Warriors of Poseidon 04 - Atlantis Unmasked

them that evening, but whether he would or not was anybody‟s guess.
    Apparently there was something between he and Quinn so powerfully compelling that he would literally fly to her side whenever she was in danger, whether she called for his help or not. Alexios wouldn‟t say much about it, but she didn‟t want to pry into her commander‟s life—love life?—anyway.
     
    Whether or not Alaric managed to return, though, she and Alexios had a date with the Fae that couldn‟t be broken. Her thoughts turned to Rhys na Garanwyn, and her fingers tightened in Alexios‟s as she missed a step, stumbling on the sunlit white sand.
     
    He shot a questioning glance her way, but she shook her head. They‟d been over and over this at breakfast, speaking quietly in a booth in the back corner of the IHOP on the highway.
     
    Alexios apparently had a fondness for all-you-can-eat pancake days.
     
    Their waitress, however, had been cheerful through it all. Grace had figured she would have been ready to kick them out after his fifth helping or so, but the grandmotherly woman just smiled and shook her head and said something about her sons, the football players, and their appetites.
     
    That was when Grace had noticed Alexios handing the woman some folded dollar bills and smiling, just before he asked for a sixth helping, more bacon, and more syrup. A shriek and the sound of dishes falling had been Grace‟s first clue that Alexios wasn‟t exactly up on American currency.
     
    The woman had come running through the restaurant back to their table, holding the bills out in front of her. “Oh, honey, you made a big mistake,” she said, laughing Atlantis Unmasked - Warriors of Poseidon 04
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    boisterously. “These aren‟t one-dollar bills, these are hundred-dollar bills. You gave me a thousand dollars!”
     
    Grace had been impressed with the woman‟s honesty, especially when she‟d tried to give the money back to Alexios, but he‟d simply sat there looking slightly puzzled. “Is it not the custom here to render payment for good service?”
     
    He‟d directed the question at Grace, so she answered for the flustered waitress. “Yes, it is the custom, but the amount you gave her is about one hundred times the cost of your breakfast, so it‟s quite out of the range of the normal tip.”
     
    Alexios had flashed a smile so dazzling that half the women in the restaurant practically swooned. “Well, her service was quite out of the range of normal, as well. This amount is exactly what I wish her to have. However, we should go now.”
     
    He had taken one final sip of his coffee, wiped his mouth on his napkin, and then stood up and held his hand out to Grace. “We have much to discuss.”
     
    She‟d just stared at him for a moment, then sighed and shook her head. “Ah, yes, the royal decree.” She stood up and retrieved the check that the waitress had left them earlier, and then patted the woman on the arm. “He wants you to have it, with our thanks for your excellent service and your patience while he ate you out of a month‟s supply of pancakes.”
     
    The waitress had stared from the money in her hand, to Alexios, and then back at Grace, who nodded encouragingly. Then the poor woman had thrown her arms around Alexios and hugged him, saying something about a grandchild who needed braces.
     
    Alexios had looked absolutely terrified and so Grace, laughing, had extricated him from the situation and gone to the cashier to pay the check. The waitress had marched right up to her, snatched the check out of Grace‟s hand, and declared that there was no way Atlantis Unmasked - Warriors of Poseidon 04
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    they were paying for pancakes—it was on her. By this time, the entire restaurant had been listening in, so a cheer had gone up from everyone. Alexios, though clearly startled, had handled it with aplomb, turning toward the woman and bowing deeply. As they‟d left the restaurant, Grace had heard the excited chattering about visiting royalty, and she‟d started laughing again.
     
    “I can‟t take you anywhere,” she‟d told Alexios, but he‟d grinned that sexy grin at her and kissed her right there in front of the IHOP, officially making it one of her favorite restaurants on the planet.
     
    Now they were walking on the beach, working off some of the thousands of carb calories, hopefully, and she kept sneaking glances at him, just to be sure he wasn‟t a figment of her imagination