Yes. That was definitely his job.
“What about…” Dorian paused, either getting distracted by the steamy couple or his thoughts…or both.
Definitely both because he was pressing closer and smelling like candied bacon again.
“What about encouraging people to send you voice notes? And…and your mother could give you a weekly report of what she’s learned.” Blinking a few times as they turned the corner and moved out of sight, Dorian looked up at me. “That’s weird. It’s like they’re addicting.”
Oh.
“We might need to figure out what the other guy is? He might be?” Half the town was leaning out their doors or peeking out windows and it looked like even the local ghosts were following them as far as they could. “I might need to make some calls about that.”
Giving his head a shake, Dorian took a steadying breath. “I’m not naturally this nosy.”
I wasn’t going to say that was just because he’d been trained not to ask questions, but he had a point.
“We’ll figure it out.” Pulling him closer, I took advantage of everyone being distracted and stepped back into the shadows by the corner of the bank. “And worst-case scenario, I’ll figure out how to have dinner out next to them on our next date and I’ll make sure that we have privacy afterward.”
His shocked inhale made me fight back laughter. “We can’t do that.”
“Why not? If they’re getting the whole town hot and bothered it’s their own fault.” We didn’t have enough privacy at the moment for what I was imagining, but I leaned down and nibbled right under his ear before teasing him with a whisper. “We’d see all that heat and passion being held back in public and then I’d drag you out to the car.”
His whine was sexy but still made me want to grin. “We’d…we’d get your car dirty.”
He was hilarious.
“Oh, Wölfchen.” Licking around his ear, I moaned as he shivered. “There’s nothing that smells better than your desire.”
Best air freshener ever.
“You…” Biting back a moan, Dorian fought to get a deep breath, but I wasn’t helping and continued to nibble on his ear. “You like having a clean car.”
That was his only issue?
“I have a wonderfully smart mate who’s already started stocking my car with essentials.” So I was very sure he had enough stuff to clean it up afterward, no matter what we did. “I love the way you’re marking your territory. It’s sexy.”
So was his huff.
“I’m not…that’s…” There wasn’t a good way to argue about what he was doing, so he focused on sound effects and shaking his head as he straightened. “Come on. We need to go get coffee and then I need you to tell me if any of the candle scents were overwhelming to you or might be to Emeric.”
More good questions from my mate.
“This might be rude or just an unreasonable fear, but I never thought to ask if you have allergic reactions to any scents or foods.” He peeked over at me as I took his hand and we started wandering in the direction of the coffee shop. “I’m not trying to point out anything that might be speciesist.”
Like the fact that dogs couldn’t eat chocolate.
“I’ve heard that regular canines have reactions to a variety of things but I’ve never heard of any wolves like myself having a reaction to things like that. Our sense of smell is stronger than a human’s but it’s turned out that we can get food allergies if we end up with too many humans in the family tree. We still shift and can feel the magic but something fucks things up and we can end up with stuff like a surprise peanut allergy.”
That’d been a shock in a pack over in Florida, but they’d made sure everyone knew once they’d figured out what happened.
“Emeric’s family is all magic-based and mostly shifter, but I think one of his great-grandparents was a low-level mage if I’m remembering his parents’ information correctly.” We might not have great notes but we at least had some basic files on everyone in the pack. “That shouldn’t affect things like allergies, though.”
Although watching him for magical shenanigans might not be a bad idea because in wolves sometimes that stuff didn’t show up until after puberty.
“Okay good.” Looking brighter, he glanced back toward the knickknack shop. “Then will you help me pick out a few scents that you like or don’t mind? I’d like to find a color that complements the blues in the house.”
“Sure.” Kissing his head, I squeezed his hand. “Then we’ll do a walk around the area and we’ll pick out something that sounds good for dinner. I was thinking about driving over to the highway and get something like steak?”
I wanted privacy more than I wanted anything specific, and we wouldn’t get that eating anywhere the locals hung out on a regular basis.
