Her smile was totally feline. “You’re not old.”
“Perhaps you could make me feel young again,” he said and grinned when Caldwell slammed the door.
****
Michael was sitting in his car and waiting for her when she got home.
“I brought dinner,” he said as he joined her by the front door holding a bag of Chinese carry-out.
“Smells great,” Sara said as she let them in, “but you didn’t need to do that.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You were going to make dinner? Since when did you learn to cook?”
“I know how to cook,” she said as she set out plates. “I prefer not to. Anyway, when did we arrange for dinner? You were pretty angry with me this morning.”
“I’m sorry about that.” He actually looked contrite, which was a trait Sara had never seen him exhibit. “But since I’m spending the night, I needed some nourishment.”
She wasn’t sure she heard him correctly. “You’re spending the night?”
He grinned and handed her chopsticks. “Yep. Backpack’s in the car.”
“Michael, we’ve had this conversation before. I’m not sleeping with you. Women follow you as though you were the Pied Piper. All I’d be is another conquest. Let’s stay friends.”
The grin faded and the humor left his dark eyes to be replaced with the predatory look of the warlock. “For the record, you wouldn’t be ‘another conquest.’ But if I truly meant to seduce you, sweetheart, I wouldn’t have brought food with MSG in it. Makes me…uh…sleepy, you might say.”
She frowned. “Then why…?” Suddenly her eyes widened. “You think I need protection, don’t you?”
“I know you do,” he said and ignored her look of exasperation. “Whoever paid you a visit last night may come back. I’m surprised Ramsey didn’t think of it.”
“Stop suspecting him, Michael. We had a talk today.” She hoped she wasn’t blushing, remembering how that talk had ended in a mind-blowing kiss that would have put any Frenchman to shame. “And,” she added logically, “if hehadbeen the visitor, the easiest way to get me alone is to come home with me under the guise of protecting me.” For a moment, she felt an adrenaline rush as she thought of Lucas’ comments on Baylor’s possible control of the warlock. Goddess, she’d known Michael for ten years—surely she would have noticed some change in his behavior if Baylor had started manipulating him. She had to stop this paranoid way of thinking.
Michael was watching her with the intensity he showed only during rituals. Then she felt him nudge at her mind. She brought her shield up. Too late.
His head jerked back in surprise. “You suspectme?”
“I don’t know. I’m so confused,” Sara answered. “You accuse Lucas of wanting sole power, he accuses you of being controlled by Baylor—”
Michael took her hand. “The third eye,” he said as he pressed her fingers to his forehead. “I’m open. Enter and see for yourself who controls me.”
Sara closed her eyes and concentrated, her senses slowly fading until there was only intuitive sight. Michael’s aura was pale gold, edged in white. No traces of darkness there, nor did she detect anything ominous surrounding him. His thought forms flowed smoothly in swirls of blue and green, intermingled with light corals. One bright orange form suddenly flared up and was quickly extinguished, but she recognized it as the lustful thought it was. Definitely Michael’s, not interference from another source. She went deeper. Underneath the thought forms, in the very essence of his mind, no angry browns or burgundies lurked, only the steady pulsating of the blood-red Kundalini. His own spirit.
She broke the contact. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s all right,” he said. “I wanted you to be sure.” He gathered the plates and took them to the sink. “You did catch the one that was definitely me?”
Sara packed up the containers to avoid the sensual look he was sending her, the heat of which would have nearly any other woman unbuttoning her blouse.
“You’re still sleeping on the couch,” she said.
****
Lucas parked his rental beside Sara’s Mustang the next morning and checked to make sure the Shield was fully covered in the back seat. He had meant to give it to her yesterday, but her friend, Morgan, had shown up unexpectedly and Sara had left to attend to some business.
The woman was supposed to be part of the Circle, but he didn’t trust her. He knew her type. She had a cold, calculating beauty that used men to her own ends. Even as she brazenly flirted with an obviously besotted Caldwell—he should give hercredit for that, he supposed, since it took the guy’s mind off Sara—she continued to give him hot, heated looks while licking her lips and then pouting when he pretended to misunderstand. With the long red hair and alabaster skin, she reminded him of Arthur’s sister. And that was one witch everyone gave a wide berth.
Lucas knocked on Sara’s apartment door. He’d have brought the Shield over last night, but Smith had kept him and Caldwell bent over some medieval artifacts that he’d brought up from the vault until well past midnight. By then, it was too late to go to her. He didn’t want her panicking and shooting through the door. But he had sat in his car across the street and watched the apartment the rest of the night just in case. Then he’d gone back to Smith’s for a quick shower and shave.
“Good morning, lass,” he said as she opened the door.
