opal chuckled in acknowledgement. “I was hoping to try to feel you out on what this dinner was all about. You haven’t been in New York in decades and I know you don’t travel very much, so...”

“So, this must be more than a social call. It must be something pretty important...” Bunny gave herself a dramatic pause in which she sipped her wine. “It is. Now that Nick’s picked up the mantle of the Grayson-Stones and had a few months to get used to carrying it, there’s business Obadiah and I have been putting off that needs to be addressed.”

Opal sat back and considered. “Does it have something to do with your second proxy?”

“In a way, yes. That seat on the Board is one of the most valuable assets that’s been held in trust for Nick all these years.” Bunny acknowledged.

“And you’ll just give up your proxy on it because it’s the right thing to do?” Opal raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“I didn’t when Colin’s lawyers came gunning for it twenty-some years ago, but I might this time. It’s long past time where the family’s interests should be rebalanced to more closely resemble modern realities. We could use an idealist on the Board,” said Bunny.

Opal gave a little laugh. “That sounds kind of exhausting, actually. You know he’s invited Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone to dinner tonight?”

“Not a choice I would have expected, but an instructive one,” said Bunny. “I hear he’s reached out to the Blackstones rather a lot lately.”

“I spotted a few at the play today,” Opal acknowledged.

“We do have sins towards them to atone for ... as a family and this Board specifically. My husband always wanted to work more towards reconciliation than he was able to with the boards he had. Maybe Nick could help with that.” Bunny sighed. “I’ve had a couple of encounters with Mathilde myself. She’s always been very forceful in her positions.”

“She called me genocidal once,” Opal acknowledged.

“Well, she has a place at the table tonight. If she doesn’t squander Nick’s good will with name-calling and vitriol, maybe this can be the beginning of something positive,” said Bunny.

Opal gave a pained look. “I suppose atonement isn’t meant to be enjoyable.”

Yusef stepped into the room from the hallway. “Pilar, Inez, Rachel, Mathilde, and Goldie are on their way up.”

“Ah, good.” Bunny placed her glass on the table and allowed Yusef to help her rise.

Opal glanced at a clock on the wall and then her phone. It was still 7:24. How had they gotten here so fast? They must have run. She put her own glass down on a coaster, rose, and smoothed her clothes.

When Yusef opened the door admitting the five women, Bunny smiled and spread her arms. “Hello, everyone. Welcome to my favorite home away from home.”

Each woman had a different reaction to being admitted. Pilar gave a carefully-calculated smile with just the right amount of warmth. Inez looked around at the details of the room. Goldie swept in as best she could in a group. Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone spotted Opal, glanced immediately at the two glasses on the table, and shot her Australian cousin a potentially murderous glance.

Nick’s grandmother, on the other hand, made a beeline for the matriarch. “Bunny, I haven’t seen you in so long!”

Bunny hugged her and Rachel made it a warm embrace. Bunny said, “It has been much too long. How’s Gil?”

“Older and crankier by the day,” Rachel smiled up at her, then turned to Yusef. “I can’t believe you haven’t retired yet.”

“I did years ago. It didn’t take,” said Yusef dryly. “You’re looking good, Rachel.”

“I’m looking old. You’re looking more like Omar Sharif than ever.” Rachel countered.

Yusef smiled at the compliment, then turned to the group at large. “Dinner will be served shortly. If you’d like a drink or to freshen up...”

“It looks like someone had a drink already,” said Mathilde sweetly. “Have you been here long, Opal?”

“No, not long.” Opal matched sweetness with sweetness. “I see you had no trouble finding the place.”

“I’ve been here before ... not this particular apartment, but when I was a student at Barnard, I attended a number of fundraisers held in this building,” said Mathilde.

“I could use a glass of white wine if you have some,” said Goldie.

“Of course.” Yusef withdrew from the room and Bunny followed him so smoothly, she was out of everyone’s line-of-sight before anyone could react.

“What’s going on with Nick?” Pilar asked. “I texted, but he just said he was going to be a few minutes late. Is he all right?”

“He’s fine. He just had a ... hygienic incident, whatever that means,” said Opal.

“A lot of people on social media are saying Wesley Church-Stone threw up on him in an elevator,” said Inez.

Everybody turned and looked at her. Then Pilar said, “Well, that would certainly qualify as a hygienic incident.”

Opal laughed, but then got serious. “I hope it doesn’t throw Nick off his game. Bunny’s up to something big tonight.”

