Honeyed Words Read Online Free

schmuck. Let the girl go pee first, geez. Figures I’d find him trolling the bathroom line. “Jesus, Wenceslas. Little early to be hitting on the teenagers, ain’t it?”
    He turned around and squinted at me. We went way back, ren faires and jousting tourneys. Guy was good on a horse. Good enough with women when he wasn’t wasted. Unfortunately, he didn’t look like he was feeling any pain at this point.
    “Beauhall,” he shouted, holding his thick arms out as if I’d hug him. “My favorite blacksmith.”
    I stood my ground and let him stumble forward. This is for Katie, I reminded myself as he grabbed me in a sloppy bear hug. When he lifted me off my feet I seriously considered kneecapping him.
    Of course his hug went on too long, so I pushed him back to arms’ length and put on my best smile. “You said I could find you easy enough,” I said. “But I didn’t expect you to be waiting for me in the bathroom line.”
    He laughed, too loud and forced. “Can’t stay away from my fans.”
    Several of the women looked around, giving me a pitying look, shaking their heads.
    “Thought Ari was the family superstar,” I said loud enough for the women to hear.
    “Aye, my kid brother is doing okay,” he said, flexing his biceps at the slowly churning bathroom line. “But I’m twice the man he is.”
    I tried really hard not to roll my eyes, but some of the women seemed to look at him a second time. He wasn’t a bad-looking guy, but was a little off the obnoxious scale. Good to see he hadn’t changed in the last few years.
    “You got my passes?” I asked as he started to move toward the line again, forgetting me in his drunken state.
    “Passes?” he asked, looking my way. “Beauhall?”
    I glanced around, looking for anyone with the hanging badges of the staff or roadies. “Yeah, big guy,” I said, pulling him to the side, away from the women, and lowering my voice. “You promised me passes to the after-party to go along with the concert tickets.”
    “Oh, did I?” he said, swinging around to look past me to the coeds who seemed to keep his attention. “I’d thought to use them to score tonight.”
    Several of the women and one guy were watching us, giving Wenceslas the once-over. “Oh, I think a big strong hunk like yourself wouldn’t need those to score with this crowd.”
    He chuckled, giving me a one-armed hug. “You always had a thing for me, didn’t you, Beauhall?”
    I tried not to grimace. “How’s Pericles?” I asked, trying to divert his one-track mind. “Those new shoes holding up?”
    Gotta give him some credit. Man loved his horse. “Aye,” he bellowed. “Pericles is a proud papa now. Virile like his master.”
    I knew all that, having just shod the horse a couple of weeks earlier. Wenceslas had him out to stud at the moment. Starting his own herd of jousting horses. Smart guy, really. When he got enough blood to his brain that wasn’t soaked in alcohol.
    “So, passes?” I asked, holding out my hand. “Then you can go back to scouting this evening’s conquest.”
    “I like your thinking,” he said, fishing a couple of laminated passes from his back pocket. “My silly-ass brother wants me to pull in lots of groupies for the party, so pretend to like him, will ya?”
    I slipped the passes into my back pocket and patted him on the arm. “Sure thing, big guy. Be careful out there.”
    He leered at me and stumbled back toward the line. He was going to make someone very happy later, or pass out trying.
    Of course there was no line to the men’s room.
    I looked around, didn’t see any security guards, and slipped into the men’s room. One guy stood at the urinal but didn’t notice as I stepped into a stall. No sense letting all that plumbing go to waste.
    By the time I finished, the men’s room was crowded with women. Guess I broke the ice. Made sense. I bet there were only a couple dozen guys in the whole club tonight, including the bands, roadies, and security