It was so vivid that I was almost surprised when he slid my sock down rather than up, but I repeated the same movement as before with my knee; deliber...tely this time, my pussy buzzing with anticipation and the hope that he would look up. I reflected with a thrill that I was now technically naked from the waist down and I gave my hips a wiggle just to feel the cotton of my dress swish across my bare bottom. Sadly Rajit had missed the show; he had folded my socks into a ball and poked then into. Dusty could feel the blood seeping through his fingers as he pressed them to the side of his neck and he looked at Galvin.This was insane. No one should be able to move faster than him. He was a Battlemage. HE was faster than everyone else and stronger, but he couldn't lay a glove on Galvin during the few blows that they had traded so far."If you aren't coming to me then I'll come to you," said Galvin smiling.Dusty tried to not let the pain distract him but his movements were already too late. Darby O'Shaunessy was imbibing entirely too much champagne. She was leaning on people and laughing at absolutely anything they said. She eventually came into my orbit. It was a fairly solitary orbit at the moment; I was standing by the food tables, talking to Daryl and Stella. I didn't drink at all, and that kind of left me out of the merry making. Well ... the alcoholic merry making, anyway.Darby came up to me and draped her arms around my neck. "Why are you stall'owne? Don't you drink at all?. In fact, he wouldn't even be lending support. He was there because he was the boss, but he'd handed off all the real decision-making to Anders back in Port of Assab. The only choice Thule had would be to scrub the mission. Obviously, it was a decision he hoped not to have to make.When he'd talked to Anders about this, he'd been telling the truth that it didn't bother him not to be going with the strikeforce. He didn't have the skills needed and would only be a liability. But, knowing that.