Bunny returned holding a bottle of wine with a golden ribbon tied around its neck. “Rachel, do you remember that vineyard in Napa Valley where Curtis and Amelia had their wedding? It was the first time Obadiah introduced me to the family.”

“I do. That was the first wedding Gil and I attended as husband and wife,” Rachel smiled at the memory.

“Yes, and you were the first of the Stone cousins who was actually friendly to me,” said Bunny. “Anyway, Obie and I had been buying a case from them every year when we found out back in 2009 they were going bankrupt. We ended up buying the vineyard and turning it into a school for viniculture. This bottle is from their first student harvest. I wanted you to have it.”

“Oh, that is so sweet.” Rachel took the bottle and kissed Bunny on the cheek. “I don’t remember the wine very well, but Gil and I got pretty drunk at that wedding, so I must have enjoyed it.”

Bunny turned to Mathilde next. “Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone, it’s an honor to finally meet you. You and your husband are doing such important work in Angola and we’re glad we can help fund it.”

They exchanged kisses on the cheek, then Matilde said, “Nick has been exceedingly generous towards our program. When he asked me to come to New York and then to this dinner, I could hardly say no.”

If Bunny caught the ambiguity of that statement, she ignored it. “I’m glad you could make it. You ... have a proposal for a de-desertification program in front of the Board this month, don’t you? If you’re still in New York tomorrow, you should schedule a meeting with Yusef for us to go over the details.”

“I ... will do that,” said Mathilde.

“And is your lovely daughter Sarita in New York with you? I follow her on Instagram and she’s really a striking beauty,” Bunny continued.

And so it went. Opal knew Bunny as a capable administrator and a hard-nosed negotiator, but she hadn’t seen much of Bunny the politician. Her technique was brutally simple. She did her homework, showed an interest in the people she was speaking to, did favors, and dangled the possibility of bigger favors yet to come. And unlike so many politicians who did everything they could to try to make people forget they were politicians, she made no bones about what she was doing. All the wires were exposed and her success or failure depended on whether she delivered what she’d promised.

She talked to Pilar first about dance, then about construction and some projects the patriarch was planning on endowing when he passed on. She talked to Inez about the family in the nineteenth century and, when Inez asked some pointed questions about events in her own lifetime, promised she would make time for a proper interview later in the year. She’d just started talking to Goldie about her experiences at Green Mountainside in the late seventies when Yusef again entered the room.

It did make Opal wonder why Bunny wanted to charm all of Nick’s allies. Did she do this with all the Stone cousins who got to meet her or was she trying to take Nick’s support out at the knees before trying to keep his proxy from him? Whichever it was, they were pretty much committed to see it through now. Nick was already on his way up.

“Dinner will be served momentarily ... if you’d like to reconvene in the dining room.” Yusef gestured them further into the apartment. Opal could see that Bunny wanted to greet Nick privately and that the other women were already going where they’d been directed. She hesitated, then moved slowly to possibly buy herself a few seconds to hear the initial meeting.

Mathilde Bhatt-Blackstone was at the end of the line when everyone else filed out. Just before leaving the room, she turned, spotted Opal lingering, and instead of leaving, leaned back against the doorframe, crossed her arms, and glared.

Opal sped her pace. One of them might get away with eavesdropping. Two wouldn’t, particular with one refusing to leave the room at all. Mathilde followed her into the hallway. “Did you have time to set the agenda?”

Opal didn’t look back at her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I assumed that was why you came straight here, then had your assistant call us at the last minute. You wanted to get to Bunny first and set the agenda for this evening.” Mathilde said.

Opal stopped and turned. “I talk to Bunny several times a month. I don’t need to ‘get to her first’ and nobody sets the agenda with the Iron Rabbit unless she wants it set.”

“So, this was just a social call - a chance for two titans to share a third of a glass of wine before all the outsiders showed up?” Mathilde suggested.

Opal scowled. “This was a chance to feel her out and see if I could learn anything that might help my ally Nick get a slightly more secure footing in tonight’s meeting because that’s the kind of thing real allies...”

Yusef stepped into the hall and gestured forward. “Ladies, the dining room is this way.”

Opal turned and stalked into the dining room a little more quickly than was strictly necessary. Mathilde stayed at her heels. The dining room table was set and each seat had a name card in front of it. As soon as she saw where people were already sitting, Opal knew she’d probably been seated right next to Mathilde, but the names on the cards confirmed it. Mathilde smirked and took her seat.

