A slight blush stained her cheeks.“Would you like some wine?”Her voice chimed high and tight.She bent slightly as she rose from the chair and her robe buckled, giving him a delicious view of the inside curve of her breast.The lower half of his anatomy kicked in appreciation, and he placed a napkin over the evidence.Fuck, he wanted to be inside her, to bury his face in the coconut scent of her hair.Which made no sense because she wasn’t exactly inviting his attention.Her fuzzy pink bathrobe could have been a prop onGolden Girls.Why then was the wolf inside him begging him to take his attraction to the next level?The thought of being with her made his body ache and his head swim.But that was the thing.He wasn’t attracted to her clothes or even her appearance.It was the whole package: her smell, her smile, the fact that she’d cried over their missed date.
“Please.Wine would be great,” he rumbled.Why was his voice trashed?
She returned to the table and filled two glasses.
“So did you dismantle Ryker or what?”
“No.”
“No?After what we saw last night, I’m amazed you could show any restraint at all.”
“It’s none of my business.Soleil’s a big girl.She can make her own choices.But I did go to see her, to question her about Ryker, make sure he wasn’t responsible for the sulfralite.”
“And?”
“She gave me Nickelova’s heart.”
Meredith froze.“What?”
“She told me last night’s activities were her way of bartering with the demon for the heart.He’s an incubus.Sex is his currency.”
He left out the petty details.Meredith didn’t need to know how Soleil had basically asked him to come back to her on her terms.It wasn’t going to happen.
Meredith paused, her glass of wine halfway to her lips.“She still loves you.”
Silas snorted derisively.“No.”
“Yes.She allowed that demon to do those things to her for you.With that heart, you can control Nickelova.Ryker would never have given it to you without her intervention.”
“You don’t know that.”Silas sipped his wine.“And I think we can agree Soleil seemed to enjoy every minute of the process.”
Meredith swirled her wine in the bottom of her glass.
Silas pumped his knee, anxious he might have upset her.“I’ll use the heart, but I hate what she did to get it.I can’t respect someone who does something like that.And the thought that she did what she did in some twisted way for me?It makes me sick.I don’t want to be responsible for what we saw.If anything, it makes it worse.”
“You’re not responsible.”She met his gaze and held it.“You’re not.”
“I know.”He shrugged.“Besides, what Soleil does or does not do is not my problem.In fact, at the moment I’d rather not think of her at all.”He reached across the table and covered her hand with his own.“I don’t love her anymore.”
“No?”
“I find myself smitten with someone else.”He eyed her intently.
“Smitten?”She raised an eyebrow, her gaze dropping to where he stroked her skin with his thumb.Her bottom lip tucked between her teeth.Did she feel the electric charge building between them?Sense the tension like smoke in the air, growing thicker until he could hardly breathe?
“I enjoyed kissing you today,” he said, locking eyes with her.“I think you enjoyed it too.”
“I did, but…”
“But?”
“We work together,” she said softly.“A physical relationship between us would be inappropriate.It’s against department policy.”She blinked rapidly, leaning back in her chair although keeping her hand exactly where it was, under his.
Silas nodded.“You’re right.”
He traced the veins along the underside of her forearm.She shifted in her seat.He could imagine her thighs pressing together under the table, and his erection throbbed to ease the cause of that particular affliction.He circled her wrist with his thumb and forefinger.If he didn’t take her right now, he’d never forgive himself.
“The problem is, Meredith, I don’t give a fuck about department policy.”
