Two computers. A laptop. Legal pads.
A creak from up high lifted his eyes. Saxton was on the rolling teak ladder, reaching for a book on the top shelf by the ceiling molding.
"Good evening to you, cousin," the guy said from his lofty perch.
Just the male he needed to see. "What's doing with all this?"
"You're looking rather well recovered. " The ladder creaked again as the male descended with his prize. "All and sundry have been worried. "
"Nah, I'm fine. " Qhuinn went over to liquor bottles lined up on the marble-topped bombe chest. "So what are you working on?"
Do not think of him with Blay. Do not think of him with Blay. Do not think of him -
"I didn't know you were a sherry man. "
"Huh?" Qhuinn glanced down at what he'd poured himself. Fuck. In the midst of the self-lecture, he'd picked up the wrong bottle. "Oh, you know. . . I'm good with it. "
To prove the point, he tossed back the hooch - and nearly choked as the sweetness hit his throat.
He served himself another only so he didn't look like the kind of idiot who wouldn't know what he was dishing out into his own glass.
Okay, gag. The second was worse than the first.
From out of the corner of his eye, he watched Saxton settle in at the table, the brass lamp in front of him casting the most perfect glow over his face. Shiiiiiit, he looked like something out of a Ralph Lauren ad, with his buff-colored tweed jacket and his pointed pocket square and that button-down/sweater vest combo keeping his fucking liver cozy.
Meanwhile, Qhuinn was sporting hospital scrubs, bare feet. And sherry.
"So what's the big project?" he asked again.
Saxton glanced over with a strange light in his eyes. "It's a game changer, as you might say. "
"Ohhhh, supersecret king stuff. "
"Indeed. "
"Well, good luck with it. Looks like you've got enough to keep you busy for a while. "
"I'll be at this for a month, maybe more. "
"What are you doing, rewriting the whole goddamn law?"
"Just a part of it. "
"Man, you make me love my job. I'd rather get shot at than do paperwork. " He poured himself a third cocksucking sherry and then tried not to look too much like a zombie as he headed for the door. "Have fun with it. "
"And you with your endeavors, dear cousin. I would be up there as well, but I have been given no time to accomplish too much. "
"You'll get through it. "
"Indeed. I will. "
As Qhuinn nodded and then hit the stairs, he thought. . . Well, at least that exchange hadn't been too bad. He hadn't imagined anything X-rated. Or entertained visions of beating the motherfucker until he bled out all over his nice threads.
Progress. Yay.
Up on the second story, the double doors of the study were wide-open, and he paused when he got a gander at the size of the crowd. Holy crap. . . everyone was there. As in not just the Brothers and the fighters, but the shellans. . . and the staff?
There were literally forty people in the room, packed in like sardines around the pansy-ass furniture.