Opal took her seat, leaned in and said quietly, “I thought that by declining my offer of a call earlier, you were indicating you would be civil tonight.”

“Civility doesn’t mean ignoring reality. Civilizations based on lies crumble,” said Mathilde.

Opal rolled her eyes and then, realizing she’d done a perfect impression of a petulant sixteen year-old, pointedly turned to Inez seated directly across the table from her. “Inez, my sister asked me if any Stones participated in the American Revolution and, if so, why they weren’t mentioned in Hamilton?”

Inez smiled. “Ah, well. The earliest records of the Stone family go back to the 1730s when they all lived on Stone Island in Maine. By the 1770s, most of them were part of a radically pacifist church and refused to take sides in the revolution. A handful left to join the fighting around Boston in 1777, but if any survived the war, they never came home and they probably didn’t keep the toponym.”

“Toponym?” Rachel asked.

“Oh, yeah. The Stone family weren’t actually a family at that point. There are a lot of theories about the ultimate origin of the people on Stone Island, but they were several distinctive family groups who all took the name of the place where they lived. That’s a toponym.”

Mathilde’s ears perked up. “So, the Stone Family aren’t actually a family?”

“The Stone Family are mostly a family. The initial recognized members were all believed to be direct descendants of the First Patriarch. The trustees admitted the descendants of Stone Island in 1899, but there’s been so much intermarriage since then that most modern Stones have at least some of William I’s blood.” Inez answered.

“So, white neighbors from back home got in seventy years before Billy One’s actual black children?” Mathilde asked.

“Sixty-six,” said Inez automatically. “When I was studying under my mentor Dr. Baako Teapenny-Stone, he’d just completed his work on the murder of Howard Blackstone and started a new project documenting all the times the trustees elected to add people to the Stone Family rolls outside of the ordinary process. His working title was From Stone Island to the Blackstones because the Stone Islanders were the first and the Blackstones were the last ... at the time. The Azteca Stones were recognized only a couple of years ago.”

“Ah...” said Mathilde.

Holy crap, even Inez was more adept at playing politics with Mathilde than Opal was. She was really going to have to learn how to deal with the African-American Stones if she was going to pull her weight as Nick’s ally.

Nick stepped into the room, his arm linked with Bunny’s, Zola and Yusef a few steps behind. Opal wondered if Bunny was playing at being frail and needing assistance or if Nick had just offered, but could hardly ask. They took seats at opposite ends of the table and, as if that was a cue, caterers emerged from the kitchen with salads.

After a few minutes of quiet focused eating, Bunny said, “So Nick, you’ve had a few chances to get to know our family now. What do you think of us?”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “Well ... I think they’ve been really nice to me, but I can’t help noticing everyone has been a lot nicer to me since I turned eighteen. I ... think I may have gotten more handsome or something.”

“You are a strikingly attractive young man,” said Bunny dryly. “But, I understand not all the Stones have been equally nice to you. I was surprised to hear that Kaius and Shiloh were in the front row with you today.”

“Kaius and Shiloh have been delightful so far. Kaius’s brother Malcolm has been a bit ... less delightful. But I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s decided to test me and, once I pass his test, things will settle down again.” Nick offered.

“I’ve heard some decidedly mixed things about how Malcolm runs his operations down in Shreveport.” Bunny offered.

“I can add to those reports if you like. I’ve had some people down there taking a look at things,” said Nick. When Bunny gestured for him to continue, he did. “He keeps his people isolated from the rest of the family, doesn’t let them do business with anyone outside of his organization. Even attending a wedding or a play with family members can get you blacklisted. He threatens people who don’t fall into line and bribes officials to keep out competition.”

“I understand you caught him spying on you.” Bunny prompted.

“I’ve been counselled to expect people to spy on me and not to take it personally. What Malcolm was doing was a good deal more malicious and required a stronger response.” Nick answered.

“If he backs off at this point, will you?” Bunny asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.” Nick paused as the salad course was cleared away and soup brought out. “I think Malcolm wants to see how much he can get away with and use that as a baseline for coming after me. And I don’t think he’ll be the last person to think he can rip away a few million dollars from me here and there with no risk at all. I’d like to show him that he’s on a very short leash and, since he’s volunteered, make enough of an example of him that nobody else makes the effort for a while.”

