Until he brought it up, I had forgotten that he had met Luanna. In fact, he had worked with her and Matt, and consequently gone on the lam with them . . . which was when I met him in the first place. As such, he knew the lady under discussion far better than I did, and my new analysis of her seemed more in line with his earlier formed opinions than with my own cherished daydreams.
“I can’t say much about what you’re doing with the kingdom’s budgets and stuff,” the vampire said with an easy shrug. “That’s out of my league. It does occur to me, though, that you’re having more than your share of woman problems.”
“You can say that again,” I agreed, toasting him with my goblet.
“I’ll admit I’m a bit surprised,” Vic continued. “I would have thought that someone with your experience would have been able to side-step some of these tangles . . . and definitely spotted a gold-digger like Luanna a mile away.”
I hesitated for a moment, then decided to level with him.
“To be honest with you, Vic, I haven’t had all that much experience with women.”
“Really?” The vampire was gratifyingly surprised.
“Let’s just say that while Aahz and the others have been fairly diligent about teaching me the ins and outs of business and magik, there have been certain areas of my education that have been woefully and annoyingly neglected.”
“Now that I might be able to help you with.”
“Excuse me?”
I had been momentarily lost in my own thoughts, and had somehow missed a turn in the conversation.
“It’s easy,” Vic said with a shrug. “You’re having trouble making up your mind whether or not you should get married at all … much less to Queen Hemlock. Right?”