Itwouldbe kind of satisfying though,Luna thought wistfully, as she walked toward the B&B with Henry at her side.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he said as they mounted the steps to the front door. “You mentioned you thought things had gone well, but you’re looking kind of… pensive, I guess.”
Luna gave him a thin, tight smile. “I guess I am a bit. I’m worried about tomorrow. I mean, if things don’t go well, it’ll be all my fault, right? It wasmyidea, after all.”
“Well, we’ll deal with that if it happens,” Henry told her, his voice reassuring. “But it won’t be your fault, either way. Whocursessomeone?” He laughed. “Especially someone they’ve never met.”
“We don’tknowyou never met her yet,” Luna pointed out as she opened the front door. “She’s doing identity theft – or at leastphototheft – on her website, so we don’t actually know who this Madame Fortuna is or what she looks like.”
“That’s a good point, I suppose,” Henry mused. “But still, whoever she is, whatever happens, it’s on her. Or it could be a him, I guess. We won’t know until we actually see whoever it is.”
“Assuming they even show up.” Luna sighed. She’d liked her idea to begin with, but now she was filled with a sense of foreboding. What if it all turned into a disaster?
Like Henry said, we’ll deal with that when it happens,she told herself firmly.Right now, it’s late. We can’t do anything about anything until tomorrow.
She shifted the lazily sleeping Fillmore in her arms, tucking him up like a football as she opened the door to her own room. He didn’t stir at all when she put him down in the basket in the sitting room, lined with a blanket of his she’d brought from home.
She and Henry looked down at him fondly for a moment, his little pink tongue lolling from the side of his crooked mouth, his bulging eyes firmly closed.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but after the day I’ve had, I could follow Fillmore’s example pretty happily,” Henry said, glancing at her. He cleared his throat, and suddenly, Luna was very aware of how close he was standing to her – and how alone they were. And how few steps it was to the bedroom.
“Since you don’t really need me to protect you from the curse – and I can’t do that anyway – I guess it’d be better for me to sleep outside in hellhound form,” Henry said after a moment. “Since the animals won’t come after me that way.”
Luna stared at him, wondering if perhaps he was making some funny little joke.
Is he… is he serious? Is heactuallyoffering to go sleep outside? Didn’t we kiss at the bakery?! Doesn’t heknowwhat he’s doing to me??!!
Luna couldn’t tell right now if Henry was feeling the same way, but ever since they’d gotten into the car to drive back here, she’d been crackling with tension.
It was as if all the revelations of the past couple of days had finally settled down in her mind – Henry was ahellhound, and he was hermate, and that meant they weremade for each other, and also he washot as hell.
Luna didn’t usually like to take things this fast in her personal relationships – she had a job that involved a lot of travel after all, and that made getting serious kind of difficult. And she wasn’t really into sleeping with people she hadn’t yet made some kind of commitment to – it just wasn’t really her style.
But we’re soulmates,she thought, gazing desperately up into his eyes.Isn’t that the most… uh, commitment-y commitment there is?!
Luna cringed internally a little. Wasn’t she supposed to be a writer? Couldn’t she come up with something a little better than that?!
But it did no good. Whenever she gazed at Henry, it was like all coherent thoughts fled her mind.
“Uh.” She licked her lips, still unable to tear her gaze from his. “Well, I mean, youcoulddo that,” she said haltingly. “Or. Or you could. Stay here. With me. In my room.”
Henry blinked, his surprise written clearly across his face. “Stay with you?”
Suddenly, Luna had the awful feeling she’d said something wrong. Maybe this was totally taboo in shifter society? Maybe there was some kind of… protocol around mate bonds that she’d just unwittingly stumbled across?
“Oh – I mean, of course, you don’t have to!” she said quickly. “It was just a suggestion!”
Oh my God,she thought to herself, smothering the urge to say it out loud. She felt like she’d already spent enough of her time around Henry muttering self-deprecations under her breath every time she said something stupid in front of him.
“No, no, of course I want to,” Henry said, a low growl edging into his voice – which immediately sent a warm shiver coursing down Luna’s spine. “I just… wanted to be sure that you know what this means. We’re already mates, of course, but doing this… it’ll mean we’ve truly sealed our bond. And I have to be sure you want that before I do anything else.”
Luna blinked at him. She thought she’d made herself perfectly clear when she’d leaned across the table at the bakery and kissed him – but perhaps Henry was just the old-fashioned type. Or maybe he reallydidjust need to be told twice.
Before she could second-guess herself, Luna reached up, pressing her palm against his cheek. Henry gasped as their skin made contact, and Luna knew why. She felt it too, after all: thesizzle of electricity between them where they touched, like a tiny spark of lightning jumping between them.
Is this what it means to be mates, then?Luna thought.Those flying sparks?
She didn’t get much longer to ponder the question, though, because in the next moment, Henry’s arms were wrapped around her, as he lifted her up with no effort whatsoever and crushed their mouths together.
