The Seduction of Jac Frost (by Tatienne Richard) novel Chapter 85

Diplomatic Incident

Original composition by Tatienne Richard exclusively for My

Fiction. If you’re reading this elsewhere it has been stolen from the platform.

Stepping away from the collective embrace, Jacqueline

moved to sit back in the chair she’d vacated earlier and

tucked her feet under her backside.

“Why are you sitting there,” Bar asked as he shot a look to the

sofa where they’d been earlier.

“Because there is not room for all of us on the sofa and I’m

not getting pulled into an argument over who gets to sit on either side of me.”

“Fair,” Wilder said as he moved to sit next to the fireplace which was burning low. “This is nice in here, Bar. Very,” he looked around and then smirked at Bar, “rustic.”

“Yes it is, city slicker. You forget where you came from. You spend so much time in concrete and steel that you forget your connection to the earth. You have chased luxury and wealth to replace the void in your heart.”

1/12

11:15

+18 Bonus

< Diplomatic Incident

“Void in my heart?” Wilder snorted.

“Yes. You chase the high of feeling valued and since you can’t get it through real emotional connections, you do it with money.” Bar shrugged as he sat back down on the sofa, stretched his legs out in front of him crossing them at the

ankles.

“What the fuck do you know?” Wilder frowned at him.

“I know you and your brother have been at odds for nearly forty years and within two years of that you were a millionaire. Now back then you were doing things behind the scenes, keeping yourself hidden from humans but in the last twenty to thirty years, you’ve really been amping it up. You don’t visit your parents castle to connect with your family, and you spend more time trying to make a buck than a

connection.”

“I’d like to point out you don’t visit your parents in their home

either,” Wilder huffed furiously as he sat on the floor with one knee bent and his hand hanging over it carelessly. His eyes

were focused on Bar.

“No but I made a family here in this town. I have friends I am connected to as much as my species needs. I don’t actually 2/12

11:15

<Diplomatic Incident

check my bank balance before bed each night.”

“I don’t.”

+18 Bonus

“Uh, I do,” Jacqueline raised a hand. “I love money.” She

frowned, “hey are leprechauns a thing? Could I be part

leprechaun?”

“No. You grew up dirt poor believing you were ill and money symbolizes safety and the possibility of paying for medical care. Wilder was compensating for emotional constipation. You’re compensating for instability and insecurity.” Rafferty squeezed her shoulder as he moved to sit at the other end of

the sofa.

“I’m emotionally constipated?” Wilder laughed at Rafferty, “says the guy who ghosted me out of the blue and spent years barely speaking my name.”

“Because you always take shit too far, Wilder. Always. I was the one standing there holding the bag while you shrugged it off like it was no big deal. People get hurt when you play carelessly, Wilder. I get hurt.” Rafferty frowned at him. “You were acting out more and more and I couldn’t take it. So yeah, I left and focused on myself for a bit so I wouldn’t get dragged into your shit.”

3/12

11:15

&

+18 Bonus

<Diplomatic Incident

“What kind of shit?” Jacqueline asked leaning forward curious

to know what it was that created a divide between the

brothers. “What was the straw that broke the camel’s back?”

Wilder’s fingers were tapping his knee as Rafferty stared him

down.

Bar gave a huff of amusement. “Oh, this is going to be good.”

“Why do you say that?” Jacqueline asked.

“Look at them,” Bar’s sardonic smile accompanied by the

shake of his head was the epitome of mockery. “Whatever

it was that Wilder did that caused such mayhem they got in shit when they were well into adulthood, made Rafferty walk

away for years without even talking to him again. It’s going to be fucking juicy.”

“Are you always this much of a condescending prick or is this

simply your schtick to make us look bad to our mate.”

“You don’t need me to make you look bad, Wilder,” Bar laughed in his face. “You keep fucking up over and over. Getting on your knees a few minutes ago was a good start but seriously, if you keep the shit up you’ve been doing,

4/12

11:15

+18 Bonus

<Diplomatic Incident

acting like a jealous spoiled brat, well, I feel she’ll be sleeping in this rustic cabin more nights than she is in your room.”

Wilder gave Jacqueline a sheepish look, “I am sorry. I will do

better.”

“What was the story?” she ignored his quiet plea and looked to Rafferty. “What did he do that was so awful that you felt it necessary to ghost your twin. He’s your twin. I see the way you are together. You flow together. You’re clearly meant to be with one another instead of apart. Why? What made you both decide to go into the human world and focus on being

individuals than brothers?”

Wilder waved at Rafferty, “go ahead. Tell her.”

Rafferty narrowed his gaze. “She might look at you different.”

“I’m not ever going to keep secrets from her. Not ever. If you don’t tell her, I will. If it makes her think I’m a bastard, then add it to my pile of sins that I need to account for.”

“How bad is this?” Jacqueline frowned at the brothers.

“Yeah, Wilder, how bad is it?” Bar egged them on. “We’re on

the edges of our seats here.”

5/12

11:15

+18 Bonus

< Diplomatic Incident.

“Why do you get to weigh in?” Wilder flipped him off. “You’re

her mate, not ours.”

“Oh, but if it makes her mad, I need to comfort her, kiss

her better. She does taste so good. Her lips are like butter,

smooth and soft.”

“Fuck,” Wilder snarled furiously as his fist smacked the floor

near his thigh.

“Get used to it. She has three mates and will be dividing her

time between us.”

“Why?” Rafferty asked curiously. “Why does she need to divide her time? Are you so opposed to the four of us living

together?”

“I won’t live in the city,” Bar argued.

“Would someone just spit it out already?” Jacqueline snapped furiously. “You’re dancing around it We can talk logistics later. What was it that Wilder did to break up his family?” She was very aware Bar thought it was going to be scandalous based on the gleam in his eyes and the way Rafferty and Wilder

were reluctant to share.

