Page 56 of Woods of the Raven

“Well, good,” was all I could think of to say with his dark eyes on me. “And after tonight, hopefully you’ll want to see me tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and—”

“Yeah, got it. Dating.” He bent and gave me a quick kiss I was hungry enough for that I leaned into it. “I would like that. I want to spend lots of time with you.”

I licked my lips because he tasted really good. “You’re very honest, not making me guess how you feel. I appreciate that.”

“Excellent.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me down the hall toward the office. “Now let’s get this over with so the next part of our evening can commence.”

The faster we walked, the farther away the door got. Lorne stopped, seeming more irritated than scared, and looked down at the hallway from The Shining.

“I love that you’re not frightened,” I praised him.

“This shit is keeping me from spaghetti and getting laid. Yeah, I’m fuckin’ annoyed.”

“Getting laid?”

“Isn’t that happening? You said that was happening,” he stated crossly.

“Well, yes, but—”

“Then?”

“Oh, I like you so much,” I murmured, putting my foot down and then pulling back as though straightening one of my area rugs at home.

Immediately, we were at the door. “You’re handy to have around,” Lorne teased me.

I utterly adored playful, warm Lorne MacBain and really wanted to take him home with me. When he reached for the doorknob, I shook my head and opened it myself to reveal a large office that looked like it had been decorated by Dracula. Red walls, black velvet furniture, and a desk Louis XIV could have comfortably used. To say it was over-the-top scary was an understatement.

“What the hell?” Lorne grumbled as we walked into the room, closing the door, utterly horrified if the look on his face was any indication. “Way to announce you’re the bad guy.”

I nodded. “It happens quite a bit with the fae. What makes perfect sense in their realm is a Gothic nightmare in ours.”

“This is just––” He turned to me. “––his employees don’t see this room this way, do they? That’s why the spell on the hallway, and why you wanted to open the door instead of me. If I’d opened it, we wouldn’t see what it really looks like.”

He had worked it all out in his head, and it was quite impressive. I couldn’t hold in my smile. “You are a very clever man.”

He grunted.

The door opened behind us, and three very large men with no perceivable necks walked in and fanned out, the biggest one barring our exit.

“This is why I brought my gun,” Lorne told me.

“Well, unless the bullets for that Glock are made of iron, it’s not going to help—these men are fae, not human.”

“You know guns?” he asked, like that was the interesting part.

I rolled my eyes. “I know a Glock when I see one. I watch TV at Amanda’s house and go to the movies.”

“Yeah, I’ll bring my laptop with me when I come over,” he apprised me as another door opened near the far wall, close to the desk, and Declan came through.

“Xander, how lovely to see you again.”

“Yes,” I said, tugging on Lorne’s hand to get him to walk forward with me toward the desk. “I don’t suppose we could dispense with all the back-and-forth and ridiculous posturing and instead you just tell me what you’re doing here in Osprey.”

He squinted at me. “I opened this place. That should be perfectly obvious.”

“Well, yes, Declan Grant did, but who are you, and is the real Declan still alive?”

“I think perhaps you’re having some kind of—”