Ace of Diamonds, The

  ~~~

  “Setzer.”

  Setzer stood from the couch and went to meet Locke and Edgar as they entered the main room. “What has been decided?”

  Locke didn’t look too happy, and Edgar seemed less than his assured self. “We’re going to Zozo,” Locke said. “You probably don’t want Edgar driving, not since what happened before, so why don’t we go up.”

  Setzer raised an eyebrow, but Edgar asked “Where’s Terra?” before Setzer could ask why he was being prodded on deck.

  “In my office,” Setzer told him, slightly suspicious.

  Edgar moved to the office and disappeared inside, closing the door firmly behind him as Locke headed to the stairs leading on deck. Setzer reluctantly followed. Once he’d set himself to one side of Locke who steered the airship toward Zozo, he began a more in-depth examination of Locke’s attitudes.

  Hmm. Edgar comforting Terra. Locke organizing their seclusion. But the fact that Locke didn’t look thrilled with the arrangement made Setzer more than a little curious. Setzer tapped his lips and pulled his deck from his jacket. He shuffled it thoroughly and drew the top card. Jack of Hearts. Jack of Hearts? And the next card he drew, instead of the expected deuce or ten of Hearts, was the Ace of Spades. Setzer raised an eyebrow.

  “I don’t like it,” Locke grumbled with a shake of his head. “I don’t like it at all.”

  The fact Locke played the role of a clucking mother-hen amused Setzer to no end. He smirked and resumed the soothing shuffle of his deck. “Leave them alone, Cole. Life is a lonely mistress. Those two deserve what they’re getting.” Terra and Edgar have suffered enough of Fate’s amusement. They should be exploring the other’s touch and what it reveals. As he wanted to do for himself.

  “She doesn’t know Edgar like I do,” Locke said in an annoyed voice. “The last thing she needs is Edgar putting the moves on her and kissing her so she can barely think straight. She’s just a kid.” And his hands gripped the wheel as a kind of reiteration of his vow to protect her.

  Kissing a woman in such a way is what our soul longs for. To experience the intensity of a woman of depth. “Terra is a woman and Edgar is a man,” Setzer said simply, and the flash of the promises of that statement made his chest tighten with his own desire to experience a woman.

  “Don’t remind me.”

  Setzer reluctantly laughed. “I thought you wanted them to be married, Cole.”

  Locke scoffed. “He hasn’t exactly put a ring on her finger, has he? I don’t like putting the cart before the chocobo, okay?”

  “Do you truly doubt he will? Edgar is a man of honor, Cole.” Setzer lowered his eyes to his cards as an odd tension squeezed his soul. “Don’t trifle with that or you’re liable to get your head cleaved in two. Besides,” and Setzer palmed the Queen of Hearts with a slight smirk, “I don’t believe anything but a few passionate embraces are being shared. He respects her too much to rush her into more than that.”

  Edgar seemed the king of ‘not yet’ and ‘soon’.

  “You don’t know Edgar.”

  Setzer frowned. Who truly knows their heart? “Only Edgar knows Edgar,” he said as he stood. “Trust your friends and leave it at that. I’m going below.”

  “If you come back a little pink around the ears, I’ll know you were wrong,” Locke grumbled.

  Setzer’s frown lightened, and he released a chuckle as pleasant memories of Marée soothed his soul. “It’s nothing I haven’t experienced myself,” he said as he moved away. “A little amusement would be just what I need right now.”

  He could only take so many memories of the promises spoken by her lips and eyes. Setzer released a deep breath. He may have been wholly dedicated to the Falcon and the adventure Fate gave him, but Marée was the only woman who could warm his skin and hold the secrets of his soul. She could be the haven that would constantly draw him back, full circle.

  Part II