Chapter Twenty-Nine - Wrecking Ricotta

"I THOUGHT HE'D be here." Roq claws at his hair while walking around the fountain. We'd already searched here before, then the open grass, the little lake, and the bridge, before returning to the fountain. If they came here at all there's no sign.

"What do we do now?" I ask and turn over my phone. Three forty-five. We don't have long to scour the city before dawn, and they could be anywhere.

Roq clenches his fists and thuds them against his sides. His lip wobbles and he keeps shaking his head. "I…I don't know." Panic's setting in. If we don't find Cam, Brie, and Cheddy in time who knows what the city will do to them. I guide my hand closer, nearly brushing against his arm. Roq flinches a second before he leans into me, then his whole body tumbles forward. If he wanted to, he could crush me, but he catches himself and plants his cheek on my shoulder.

"I'm a fool."

"At last you see the light."

Roq wrenches back to his feet. Leaning against a bench with his hip, Cam calmly brushes down his shirt. "Looking for someone?"

"Ber…" Row whispers. He takes a step toward him, then freezes. "Where are the others?"

"Elsewhere." He lifts his head. I gasp at the redness burning his eyes. "You really stepped in it this time, For."

"I know. I should have told them everything."

Cam gives him a no-shit look, then he glances at me. "What does she know?"

"The truth."

"All of it? Before Chedward and Brie do?"

Roq bristles. "They…ran off. I'd have told them if they stayed."

"Would you though?" Cam draws the tips of his fingers up Roq's forearm. I shiver at the intimate touch gliding up Roq's skin. Stopping at his shoulder, Cam leans over to say, "It's one thing to have a pretty lap to cry into, but revealing your mistakes to them… Do you have the courage to try?"

"Yes," Roq insists. Fiery sparks jolt between them, both looking about to either bite each other or kiss. I curl my toes, uncertain which to root for, but prepared to pop up for a better look. With a sigh, Roq breaks first. "I'd like to, anyway. Where are they?"

"In due time." Cam slips away, but he pats Roq on the back before crossing over to me.

"We don't have time," Roq shouts back. "The sun will be up soon. They need to get back to the cellar or else—"

"Roquefort, always deluding yourself that you're our only salvation. We've all survived on our own." Cam's eyes narrow before he glides to my side. "Did he tell you how we met?"

"No." I shake my head. "We mostly talked about him."

"A dull story perfect for putting one to sleep. Now my tale is one of excitement and sword fights on horseback." Cam takes to pacing just before me. He's got one hand curled to his chest while the other keeps emphasizing the important parts of his tale.

"I'd been saddled with this dairy curse for some time. At first, I found it useful. Imagine an entire company of guards pursuing a dashing and handsome man of dark demeanor and fantastic hair." Cam shakes his head and flutters his finger through the black curls. "Only for him to disappear before their very eyes. It was quite lucrative."

"Aside from bums nicking all your stolen goods the second you became cheese," Roq says.

"There was that issue, yes."

"Didn't you have a merry band of thieves?" I ask.

Cam snorts. "I wouldn't call them merry, per se. They were more buffoonish…on a good day. You don't need much by way of smarts to figure out that knife plus carriage equals easy pickings."

"They were going to eat you," Roq interrupts.

"I'm sorry, are you telling my life story? No. Then hush up." Cam takes my hands, his dark eyes wide with sorrow. "They were going to eat me. Me! Their wise and noble leader. I had no choice but to flee."

He lets go of my hands to start pacing again. "At first, I believed my path to be random. A village here, a fief there, never staying long and enjoying as much of the night as I could." The bouncing eyebrows aren't necessary, but Cam gives it his all anyway. "No matter where I went, the lords pursued me all the way to the south of France—"

"You mean jealous husbands," Roq says.

Cam's words tighten as he tries to speak over him. "—where I had no choice but to hide in a cave clogged by weeds and saplings."

"Roq's cave," I cry out like I'm solving a murder mystery. "Wait. Jealous husbands?"

"A good fifty head, most armed with pitchforks and chef's knives."

Cam coughs. "Could we focus, please? I am now in this strange cave. I don't know what to expect. Perhaps a mother wolf will nurse me back to health. Or, most likely, tear my face off. Imagine my surprise when I stumble through a tight squeeze upon a madman fussing over hundreds of wheels of cheese."

