No Simple Sacrifice (Secrets of Stone Book 5) Read Free

as sugar-pumped as her clientele. “Are you lost? The tackle shop is three doors down on the—”
    “No.” I leaned against the counter and poured on the charm. “We’re looking for the Perizkova party. We’re friends of one of the guests.” In went a smooth smile. Couldn’t hurt. The last thing we needed was to be tossed out.
    “Interesting.” Blink. Blink. Then she just stared.
    Drake’s patience was even thinner than normal. The man looked like he would rather wrestle a pit of cobras than hang out in here another minute. Now wasn’t the time to bring it up, but it was one of the funniest things I’d ever seen. Where I was semi-used to this sort of event, because of my niece and nephew, his sister and brother were both still single.
    “If you could just point us in the right direction?”
    He might as well have left off the question mark—though three-inch-thick-makeup girl seemed to like his demanding tone. She eyed him up and down before grinning. “Sure thing, milord. Follow me. They’re in the back, at the make-up stations.”
    We wove in and out of little princesses as we followed he to the back of the store. Six tall purple director’s chairs stood in a row, facing brightly lit mirrors. Each chair had a young girl anxiously perched in it, with another woman working diligently on her make-up. There were giggles and whispers as we came to a halt near the first chair.
    “Is your friend here?” The receptionist tried to crank down her skepticism, while keeping her roving eyes all over Drake.
    “Oh. My. God.”
    Huzzah. We’d been spotted by our very own princess. “ What are you two doing here?” Talia bit out. For a second, I didn’t say anything. Couldn’t. Fuck. The woman was even more breathtaking with bright purple eye shadow, glitter butterflies in her hair, and a lopsided crown atop her head.
    Drake, thank fuck, hadn’t let his head explode yet. “We came to see you.” He stamped out each word, openly daring her to challenge it. “You keep blowing us off, love.” He shrugged matter-of-factly. “So we came to you .”
    Talia’s eyes grew wide. “I haven’t been blowing you off!” She walked over to where we stood—creating a wall of man so she couldn’t escape. “And stop calling me that!”
    I slanted my head toward her. “Are we there again? I thought we handled that in Veg—”
    “Ssshhh!” Her eyes weren’t just wide anymore. They looked terrified. “Can we… not mention Vegas right now?”
    Drake turned a little, getting her back against the wall. A flock of sparkly butterflies appeared to be flying out of her head. “Why shouldn’t we mention Vegas?”
    She popped up on her toes, darting anxious glances around the room. “This isn’t the time or the place. My entire family is here, okay? Well…the females, at least.”
    Drake rumbled a low growl. “So we’ve noticed.”
    Talia took that in—then suddenly burst into laughter. Just as instantly, my dick twitched. She really sounded as magical as a fairy princess.
    “All right. I’ll bite,” I murmured. “What’s so funny, Tolly?”
    “The two of you. Standing here. In the middle of all…this.” She waved her hand through the air to encompass “this”. I grinned, unable to help myself—deciding that was my favorite habit of hers. The way she waved her hands in the air when she was excited about something…it encompassed so many wonderful things about her personality. Her passion, her life—
    But shit. Also her anger. Yeah, she definitely did the hand waving thing when she was pissed too—especially after the weekend we’d spent together in Las Vegas. Damn, that weekend. The two nights and three days that had changed absolutely everything about the three of us.
    I didn’t want to see her pissed again for a long time.
    Thankfully, now wasn’t going to be that time, either. Mischief actually began to twinkle in her eyes, forming adorable gold flecks against the sable hues. “Well, gentlemen.