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He snorted visibly this time and snatched a piece of bead pie. “Good to know that opinion still holds.”
His lack of offense was fascinating. Sapphire resumed her scrutiny.
“You have been behaving yourself as of late. Is it to impress my sister?”
“Strangely, I don’t seem to need to impress your sister. She likes me as I am.”
“She said she’s happy to mate with you,” she said reluctantly. “I…don’t understand.”
“I’m going to take that as genuine confusion and not an insult toward me.”
“You can take it as an insult if you want,” she offered sweetly.
There was another snort. “Sassy. But to answer your confusion, let’s just put it this way: you might know Emerald, but you don’t know everything about her.”
“She’s my sister.” At his silence, her gaze narrowed. “What do you know?”
“I know she has her opinions and her views separate from yours. I know you are fiercely protective of her and would do anything to keep her away from me. At the same time, you want her happy. She is, but because it’s with me, you’re conflicted and resigned.”
That he read her so well didn’t sit well with her, but Sapphire covered it with a sigh.
“Maybe I should start joining in on those lunches and dinners again.”
“You can’t resist me, can you?”
“No. It’s more that I want to make sure you haven’t weaved some crazy spell on her while I was away.”
He grinned, features gleaming with playfulness. She nearly grinned back before she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to be enjoying any type of conversation with him too much, including these banters. That playfulness should be banned, but Klaus was deep in it as he teased her with a low, laughing voice.
“I seduce her on top of our meals every lunch and dinner. Come watch the free show. I’m sure you will enjoy it.”
The image it created sat hard in her stomach.
“Crude.”
“You like it.”
“Keep telling yourself that—there’s a bat.”
“What?”
“There’s a bat on your head. A baby. Don’t move.”
She climbed up the counter, trailing the movement of the creature that had stayed hidden in his hair before the small head peeked out. Beaded black eyes peered at her while sharp fangs rested over a semi-open mouth. She knelt and leaned forward.
“Hey, there. That’s not a nest. It looks like one but it’s not. Come on. Don’t be scared.”
Her fingers glowed slightly, creating her standard ball sheen around the bat. It wasn’t scared, but mesmerized, sensing the magic and not threatened by it. Taking that as her cue, she gently nudged the creature to move with her sheen until it was no longer on his hair. When it spread its wings, she flicked her magic to the window and let it evaporate so the bat could fly to the ledge.
“It’s gone,” she announced.
“I see that.”
But the bat stayed on its perch.
“Don’t hurt it,” she pleaded, then turned back to him. Klaus was looking at her again with that same intensity from earlier as if he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Belatedly, it dawned that she was so close to him, their noses were close to touching.
“It’s family is right there. They come here to sleep sometimes and avoid the food area. Water bats.”