Rather than answer, Bunny took a spoonful of her soup. Nick asked, “Do you disapprove?”

Bunny placed her spoon next to the low, flat bowl and blotted her lips with a white cloth napkin. “When someone with a lot of resources isolates his people from outside business, nothing he takes out of the system for his own use is replenished. The whole system gets hollowed out and eventually collapses in on itself. I’ve seen it before. It’s a bad business.”

Nick nodded. “It sounds like a bad business.”

Bunny sat back and considered him. “As a rule, we don’t go to war in this family. We don’t bury each other in lawyers and we don’t save cities by destroying them. If you do something that costs a lot of people their jobs or their homes, they’re going to remember that, not who was right or wrong.”

Nick made a go-ahead gesture to Pilar who said. “I’ve approached Malcolm’s primary contractor George Laird with the possibility of a deal that would give us a foothold in Shreveport. We’re ready to bring in workers from out of state if Malcolm threatens everyone local off the job and we’re bringing lawyers with us, but the plan is for them to help federal and local law enforcement remove some of the lynchpin officials that allow him to keep a stranglehold on things like permits and inspections.”

“Bribery is a filthy business.” Bunny said, then turned to ask Inez something about her work in Europe. Opal turned to Nick and raised an eyebrow. They hadn’t really had time to confer since she got to New York, but it sounded like he’d ramped up his capabilities and changed his strategy since the last time they’d talked.

Inez’s conversation with Bunny lasted until the fish course at which point the matriarch turned her attention back to Nick. “I think we might be in a truly unique situation today. I often like to ask newcomers to the family for a fresh perspective on what we’re doing and how they would change things if empowered to do so. You’re the first person I can remember who has the full benefit of an outside perspective and the power to really direct the family’s future.”

She let it hang in the air like a question without a question. Nick considered it. “I don’t know how much power I really have vis-a-vis the family yet. I’ve got a lot of money, but the family trust generates more than my entire fortune in income every year. Right now, I’m offering to help a few people around my own age to do the things they really want to do instead of the things they think they’ll have to do to pay the rent. I think there’s some enormous potential to turn a relatively small initial investment there into a huge boon for the family. But, that’s still theory. Once I see the reality, I’ll adjust.”

“Do you think you’re picking up the slack for something the Trust should be doing more of with that?” Bunny posed.

“I think...” Nick made a hand-washing gesture as he considered his answer. “Inez has a theory that the Stones are a particularly attractive family because we’ve been selecting for beauty for generations. I think we’ve been selecting for other qualities as well ... things that give your average Stone an enormous amount of potential just waiting for resources to turn into something amazing. As impressive as the family is, I wonder how much better we would be if instead of a largely middle-class family with some pockets of extreme wealth, we were four thousand millionaires working on what we wanted instead of what we had to.”

Bunny gave a small laugh, not a mocking one, but the kind you might make when you were pleasantly surprised by a performance. “You know, if you really wanted that, you could do it and still have half your extreme wealth left.”

“And I might, but probably not this year or the next. I asked my friend Simon who I trust to temper my idealism to come up with a list of potential problems with such a plan and he talked for an hour off-the-cuff. I don’t want to do more harm than good.” Nick sipped his wine. “Actually, I want to do as little harm as I possibly can while still doing good. Like you said, people who lose their jobs and homes don’t remember whether you were right or wrong when you took it away from them.”

Bunny laughed again, still sounding pleased. “Okay, if you were to join the board of trustees for the Stone Family Trust today, what would you do?”

“Pretty much what I’m doing today. Listen and learn for a while, like a couple of years. During that time, find low-risk ways to test what I think I’m learning. Otherwise, don’t change things that seem to be working just because I don’t understand how they work.”

Bunny nodded thoughtfully, then sat back and considered the whole group. Opal sat up a bit straighter, aware that something crucial was going to happen. The matriarch did not disappoint.

“Next week, I’m going to announce to the family at large that we’re holding a conclave on Jayanesia at the end of December to determine a rewriting of my husband’s will. Obadiah believes this will be the final rewrite because he doesn’t expect to live much longer.” Bunny’s eyes remained dry and her voice firm, but she took a deep breath and a moment to compose herself. “In addition to the matter of the will, I’d also like to take the opportunity to retire from the active management of the Stone family and its holdings and to step down from the board of trustees for the family trust. Before I agree to do so, I need a concession from the other trustees that the two seats I currently hold by proxy will be retired and replaced with six new seats chosen democratically by the family every ten years or so. I agree with you Nick that the family is only living up to a fraction of its potential, but I think a big part of that is how we lead from the top. The world and the family are changing at a breakneck pace and we’re not keeping up.”

