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He glanced at her hand resting on the tabletop, her pale fingers slender and the bones delicate. For a moment, he was tempted to fold his hand around hers, to feel the softness of her skin and the warmth of her body, but he suppressed the impulse. Their feelings were far from romantic. Lustful, yes.
Every so often, she lifted her eyes to the door, but he wasn’t worried. She wasn’t going to run away again. Erwan meant too much to her.
He considered striking up a conversation, but dropped the idea as quickly as it had formed. Idle talking wasn’t his thing. Besides, his companion was clearly not in the mood for small talk. Instead he took out his phone to check if there was a message from Cain about Lupien’s whereabouts. Cain had promised to keep him in the loop. Their understanding was that Joss would cut short his sabbatical and return to the team should they pick up the pyromancist’s trace.
Clelia fiddled with her napkin until the food arrived. It was a simple meal of onion soup and cassoulet, but the hearty food was filling. She needed some flesh on her bones.
While she ate, he studied her heart-shaped faced framed by long, midnight black hair. She wore her hair loose tonight. It was so thick and straight it fell like a curtain of silk to the small of her back. The cut of her fringe was a harsh, solid line, no feathery bangs or soft wisps falling around her face. The style was bold, hard, but it only enhanced her pretty features and delicate bone structure. Short and slender, she could easily be mistaken for one of the legendary fairies the forest near their hometown was famous for. Sometimes, he forgot she wasn’t weak. She was strong, all right, strong enough to have escaped him and survive. Yet there were forces in the world for which no man was a match, let alone a little woman. He preferred to, where she was concerned, avoid danger rather than going for a head-on collision. Unfortunately the collision was unavoidable, and that chilled him to the bone.
They finished dinner early. She needed rest. She was going to need her strength for what waited in Brittany. Walking Clelia back upstairs with his hand on her back, he suddenly had the weird notion that he was courting her. He’d never courted a woman in his life. His strategy was to go for the kill quickly without a hidden agenda, and the reward he offered was satisfaction guaranteed. This possessiveness however, this indescribable joy at finding her together with the paralyzing fear of losing her, were new.
Back inside the apartment, he locked the door and activated the alarm.
Chewing her bottom lip, Clelia glanced down the hallway. “Which room shall I use?”
“You mean which room are we going to use.”
She gave him a narrowed look meant to be demeaning, but her eyelashes fluttered in a nervous way. “We don’t need to share a bed.”
“Yes, we do,” he said widening his stance and crossing his arms. He might be enjoying her obvious discomfort a bit too much. Served her right for everything she’d put him through.
She planted her fists on her hips. “Why?”
“To make sure you don’t try anything as foolish as running again.” That wasn’t the whole truth. She was locked in with nowhere to go. He liked the idea of being that close to her, of sharing a bed. They’d done it once and he wanted to hear and feel her breath in the dark again. He liked her reaction, liked that he made her nervous. It showed he had an effect on her. Any effect, even her loathing, was better than nothing.
Untangling his arms, he walked closer. “Nothing is going to happen.” He added in a low voice, “Unless you want it to.”
As he expected, she fled. She turned and walked away with a stiff back and square shoulders. He grinned. The act didn’t fool him. She might walk like she owned this place, but it was still running.
“I’ll maintain control for both of us,” he called after her with a grin.
She entered the bathroom and slammed the door.
When the water in the shower came on, he brought their luggage to the room and fetched two bottles of water from the fridge, which he left on the nightstands. Stretching out on the bed with his back against the headboard, he checked his phone again. There was a message from Cain about pending notes on a mission report and an apology for interrupting Joss’s holiday.
He’d just logged into the report file on his tablet when the bathroom door opened. Clelia stood in the frame, dressed in the white nightdress he’d bought in Vannes. His finger paused above the keys as he took her in. The silk clung to her body, accentuating her curves. His gaze roamed over her, from the hard points of her breasts to the dip of her navel, finally stopping on the small mound in the center of her legs.
