Iignored the sudden leap of trepidation and glanced up, spotting his shadow more so than him. “That you hiding up there, Eljin? Or do I need to get my knives out?”
His laugh floated down from the loft, warm and unconcerned. “If you were going to get your knives out, you would have done so by now. I was just getting dressed after stepping out of the shower—would you like to come up here and play for a while?”
“Haven’t got time to play, sadly.”
“Another date?”
“No, a staff member down. I need to get back to the tavern to help out.” The wood song told me he was standing next to the bed, placing something into the bedside table’s top drawer. Something that was on the small side, made of wood, but also inlaid with some sort of silver. A gift? Or something else?
Instinct said the latter, meaning I probably needed to check it out when—if—I got the chance.
“Ah. Shame,” he commented.
“In an even bigger shame, I have an early start tomorrow morning, so there can be no after work activities.”
He appeared at the top of the stairs, wearing jeans but little else. “And now, I am bereft.”
I smiled, enjoying the muscular goodness on show as he came down the stairs. Bad guy or not, he was very well built for a Talien pixie. They did tend to be on the leaner side than us Aodhán. I crossed my arms and leaned a hip on the kitchen bench. “How come you’re home so early?”
He walked over, tugged me into his arms, and kissed me, long and soundly. There was a part of me that wanted to pull back, to ask him to stop, but I didn’t. I had to play it carefully, because if he was a pawn in the other side’s game, the last thing I wanted was to spook him into running before we could get any information out of him. And if he wasn’t a pawn, well, the sex was good.
His eyes gleamed knowingly when he finally stepped back; that kiss had been deliberately intense and definitelydidhave the desired effect. My lips were tingling, my body trembling and achingly hot with desire.
But he didn’t immediately take advantage of the situation, as I’d have expected. He simply walked around the bench and got two cups out of the cupboard. “If I said a sudden bout of jealously, would you believe me?”
“After that kiss? Maybe.”
I lightly ran a finger across my lips, but the burning didn’t immediately go away. I frowned, reached for one of the cups, then turned on the tap and drank some water. It helped. And yet, the stirring unease increased. Instinct—and the Eye—remained mute to any immediate danger, so the unease might be nothing more than the need not to be intimate with one man when I was so hung up on the other... but even as that thought crossed my mind, I smacked it away. This wasn’t guilt. This was something else.
He laughed. “Remember I said my sister was missing her kids? Well, she decided to go back early. That left me with little to do in London, so I came back.”
“Little to do in London? Are you insane?”
He shrugged. “I have been to London many times. It holds no particular appeal to me these days.”
“Huh.” I finished the water and pushed the cup back to him. “While you’re making that, I might have a quick look around for the brooch.”
“I doubt it’s upstairs. I vacuumed before I left and would have found it.”
“It was on my coat, so it wouldn’t be up there anyway.”
I turned and made a show of checking the sofas, thrusting a hand between each cushion, and then kneeling to look underneath. All the while aware of his gaze on me, of the heat rising within and the growing tide of need. I wanted him with an urgency that was almost surreal, but it wasn’t as if I hadn’t felt this level of overriding need before with him. It was just... troubling.
“Anything?” he said eventually.
I sighed and shook my head. “It must have come off somewhere else. I’ll make a report, but it’s likely gone.”
“Was it a valuable piece?”
I walked back to the bench and sat down on one of the stools. “It was a gift from Mom, so to me, yes.”
“Of course, sorry.” He pushed my tea across the bench, then moved back around and sat beside me on the stool. His bare arm brushed against mine, and though I was wearing a sweater it felt like I was being touched by flame. My whole body went up, and it was all I could do to remain where I was and not climb into his lap and take what my body so desperately needed.
I needed to get out of there.Now. Before I did something I might—or might not—regret.
Perhaps the gods on my side of the game were listening, because at that precise moment, my phone pinged. I thrust to my feet, hurried over to my purse, and dragged it out. It was nothing more than an advert from a favorite dress shop, but I wasn’t about to let it go to waste.
I grimaced and swung my purse over my shoulder. “Sorry, duty calls. I have to go.”