Inez whispered “wow” to herself, but in the sudden silence of the dining room, everyone clearly heard it. Opal cleared her throat. “I ... understand dissolving the patriarch’s seat if you want to, but the other proxy you hold belongs to Nick. He inherited the seat as part of his Trust.”

“That’s true. I would be asking Nick to surrender his seat and to stand for election by the family at large - not just to stand Nick, but to promise me that you’ll do everything you can to win. The makeup of the Board will shape the future of the family. If you’re not willing to do that, I’ll withdraw my claim to the proxy and let you take the seat you own, but once my husband dies, the provenance of his seat is arguably more difficult to interpret. It could be tied up in court for years. With Threnody and Jesse on one side and you two on the other, the family would fall into a different form of stagnation than the one we have now, but it would still be stagnation.” Bunny said.

Opal was still trying to get her head around the idea. “And the other three seats? The ones Jesse, Threnody, and I currently hold?”

“They would remain as they are - permanent and transferable. I can’t imagine Threnody agreeing to these changes if that weren’t the case,” said Bunny.

“Does Threnody need to agree to them? Together, you and I hold three of the five votes,” Opal pointed out.

“Yes, but Threnody would almost certainly sue the board if we did this without her buy-in. It would be trivial for her to run out the clock.” Bunny pointed out. “We need Threnody to agree to this if it’s going to happen.”

Opal sat back, frowning deeply. “How are we supposed to get that? I don’t remember the last time either of us managed to get her to change her vote on anything.”

“I don’t think either one of us can here either. There are some assets she wants very badly that Obadiah could agree to leave her in his will, but I don’t think they’d be enough on their own.” said Bunny. “Nick, it would be up to you to convince her.”

Nick froze. “Beg pardon?”

When Verity had been back in Switzerland anticipating her weekend in New York, she’d imagined a lot of possible scenarios and done her best to plan for all of them. What she hadn’t been able to plan for or even anticipate really was that it would be one long string of discoveries and that each discovery would nudge her onto a slightly different path than the one she’d expected to take through life until a mere forty-eight hours after leaving campus, she felt like she was becoming a different person.

She’d discovered that she genuinely liked Nick Coyle much more than she was meant to and even more than she’d meant to let herself. She’d discovered dozens of cousins she thought she could be friends with and that she’d apparently been friends with Sunneva for years without noticing. She’d discovered that she really liked Broadway musicals.

Currently, she was discovering that Jacintha Gorostiaga was a wonderfully terrible dancer - terrible in the sense that Jake had absolutely no sense of form or anything that would traditionally be recognized as grace and didn’t know how to follow where she was led, wonderful in that she had an almost frenetic energy and boundless enthusiasm for moving her body to the music, whatever music was playing at the moment.

Verity had started taking dance lessons pretty much as soon as she learned to walk. By all accounts she was an excellent dancer. Her dancing was one of the few things that Threnody was consistently complimentary about. But her dancing had always been yoked to the Dance, the interactions at the heart of the Stone family that mixed business, politics, friendship, family, sex, marriage, and actual dancing into a seamless whole. Verity found joy in dancing, but rarely danced in joy.

Jake on the other hand moved her body to her own exuberance and called it dancing. When Verity took the floor with her, she quickly gave up trying to lead, then gave up trying to follow, and finally just fell back into the kind of free movement she would do as a warm-up exercise in her dance classes at school, choosing her movements to incrementally express her own limberness and range of motion while at the same time trying to avoid any hard collisions or stepped-on toes.

And then the pulse-pounding Latin beat of whatever they’d been dancing to faded and was replaced with a slower, softer song. Across the dance floor, couples moved together, intertwining. Jake slowed down and Verity matched her pace. They didn’t touch except incidentally, but they moved in a hard-won syncopation.

“You’re a really good dancer,” said Jake.

“You’re ... very enthusiastic.” Verity answered and wanted to take the words back even as they were coming out of her mouth. She hadn’t meant to be unkind or insulting. She genuinely admired Jake’s enthusiasm and had profoundly enjoyed sharing in it, but now she saw Jake’s eyes widen at the unintentionally back-handed compliment and her stomach hurt.

