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“Brandy.” His voice made her skid to a stop on her bare feet.
“I have to call for help!”
“No. I’m fine.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood. Slowly. Testing out his legs. The pain was gone, but his body felt as if someone had jammed a torch into his stomach. The entire bedroom—a room he knew quite well after sleeping in it in wolf form for so many nights—spun around him. He squeezed his eyes shut and when he opened them again, everything settled back into its place. “I’m all right. Really.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Are you sure? You didn’t look all right a few seconds ago.”
“I promise you, I’m all right.” He would have to remembernotto think thoughts that enraged Flidae. She was apparently watching him closer than he’d known. She was inside his damn head.
He held out his hand to Brandy and she came around to his side of the bed. She took his hand and he tugged her up against him, taking comfort in her still naked body.
“That was scary. I, uh…” She glanced to the bed where the sheets were in disarray from their lovemaking. “I haven’t donethatin a while, and I thought I’d killed you.”
Reardon let out a laugh and her tensed muscles relaxed against his chest. “I’m harder to kill than that, lass.” If she only knew how others had tried to end him. Tried and failed. “I’m sorry if I frightened you. I don’t know what that was.”Liar. But what could he say? A goddess was torturing him? That wouldn’t do.
She gave him a tight squeeze then backed up a step to look up at him. Her mouth opened, but when her gaze dropped down, she closed it. She reached down and removed the item she’d rolled onto his length before they’d made love.
“Are you allergic to latex or something?” She grabbed a tissue from the table beside the bed and curled it around the item before depositing it in a trashcan.
Reardon didn’t know what latex was so he shrugged noncommittally and reached for his clothes. “I should go.” Because he didn’t have answers to the questions she was sure to keep asking. No answers he could give her anyway. Not tonight.
“I suppose it is late.” Her face looked sad as she dressed, and he hated that he’d caused that expression.
When they were both clothed again, Reardon took Brandy’s hands in his. She avoided his gaze so he tipped up her chin. “I would like to see you again.”
Her eyes widened. “You would?”
It made his heart hurt that she doubted what he was feeling for her. Of course she doubted. He couldn’t tell her he’d started loving her as she’d cared for him in his wolf form. He couldn’t tell her he’d known her for weeks now. He couldn’t tell her he felt her love when she interacted with him as a wolf. To her, this night was all they’d had so far.
So he’d start from what she considered the beginning. He’d be patient. He’d make her fall for Reardon McAlator, the man, as she’d fallen for Alator, the wolf.
And then he’d tell her they were one and the same.
“Of course I want to see you again, fairy lass. I already told you I had a wonderful evening, and that was before…” He motioned to the bed with his hand.
Her cheeks went crimson, and he wanted to gather her in his arms, take her all over again, never let her go.
“I could be free tomorrow.” She looked down at her bare toes, wiggling them. Her shyness—after she’d been so forward in bringing him into her bedroom earlier—was so hot. It told him that she must have really wanted him for her to act so out of character. This Brandy standing before him now, this unsure, pink-cheeked fairy lass was the real Brandy.
Not a goddess.Flidae’s voice in his ears made him wince. Fortunately, Brandy was still examining her feet.
I know she’s not a goddess,he thought back.
You’ll do well to remember.Another sharp pain threatened to crack open his skull.
“Tomorrow would be lovely. May I come back here?” Because he didn’t actually have a place of his own in Canville. The sanctuary was his place. He took comfort in knowing that after he pretended to leave, he’d be allowed right back into Brandy’s bedroom in his wolf form.
“If that doesn’t bore you, sure.”
“Bore me? Absolutely not.” He dropped a kiss on her lips and loved how her body melted against his. “It excites me.”
“Dinner again?”
“If that doesn’t bore you.” He grinned when she did.
“Wise ass.” She pretended to punch him in the stomach, her knuckles lightly meeting his abs. “C’mon, I’ll walk you out. Maybe we can find Alator and you can meet him.”
Not likely.Still, he followed her out of the bedroom, down the stairs, through the living room, and out the front door.