6/12

11:15

<Diplomatic Incident

1 caused a diplomatic incident, and I managed to ger Rafferty caught up in it Wilder rubbed the spot bettesen his

eyebrows.

“A diplomatic incident? Bar pressed his lips together co if trying not to burst into laughter, “do tell‘

“He and Wraith have a lot in common?

“No!” Jacqueline, who was looking of Rofferty, who seemed like he was still raging, swung her eyes to Wilder. “You were messing with underage women?”

“No!” Wilder frowned at her furiously. “They were of age.”

“They?”

“We were in Europe at a meeting where there were dignitaries and representatives of various fae clans from all over the world. They were all there to present issues

which my mother and Jack’s father needed to meet to sort

out. A bunch of the women, daughters, nieces, cousins of the dignitaries, none of them mated,” he held up a finger, “convinced me to join them at a hot spring. Things got a line out of control,” he cleared his throat, and one of the girls was

7/12

11.15

+18 Bonus

< Diplomatic Incident

under water a little too long. I needed to get Rafferty’s help to heal her. Our family are healers after all, but my energy was expended,” he cleared his throat as his cheeks burned bright red, “from our activities and so I needed Rafferty.”

“She almost died, Wilder! She almost fucking died and when I revived her from her comatose state, you cracked a joke about her swallowing more than water when she was under right as her parents were rushing to the scene. They all heard you and because I was there to save your ass, everyone presumed I was involved in the orgy. Did he mention the hot spring they were all fucking in, was in a temple? A sacred fucking temple. Who got pulled into that? Me.” Rafferty shook his head. “Not once did you say I wasn’t part of it. You let me get pulled into it and for years I had to listen to the whispers and the mocking judgment. Eight

women,”

“You had sex with eight women, in one night?”

“Yes.” Wilder had the grace to look ashamed. “Not one of them were coerced. In fact, they invited me and they were the ones to remove their clothes off and they were the ones who brought the wine.”

“That’s disgusting! In a temple?”

8/12

11:15

+18 Bonus

< Diplomatic Incident

“One of them was a priestess,” Rafferty folded his arms over

his chest.

“Oh, come on. As if you didn’t have sex with multiple women

at once.”

“Not during diplomatic meetings in a sacred hot spring with a drunk priestess where a woman drowned, Wilder!” Rafferty

was on his feet, and he moved to the fridge and yanked it open. “I’m taking another beer, Bar.”

“Help yourself,” Bar was snickering.

“The worst part is, we look incredibly alike as twins and therefore what he got blamed for so did I. I take the temple very seriously. You used to,” he pointed at Wilder.

“Most fifty–something year old men simply get sports cars and date a twenty–year–old.” Jacqueline commented, “what

happened to you?”

“Everyone was getting their mates but me,” Wilder whispered

as he looked away. “My parents were mates from their

twenties. Most of our friends have been blessed with mates

in their twenties. You don’t get a mate until you’re at least

9/12

11:15

+18 Bonus

<Diplomatic Incident

twenty–one but for most, the moment you turn of age, it’s not long. The galas have line–ups of men and women of age

who meet one another and find themselves and we weren’t

finding ours. I’ve waited so long for you. In the years before I turned twenty–one, I was already looking forward to a love

like my parents had. Then I turned and nothing. Year after

year, I watched my friends and my family all finding their

mates and then there were the three of us, me, Raff and River with nothing.”

“You didn’t have a mate, so you threw orgies?” Bar asked

with derision. “Wow.”

“Wasn’t only me!” Wilder sighed. “Rafferty slept with multiple women together. He runs luxury resorts for a reason. He needed a place to act his fantasies out.”

“But not during diplomatic hearings in a temple!” Rafferty repeated what seemed to be bothering him the most. “Mom

and Dad were so mad at us they didn’t speak to me for

weeks. I was sick of it. I was tired of being dragged into your

shenanigans. It’s one thing to go street racing or stealing Dad’s favorite vehicles or going streaking through our version of the Olympic games wearing nothing but Mom’s

crown,” Rafferty shook his head, “but you defiled such a sacred place and when I was accused of being involved 10/12

11:15

O

+18 Bonus

< Diplomatic Incident

instead of simply saving the life of a woman you lost track of under the water, you didn’t correct anyone. You let me take the fall with you. I got thrown into your foolishness.”

“I apologized.”

Jacqueline looked around the room and then took to giggling.

“You’re laughing!” Rafferty was stunned. “It’s not funny, Jacqueline.”

“You’re really still angry over something that happened fifty years ago?”

“Time is relative.”

“Well, you got him back. You’re making him share his

mate. Get over it. I’m not being tied to three men who bicker constantly.” She sighed, “you two need to settle your grievances. There’s enough going on without you at each other all the time.” She turned to Bar, “and you. You also have grievances with your family. I understand they are not easy to get along with, but I won’t be having children in a family where everyone is at each other’s throats.”

Bar’s eyes lit up, “you’re going to have my babies, 11/12

11:15

+16 Bonus

<Diplomatic Incident.

Jacqueline?”

“According to the conversation I had with my mother, I’m having babies from all three of you. She mentioned a daughter who will bind all the families together.” She gave each of the men pointed glances, “but I’m not having sex with anyone until I feel the mate bond with all three of you. If I am constantly on edge and feeling like I’m in fight or flight mode, I’m not going to be able to feel the bond, and I won’t have sex until I do.”

She watched with satisfaction as they all seemed to crumple into themselves in their spots, pouting like little boys being told they couldn’t have dessert after dinner. There was power being the female in this chaotic mess and she was liking it.