I sighed, sitting down on my vanity chair again as some of the fight abruptly went out of me. “Twice a year, shifter females go into heat in a fashion vaguely similar to what animals do, although thankfully not the same because otherwise we’d be forced to birth cubs constantly. You’ll forgive me if I don’t understand the exact science behind it, but we have a fertility cycle that culminates into ovulation every six months, and during that one week we’re completely consumed by the need to have sex. We become off-the-charts horny, and if we don’t have a male to help us release the tension we go bat-shit crazy and we can’t focus on anything else. Think of it as a drug addict suffering without his fix, except that it only happens twice a year. And we have really nasty tempers and lethal claws and fangs.”
“That last part is certainly true.” Iannis sighed heavily as he sat down on the edge of the bed. “I had heard of this phenomenon in shifters, but I hadn’t realized it was quite so…intense. It must be terrible having to deal with this.” He actually sounded a little appalled.
“Well, in a way it is, but the sex is pretty damn good.” He scowled at that, and I couldn’t help but smirking a little. “But since you’re not available, I guess you’ll never find out.”
Iannis clenched his jaw as he surged to his feet, and I watched in fascination as he began pacing back and forth in front of the bed. Part of me couldn’t believe I was actually saying these things. But as I’d told Iannis, we were already going down this route, so I figured I might as well go all the way. Was talking about this really going to make the situation any worse at this point?
“This wasn’t supposed to happen this way,” he muttered.
My brows shot up. “Which way was this supposed to happen?” I asked, intrigued at the idea that there was actually a plan in his mind.
“I thought…” Iannis hesitated. “I thought that when your apprenticeship was over and the mage community had no choice but to recognize you as mage, that I could approach you as something more than a mentee. I thought that I would have time.” His eyes lifted to mine, and there was such distress shimmering in their iridescent depths that for a moment I actually felt bad for him. “I failed to consider your own constraints and limitations.”
“Wait a minute.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “You’ve been planning to pursue me this entire time?”
“I wouldn’t say the entire time,” Iannis said dryly. “But as we’ve spent more time together…I couldn’t help but ponder it. You’re quite unlike anyone I’ve met, and your…outlook on life has pushed me to see things in ways that I might not have otherwise. I am intrigued by what we might accomplish together.”
I grinned a little at that. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I might think the great Lord Iannis is admitting that I’ve helped him become a better Chief Mage.”
Iannis smiled a little. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
I laughed at the absurdity of the statement. “We’ve gone a couple years ahead of ourselves with this conversation,” I said, shaking my head. “I mean seriously, just how long is it going to be before my apprenticeship with you is done, anyway?’
“Around ten years.”
“Ten YEARS?” I grabbed the edge of my vanity table to keep myself from falling out of my chair, and gaped at him. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not in the least.” Iannis’s lips thinned. “Which is why the news that you have to have sex twice a year is very unsettling.”
“Are you fucking serious?” I shook my head, unable to wrap my head around the audacity of his statement. “Let’s sweep that aside for a moment and focus on the fact that you expected me to be celibate for ten years. Just because I only go into heat twice a year doesn’t mean I haven’t had sex more often than that in my lifetime. What do you think, I’m some kind of monk?”
“I wasn’t expecting you to be celibate the entire ten years.” An uncomfortable expression crossed his face. “I was just hoping that perhaps, if you did take lovers between now and then, that you wouldn’t be parading them past me and that they would be flings. I was also prepared for the possibility that you might find someone else to strike up a relationship with, which in a way would have been a relief.”
“By Magorah.” I shook my head, not at all knowing what to make of this. “Do you think this is just some kind of game of chess, Iannis? That you can move the pieces around, and if things fall into place properly I’ll swoon into your arms at the right moment when you’re ready for it? You’ve lived longer than I can even fathom. Haven’t you figured out by now that life doesn’t work like that?”
“It is precisely because I am so long-lived that I think in such terms,” Iannis pointed out. “Ten years isn’t so long to wait. I often think in terms of decades, if not centuries.”
“This is just too much.” Agitated, I pushed to my feet and began pacing. “I don’t know how this could ever work. You and I are so ridiculously different.”
“You are half-mage yourself,” Iannis pointed out softly. Somehow he was in front of me, and he took my hands as I stopped short in front of him. “And though the world considers me a full-blooded mage, I am not.”
“Yeah, but the part of you that isn’t mage is even more ancient and alien.” I bit my lip as I looked into his face. The feel of his hands wrapped around mine sent a current of warmth through me, and I wanted so badly to soften. “Honestly, I don’t know why we’re having this conversation, Iannis. Unless you’re willing to break your rule about waiting ten years before you can touch me, this is never going to work.”