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“Whatever, you still owe me lunch,” she said and got up to her feet, shuffling back to the table where she’d left the book.
He didn’t argue, and maybe she’d been secretly trying to earn some of the free food she’d been getting lately. He walked back to his station and drop to the creaking chair without a word.
He’d spent most of the morning chopping herbs and grinding rocks, extracting their essence through a complicated apparatus with brass elbows and silver knobs. Its glass tubes were caked with particles of old magical potions. How did all these parts fit in his satchel?
Gavin hadn’t left today to tend to the innkeeper’s niece, most likely waiting for the cover of the night. He hadn’t told her much about the little girl over the past few days.
His complete devotion to help the child made him a great healer—and a man too close to destroying the flimsy walls she’d built around her battered heart.
He put on a pair of round spectacles. Their thin black frame reflected the flames of his workstation.
“I didn’t expect you to wear glasses,” Violet muttered. She let her chin rest on her palms and studied him as he placed a mint leaf between his teeth, unaware that he was being watched. Or maybe he was just very good at ignoring her.
She stroked the recently cleaned tablecloth. The dried-out flowers had been the first thing she’d tossed. Violet had never been able to afford or been allowed to own her own home. It annoyed her that someone could choose to keep theirs this way.
Gavin flashed a look at her, straightening out of his hunched-over pose when he realized she was staring at him. “I only need them for potion brewing, it protects my eyes.”
“I see.” The corners of her lips twitched. She schooled her features before the smile could break loose and reveal that she was enjoying chatting with him. “They make you look smart.”
He scoffed. “How do I look normally, then?”
Like a handsome trouble she wasn’t supposed to want, but did regardless. “Without a doubt, like a giant pain in my ass.”
Gavin laughed, shaking his head. A white powdery substance spotted his dark, wavy hair, remnants of a minor explosion a few hours ago. He had cleaned most of it off his face, but she found it so endearing that it was still clinging to the strands that she didn’t have it in her to point it out.
For a moment, they stared at each other. It wasn’t uncomfortable anymore. Instead, it awoke a pleasant sensation that extended from the pit of her stomach to her fluttering heart. “So, how is Myna doing?” she asked eventually.
“Better.” He returned to his brew, dropping some oil into his small bowl and stirring it over the fire. “I’ve pulled out most of the poison, and she should be ready to walk in a few weeks.”
“What are you brewing, then?”
“A muscle relaxant. It’s for you.”
“For me?” Her cheeks warmed.
“It’ll help your leg when we are on the road, in case you experience spasms as it heals. And it might help with the nightmares.”
Damn him, she hadn’t realized he heard her at night. “I don’t need a potion to relax my muscles. Quite the contrary. I need time to exercise so I can banish my pent-up energy. Either another training session or...”
She paused before saying the words that almost spilled out of her reckless mouth. A good fuck would work too, but she didn’t want to give him the idea that she was open to it.
Judging by his growing smirk, he knew damn well what she was going to say. “Or what, wife?”
Her insides churned with a need that almost took down her last remaining defense against those dimples. This in between them would only make everything more complicated.
“Nothing you could handle.”
He scratched his brow but didn’t deviate his eyes from hers. “I always give it my best. I might surprise you.”
She didn’t doubt he would, and she was already in too much trouble to continue on this line of conversation. “We should leave this city tomorrow.”
Gavin sighed and nodded. He turned all the knobs on his apparatus and began breaking it apart into tiny pieces, stowing them all away inside his leather satchel. “I’m afraid you’re right. I haven’t been able to sleep properly for the past few days for fear of the Crows arriving. We can go after we’ve taken the last potion to Myna.”
He stood and stretched like a cat. The movement pulled his tunic up, giving her a front seat view of his well-defined stomach muscles and how they dipped into his pelvis in the shape of a V. Violet’s mouth dried at the sight. She needed to put some space between them before she threw caution to the wind and jumped him.
Intimacy wouldn’t just mean plain sex between Gavin and her. Even if she avoided getting pregnant with a potion, she couldn’t afford to make a mistake and develop stronger feelings for him than those that had already begun to build inside of her. It would only cement the magic spell that had linked them together ever since they’d wed.
Violet wanted him—badly—but she might want more than just physical connection. She had to resist temptation.
