Butting In Read Online Free Page A

sun was down, she was nervous, and it was time to go and get some liquid courage or, at least, fake it.
    She smoothed her hands down her short skirt for the fiftieth time and straightened her shoulders. Now or never.
    The moment that she left her room, she could see the difference in the Axion. Instead of being bland and generic, the building had taken on a fairy-tale theme. Gera stepped down a curved, twisted, crystal-banistered stairway. It was the kind of stairway that should star in every movie where someone was waiting for their true love to find them.
    Gera smiled at Drak, and he inclined his gleaming head toward her.
    “You look lovely, Gera.”
    “You look much better, Drak. Have Teal and Tony been in to see the changes?”
    “How did you know?”
    She tapped the side of her nose. “Shifter magic smells different.”
    He sighed. “Yes. I have three bookings for this week. They have begun to recommend me. Riox was right to tell me about the glamour. No one thought it through.”
    “Will you get in trouble for dropping it?”
    “I doubt it. The council just wanted to avoid dazzling the shifters without any thought to how their own magic would react to the blanking of mine.”
    “Or how arrogant it is to think that our magic is any less powerful than yours. We may burn fast, but we pack quite the punch.”
    He winced. “Yes, or that. Are you heading to the Crossed Star?”
    “I am.”
    “Excellent. Have a lovely evening.”
    He bowed low, and she bobbed a quick curtsey before she left to meet her fate.
    The path to the bar was more intimidating at night and alone.
    She entered the bar, and immediately, her instinct was to blend in with her surroundings. The problem was that her clothing was not conducive to blending.
    With no other option, she straightened her shoulders and walked over to the bar.
    “Hello again, Chuck.”
    “Hello, Gera, was it?”
    She nodded. His serpentine eyes were surprisingly warm as he smiled.
    “What can I get for you?”
    “Something that looks very alcoholic but isn’t... very?” She rocked on her shoes and rolled her weight to the outside of her feet.
    He laughed. “I will work something out.”
    Gera smiled, and she waited as he got different types of juice, some liquor bottles and some ice and began to shake them all together.
    When the mixture was frothy, he poured it into a tall glass and put a wedge of pineapple as well as a teeny umbrella in it.
    “There you go. I am calling it the Tropical Pirate. Let me know if you like it.”
    He slipped a straw into the drink and slid it over to her.
    With Chuck watching her, she sipped at it and smiled. It tasted like a tipsy summer afternoon in the tropics.
    “I like it. Where is the pirate part?”
    “If you drink too much, it will steal your legs.” He winked and headed off to the other side of the bar to attend to some incoming guests.
    She sipped slowly at the drink and looked around. Freshly minted couples took most of the booths.
    Gera found one and tucked herself in. It was next to the dance floor, so she had an excellent view of the dancers.
    She watched the grace with which the fey moved around the dance floor with their partners and tried to guess which of them were with their mate and which were trying each other on for size.
    She was halfway through her drink when a man came up to her.
    “Would you care to join me for a spin around the floor?”
    Gera sucked down the last half of her cocktail, and she scooted out of the booth without flashing too much thigh. She could tell she had succeeded, because her soon-to-be dance partner made eye contact again.
    He offered her his hand, and she stepped in close as the music started. His hand pressed her lower back, and they started to shift around the dance floor.
    To Gera’s surprise, she was a better dancer than he was. His footwork was heavy and deliberate. She was managing to move lightly as his hand shifted lower on her back, and she grabbed his fingers and pulled