Nudging Fate by E.J. Russell

Author:E.J. Russell [Russell, E.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: gay romance
ISBN: 978-1-64080-506-4
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Published: 2018-05-15T05:00:00+00:00

THE Enchanted Occasions staff who laid out Con’s breakfast were much too polite and discreet to mention his towering bad mood. He paced the suite, muttering curses to himself. Last night, he’d lain awake, staring at the cell phone on the bedside table, willing Rey to call. His will was singularly ineffective because the phone had remained stubbornly silent, leaving Con with nothing more than a headache and bleary eyes this morning.

He waited until the last brownie had bowed its way out the door before he collapsed onto the sofa and gave way to a good old-fashioned glower. Damn it, the least Rey could do was—

The phone shrilled, and Con tripped over his own feet scrambling off the sofa and across the room where he’d left the thing. He touched the green button. “Rey?”

“Hey, brother mine.” Rey’s cheerful voice was backed by loud music and odd whistles and bells.

“Where the hells are you? A bloody circus?”

Rey chuckled. “Sadly, no. A casino. You should try one sometime. They’re much livelier than the average state dinner and nearly as prone to periodic outbursts of hysteria.”

“Why aren’t you here? There’s less than a week until solstice, and you know I can’t stand in for you at the coronation, let alone your wedding.”

“Yes. I know, more’s the pity. You’d be a far better ruling prince than I ever would.” Rey sighed. “But we’ve still got time. And there’s something really important I need to do here before I come back. You’ll cover for me, won’t you?”

Ah, shite. Con had never been able to withstand that wheedling note in Rey’s voice. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t still angry with his flighty brother. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’d slept with Kjersti?”

“Con, old boy, I’ve slept with all of them. Well, except the ifrit. I’m not that self-destructive.”

“Clearly Kjersti had expectations. Had you made any promises?”

“Hells no. None of them, no matter what they may tell you, have the least claim on me. So you can reject them all with a clear conscience.”

Con pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at the screen as if it would bring Rey’s image into view. Surely Rey didn’t intend…. “What do you mean, ‘reject all of them’?”

“Exactly that. It occurred to me that if you—that is I—refuse to select any of my mother’s stellar candidates, she won’t be able to force me to get married.”

“I don’t think that’s the way it works. Whoever is the last one standing is who you’ll be stuck with, and if that’s just whoever’s at the end of the line, you might end up with somebody worse than a prior reject.”

“You’ll think of something. I have faith.”

“What? Rey—”

“I’ve got to go. Love you, Con.”

“Wait. You can’t—” But the noise cut off, leaving nothing but silence. “Damn it.” Con drew his arm back but stopped himself before he hurled the cell phone across the room. It wasn’t the phone’s fault that his brother was behaving true to form.

He poured himself a

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