"I'm not mad."

"My good man, if you could grow a beard, it would have been to your ankles and full of rats nibbling on bits of cheese."

Roq sneers at the idea, but he doesn't exactly argue against that image.

"And you met? You must have both realized that you were cursed."

"Au contraire. He took one glance at me and proceeded to hold me at knifepoint. The man was slightly less trustworthy back then. A pinch." Cam gives a little crinkle to his nose while miming said pinch, then he gazes back at Roq. "He did not ask my name, or where I came from, or even if I would like a drink. You always were an atrocious host. We spent that long, meandering night with him looming over me, and I with a blade to my throat."

"I took you for a thief. Which I was right about," Roq says.

"Only for gold, For." Cam leans closer with a grin. "And hearts."

"But dawn was coming," I say. "You both had to know that—"

"That our precarious situation would become insurmountable with the sun's light?" Cam says. "Yes, we both knew, which is why neither of us said a word."

"Don't give away your weakness to the enemy," Roq says.

"Did the sheep teach you that?" Cam taunts.

"It's bloody common sense," Roq says, then his eyes go wide and he slaps a hand over his mouth.

Cam smiles and points at him. "We spent the hours in dying lantern light eyeing each other up. Waiting, and waiting, and… Poof. Next thing I know, I'm on the floor, naked with another naked man. A situation not beyond the norm for me, but the knife lay between us."

"And then you realized you're both cheese men."

"We lunged for the knife," Roq says.

"I got it first," Cam crows. "You think he smolders in rage now, you should see him when he's stripped and without his precious high ground. I swear he could set me on fire with his eyes alone."

"So then you talked and told each other—"

"We spent a week like that," Roq growls.

"Oh for goodness sake."

"Seven days—me with the knife, then you." Cam paces closer to Roq. "Both of us naked, heaving, nibbling on crumbs of cheese, and drinking rather palatable wine." He drops his hand to Roq's chest and starts to trace the straining pec.

"I made it myself," Roq says.

"Hmm." Cam's voice drops to a tumbling gravel as he lifts his gaze to Roq's. "Shame you gave it up."

They look like they're about to kiss. No, they look like they're going to tear each other's clothes off, then fuck at knifepoint. Was that what ended their stalemate?

I open my mouth, but all that escapes is a low wheeze. Cam digs his fingers into Roq's shirt. The passion in the air and hunger of his tightening muscles nukes my brain. I shouldn't watch this. But god do I want to.

No, no, it's private. It's their thing. I shouldn't…

"Violette?" Cam says. I realize I hid my eyes under my hands. I drop them to my side.

"Yes?"

"You will find Chedward and Brie at the tavern across the street. I'd suggest you go and speak with them."

"I should…" Roq tries to step away, but Cam's hand pushes him back. Even though Roq's got a good fifty to sixty pounds on him, he doesn't follow me.

"No, our beautiful lady is far more likely to charm them than your sorry ass ever could."

Roq sneers, but he bows his head. "You're probably right."

I take a few steps, then I freeze. "Should I…? Are you coming?"

Cam snickers and I burn to my ponytail.

"With? Are you coming with me?"

"Anything is possible," Cam adds and my body temperature hits five hundred and fifty degrees.

"Go ahead, Violette," Roq says. "We have much to discuss."

I nod to him and take off down the path in the direction Cam indicated. Behind me, I can hear Cam and Roq even as they drop their voices.

"About Marseilles," Roq says. "I'm—"

"Fuck Marseilles," Cam declares with such vigor I turn around just as he launches up to kiss Roq. It's oddly sweet, the two men holding each other—one by the cheek the other by the back of the head. Oh, oh god. Cam shoves Roq onto his back and both men land on the grass. I can only see a manic rolling of arms and hands through the shadows, but the moans tell me enough.

What the hell? My feet turn me around to dash back to their side and…watch. Nope. Maybe…maybe one day, while Cheddy and Brie are tag teaming me from behind. Focus. First, I have to save them, then we can figure out how to make a fivesome work.

Holy shit. I want to fuck four men at once. Thank god my mother can't see me now.