Then Jake laughed and the laugh was entirely genuine, full of happiness. She said, “Yeah, you have fun dancing with me, don’t you?”

“I’m afraid I do,” Verity schooled her face into its usual pleasant neutrality.

“You’re not really afraid of having fun, are you Princess?” Jake asked.

“You have no idea how much opprobrium my sister will put into that word the next time I see her,” said Verity.

“No, but I also don’t know what ‘opprobrium’ means,” Jake pointed out.

Verity stiffened her spine, gave Jake a regal glare, and in her best impression of Threnody said, “You looked like you were having fun this weekend.” Then she went back to moving with Jake.

After a surprised second, Jake said. “Oh, I get it. Opprobrium is like bitchiness.”

Verity laughed. “Close enough.”

“I hope you don’t mind if I break in, but you’ve been monopolizing my guest of honor, Jake,” said Nick.

Somehow, neither of them had heard him approach and they both jumped. Jake looked back over her shoulder at him. “You know when you throw a big party, you’re supposed to be at that party, right?”

“I know that I’ve been terribly rude, but it was unavoidable. I hope my other guests have been keeping you entertained.” He addressed the last bit to Verity.

“Wonderfully so. How was dinner?” Verity asked.

Nick laughed and took her into his arms as Jake stepped away. He and Verity moved together to the slow music and she held him close. “Can you tell me anything about dinner with Bunny, knowing that I’ll probably tell my sister everything?”

Nick looked her in the eyes. “Bunny wants me to convince Threnody to do something she probably doesn’t want to do.”

Verity winced. “Big ask. Are you going to do it?”

“I told her I’d talk to my people and let her know. There are a lot of moving parts to the request, actually.” Nick said.

“Anything I can help with?” Verity offered. Seeing the negation in Nick’s eyes, she added, “You know ... if you want to take me hostage or threaten my virtue or something?”

Nick smiled. “Dark, Vee.”

It took Verity a moment - first to recognize that Nick meant her when he said “Vee,” then to realize how close her joke hit home. She winced, “Oh, yeah. Threnody might react really badly to that.”

Nick smiled down at her and didn’t say anything. Feeling like she needed to say more, Verity added, “And I think my virtue’s pretty safe with you ... for now.”

Nick met her eyes and the thrill she felt at saying the words shot even further down her spine and pooled around her tailbone. The look probably only lasted a few seconds, but it gave Verity enough time to imagine a world in which she stayed with Nick and fell into everything that entailed and that they could somehow keep Threnody at bay. The notion left her dizzy and breathless.

“I think that’s best,” said Nick.

Verity could only nod. For a while they danced. Eventually she said, “Do you want to know how little I knew about the American Revolution before today?”

“How little?” asked Nick.

“Pretty much that it had happened and was considered the beginning of the end of the British Empire ... and something Threnody said to me about it once.” Verity smiled in spite of herself. “She said, ‘That’s the sort of thing that happens when you let commoners own too much land.’”

Nick laughed and shattered the thin sheet of sadness that had settled over them at the acknowledgement that she would be going back to school tomorrow and that whatever was between them this weekend would end. She would enjoy this moment and worry about the future in the future.

“I’ve been incredibly sheltered in some ways.” She rested her head against Nick’s chest.

“I think I know something about what you mean.” Nick held her close. “Bunny made sure the family didn’t contact me while I was growing up and my father Ed really insulated me from learning anything about how to handle what he knew was coming down the pike. They both meant well, but I can’t help but feel like I’m way out of my league.”

Somehow, the admission made Verity feel better. It shouldn’t. She wanted to believe that Nick was strong and smart and clever enough to keep her safe from Threnody if only he chose to, but she knew that was a fantasy. If you were lost at sea, being rescued might be your first choice but failing that it was nice to have company.

“Do you know I’ve never kissed a boy ... or a man for that matter?” she asked. Nick looked down at her, eyebrow raised. She continued on. “Normal girls do that at ... what, like twelve? They have years afterward to get used to the idea of intimacy with the strange, alien wonderful things that are boys before things become much more serious. I never had that.”

She thought she was just explaining how sheltered she’d been, not asking for something until she felt Nick cradle the back of her head. In the same moment she realized how he would take what she’d said, she also realized she’d meant to come exactly to this point. She tilted her head back and opened her mouth. They kissed.