So maybe I should offer one.
And where in all the dimensions of heaven and hell did that thought come from?
I watched his soft blue eyes as they opened, the rare golden fleck catching the light. He saw me watching him. Just that. The only contact was our eyes.
How did I offer sex…With Villetti it wouldn’t be just sex. Not for me. How did one offer lovemaking to an ex who, by the look in his eyes, was no longer just an ex? We had a lot of history. The young, horny, loving kind of history. In-bed kind of history. On the table. On the floor. That kind of history. What were we to each other now? Nothing casual. Not casual at all.
Either way, I needed to brush my teeth and pee. And see if the attraction between us, built on that history, was about to become something more.
As if none of the years between our last morning together and today stood between us, I rolled out of bed and walked slowly to the bath. As I moved, I lifted my arms and stretched. I caught a glimpse of my hands.Holy hell.Nothing I could do about them now. Maybe not ever. I entered the bathroom. Closed the door, finally let the breath go, raced through mynecessities, and turned on the steam shower. I reopened the door.
He had repositioned slightly, facing me. His eyes instantly on mine.
“You coming?” I asked.
Lee tossed back the covers. Spun off the bed and to his feet. Dark hair covered his torso and legs and everywhere in between. It was the first time I had seen him naked since he had left. Since he was taken, I corrected myself. He had scars. Quite a few of them. Well, so did I. Maybe we could count scars and tell stories about how we got them.
His arms swept around me and smoothed up my sides, back down to my butt. He pressed his lips to mine and tasted of toothpaste. Smelled of soap. My soap. His tongue swept across my closed lips and I opened them. One hand brushed slowly, so slowly, back up my side, the outer round of my breast. Not pausing, sliding up over my shoulder, my throat. Cupping my face. He broke the kiss, our eyes holding.
I smiled. Touched his shoulders with my numb hands. “I need a shower.”
“I will help with any need you have, Angelina.” His mouth curled up wickedly and his eyes glinted. “Any need at all.”
Yeah. We could chat about wounds, scars, and expectations.
After.
We were wrapped in my last two clean bath sheets. I needed to do a load of laundry, but that meant invading the space now occupied by the guards. I needed to order groceries, but the streets were clogged with snow.
“I need to find and save Ivyanna Holmes, our missing subject,” I said.
“Assuming she isn’t one of the bad guys. If she is complicit, the woman will be turned over to the queen or to PsyLED for consorting with demon witches, after which, she will spend her life in an isolation cell, with no trial, no jury of her peers, and no chance of parole.”
I hadn’t even thought about Ivy being a suspect. “Aren’t you full of optimism.”
“Always. And what about Gertrude Lothringen?” Villetti asked, placing a bite of cheese between my lips. “What does Lothringen have to do with this mess?”
The cheese melted on my tongue. So creamy, so rich. I swallowed before a frown pulled my face down. “I forgot about her. Too many players.” I tapped my unicom on the table in front of me and said, “Ojos. Has there been communication from the queen’s security regarding the vampires placed into their custody? The ones from Londyn’s house.”
“Blimey, mate. We got nothing yet.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Of all the accents and voicesOjoshad in its databases, I hated the fake Australian one the most. “Ojos. Current replay cycle for accent and voices is unsatisfactory. Return to male, standard American English.”
“As you wish,”Ojossaid, using what I called American butler. “No communication has been received from the queen’s residence in the last eight hours.”
The lack of contact in the daylight from vamp HQ was of no particular surprise in normal circumstances, but demons were not normal circumstances. I had expected something from them on thebleed and readof the vampires. Walter had asked for the information. Had they sent it to him and not us? “Ojos,send personal messages to Alex Younger and Eli Younger. We need the transcript from the fullbleed and read.”
“Communication sent.”
Almost immediatelyOjossaid, “Reply received. It reads, ‘Ask your guest.’ ”
It took a full second before I understood. I threw off the sheets and raced for clothes.
“Get dressed,” I ordered Villetti. “We have company.Ojos, display all external and internal cameras showing the arrival of any person or being before dawn. Override all privacy protocols. Display all such vids from before dawn until present.”
Behind me, Villetti was dressing at speed.
I had a flash of thought that he accepted orders from a woman without questions. I liked that in a man.
