Cat smiled at her. “Well, I do have a few ideas…”
Emily felt herself flushing, helplessly. “I…”
She stared into his eyes for a long moment, unsure of herself. She’d enjoyed making love to him. There was no point in trying to deny it. Her body wanted to do it again and again and again. But…Jade’s reaction had reminded her that they did have a mission. She was no longer a student. She could no longer afford to please herself…not, she admitted wryly, that she’d had much time for anything other than work at school. Imaiqah might enjoy the thought of having enough short-term boyfriends to man an ocean-going ship, but Emily didn’t. She wanted some degree of emotional commitment from her…
Her thoughts ran in ever-widening circles. From her…from her what? What was Cat to her? A boyfriend? A friend with benefits? A one-night stand? The latter was disgusting, entirely unworthy of her. She couldn’t move from man to man, even if there was no danger of pregnancy or catching something unpleasant. She thought she needed more.
“I enjoyed myself,” Cat said, gently. “I thought you had a good time too.”
“I did,” Emily said, hastily. She had had a good time. “I just…”
Cat sat back on his chair. “I’m a live for the moment kind of guy,” he said, frankly. “You know that, don’t you?”
Emily nodded. She’d never associated that much with Cat, outside classes, but she’d heard stories. Cat had done things that, he’d admitted later, had seemed a good idea at the time. He had been forever in trouble for one thing or another, coming within a hairsbreadth of being expelled. If he hadn’t been such a good student, she suspected he would have been expelled long before they’d met. The previous Grandmaster hadn’t been the sort of person to put up with bad behavior for long.
“We could die tomorrow,” Cat said. “You know that too, Emily. And if we don’t die tomorrow, we will grow old soon. We have to seize the day before the sun sets and the night falls.”
“Eat, drink and be merry,” Emily said. “For tomorrow we may die.”
Or catch some disgusting skin disease, her thoughts added.
“Exactly,” Cat said.
He shrugged, expressively. “I don’t promise to marry you. My family…would probably not approve of me marrying anyone. They…can be quite old-fashioned about that sort of thing, Emily. And I don’t promise a long-term relationship either. You probably don’t want me as a partner for the rest of your life. If you find someone else, I will let you go without hesitation.”
Emily wasn’t sure she believed him. She’d learned more about male psychology than she’d ever wanted to know. Men…didn’t like sharing women, certainly not in the long term. One man and several wives was fine, one woman and several husbands was not. And yet, there was a bit of her that wanted to believe him. Caleb had talked of marriage before they’d even shared more than a kiss. She’d allowed herself to be lured into a courtship because she’d thought it was a guarantee of his good intentions…
And yet, she had enjoyed herself. And…
Her mind raced. She wanted to make love to him again. And he was offering her a relationship without strings attached, without obligations, without guilt. She wanted it and that made her careful. Someone offering her something she wanted was not always a good sign. Lady Barb had warned her that con men normally caught their victims by giving them what they wanted, or telling them what they wanted to hear. Cat wasn’t like that, was he?
“No obligations,” she said, slowly. How easy would it be to give him up if he found someone else? She doubted it was possible to be…friends with benefits without some degree of feeling for each other. “Are you sure?”
Cat nodded. “I just want to have fun. And I don’t want to tie you down.”
“And you don’t want me tying you down either,” Emily said. He was being honest. She appreciated that, even as she worried about the future. She did want kids, one day. Cat…would Cat father them? Or would they separate a year or two in the future, allowing her to find someone else? “I…I understand.”
She rose, slowly. “No obligations,” she repeated. “I’ll hold you to that, you know.”
“I’m telling you the truth,” Cat said. He watched as she walked towards him. “I don’t want you to assume that I am anything other than what I am.”
Emily nodded, torn between a wry admiration of his brutal honesty and a droll concern about the future. She’d heard too many horror stories about relationships that had fallen apart when one party wasn’t clear about their intentions, or where they saw the relationship going. And too many others about people trapping themselves because they couldn’t find a polite way out of the match. Cat wasn’t hiding anything from her. He was, at heart, a simple soul.
She leaned down and kissed him, gently. He kissed her back, his arms reaching up to enfold her. Emily didn’t tense, even as he pulled her down for another kiss. His arms were strong, but she trusted him…
“We probably shouldn’t do it here,” she said, drawing back. “Tam and Jade will be here soon.
Cat winked. “Don’t want to shock them?”
“No,” Emily said. Casual nudity had never been her thing, ever. It was bad enough that Jade had seen her. Tam wouldn’t know what to make of it if it happened again. No, that wasn’t true. She knew, all too well, precisely what he’d make of it. “I think we should wait.”
Cat stood, holding her gently. “I understand,” he said. “We don’t want to frighten them too much.”
“And we need to sort out what we’re going to tell them,” Emily said. The urge to kiss him again was almost overwhelming. She told that part of her to shut up. The last thing she needed was Jade and Cat to start fighting again. “We need to find that chat parchment and see if we can hack the spellware…”
She broke off as a thought crossed her mind. A chat parchment…it was linked, by blood, to its user. There were parchments designed for multiple users, but they simply weren’t as secure. The Black Daggers wouldn’t have risked something noticeable…something nagged at her mind, something she’d forgotten. Something obvious, something she’d seen before…somewhere.
“Chat parchments,” she said, slowly. “Why…”
Cat looked at her. “Emily?”
“Hang on,” Emily said. She followed the thought, recalling everything she’d learnt since Aloha had invented the original chat parchments. They weren’t exactly difficult to make, as long as the maker didn’t mind fiddling with blood magic. It wasn’t quite forbidden, if the users donated their blood willingly. “I’ve had a thought.”
Her mind almost stopped, dead, as the thought snapped into focus. The chat parchments had been improved over the years, with dozens of magicians adding their contributions. And it hadn’t just been magicians. Others had improved on the design too…
She couldn’t help herself. She started to giggle, helplessly. It was simple, so simple. And Randor would never see it coming.
Cat frowned. “Emily?”
Emily smiled at him. “We need Jade here at once,” she said. The idea was falling into place, piece by piece. It would need some refinement, she was sure, but the basic idea was solid. “I think I know how we’re going to break into the Tower.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“WELL,” JADE SAID, ONCE THEY WERE back in the inn. “You said you had an idea.”
“I did, and I do,” Emily said. “I think we can break into the Tower of Alexis.”