His words were mild, but there was a kind of force behind them that Macy hadn’t heard before. She realized that he was squarely between the Parkers and the front door, and no matter how polite he sounded right now, and he did sound polite, there was absolutely no way he was letting them get past him to the endangered cryptid beyond.
All right, need to recalibrate my kinks, because I did not thinkman protective over endangered snakewas on that list, but here we are.
There was a frozen moment, Luca unblinking, Keith Parker’s mouth working, and then, to Macy’s surprise, Mike was the one who broke it with a decisive nod.
“You got a hook?” he inquired. “Got a good live bag? They said it was a big one, I don’t know anyone who wanders around with a crate big enough to handle that kind of thing normally.”
Luca turned to give him an appraising eye.
“I definitely have a hook. Got a good bag, too. I had a crate big enough when I worked in Florida,” he said cautiously. “Needed them for the feral boa constrictors and the occasional wandering gator.”
Mike’s face didn’t change. Macy came to the belated conclusion that that was just his face, and that meant that she could probably con him into judging the science fair next year.
“Sounds good to me. Reckon it’s a boa in there?”
“Haven’t laid eyes on it yet, but from the size of the thing, yeah. Probably an escaped pet or a dump.”
“Damn shame what some people will do. Not so bad this time of year, but when they do it in December, that’s just a crime.”
Both men shook their heads as Macy and Keith looked on in bemusement. There was apparently a fellowship among people who knew reptiles, and when Luca and Mike shook hands, it was like a pact had been sealed. Mike turned to his father.
“Looks like Mayor Lang has this handled, Dad,” he said evenly. “No call for me to go shoving my hook where it isn’t wanted.”
Keith sputtered, something about town funds and getting the job done right, but Mike gave Macy a cordial nod and another to Luca.
“You folks take care. Good luck with the snake. Let me know if you need another hand.”
He handed them both cards–Michael Parker, Pest Removal and Reptile Rescue–and turned toward the parking lot, Keith trailing behind him with a somewhat puzzled expression, as if he wasn’t sure what had hit him.
“So are we public with our relationship?” Macy asked, and Luca smiled.
“As public as you’re comfortable with, Mayor Lang.”
“Okay, because right now, I very publicly want to kiss the heck out of you for that little display.”
She caught a flash of fierce delight and determination in Luca’s eye right before he pulled her up to his strong body. One moment, she was a woman standing on her own two feet, the world right-side up around her, and the next, it had all gone sideways as she was scooped up into a deep kiss that consumed her from head to toe.
Luca’s mouth was hot on hers, and all she could focus on was how good it felt, the trailing tip of his tongue across the crease of her lips, the way he held her as gently and securely as she might hold a kitten or a puppy. She wasn’t a lightweight, but he held on to her as if it was nothing, and she didn’t have to worry about anything like gravity as he turned her to pure fire.
He put her back on her feet too soon, and for a moment, she only stared at him, one hand coming up to touch her mouth.
“Wow,” she whispered, and the look he gave her was solely joy, love in its purest form.
“Wow,” he agreed.
“How long are you fixing to be in there?”
“’Til I catch the cerastes.”
“Right. Right. Okay. Here’s my pitch. I’m going to finish up here, and then I’m going to go home, get a shower, pick up my overnight bag. You know, everything I need for a real, old-fashioned slumber party.”
Luca raised his eyebrows.
“One where we talk about boys and practice kissing?”
“Okay, you went to more interesting slumber parties than I did. But no. What we’re going to do is we’re going to catch that damn snake.”
Her expression turned fierce.
