"Hmm?" Sabrina's eyes opened halfway, then slipped shut again as she sipped the coffee. "Hobbiton."
"What?"
She giggled sleepily onto her coffee. "Hobbits like curves. Go watch Lord of the Rings again and look at all their buildings. They're lovely and curved. Art Nouveau. Otherwise, there arelots of architects who specialize in curves, but they're not household names. Why?"
"I was admiring the curves in front of me."
Sabrina actually opened her eyes at that, glanced at him, at herself, and shook with another quiet laugh. "You'll want Niemeyer for that. Known for being particularly inspired by the female form. Or Zaha Hadid. They called her the Queen of Curves." Her eyes closed again and she sipped the coffee before lifting it a little. "Thank you for this."
"You're welcome. Are you a breakfast person?"
"Mmm." She sighed, enjoying her coffee a little while longer before saying, "Not usually. I might grab a pastry on hungry days, but I usually only eat breakfast on the weekends. And even then it's usually brunch. You?"
"I eat all the breakfast," Luke announced almost regretfully, and Sabrina giggled again.
"Of course you do. You're ten feet tall. Well, don't let my habits dictate yours. If I get hungry I can steal a corner of your toast and be fine."
"That's hardly any food at all!"
She opened her eyes again, actually looking awake this time. Awake, and amused. "I'm much smaller than you are, and I don't change into a rabbit, which I sort of assume burns a lot of energy. You're going to have to do the shopping for us. Because even if I could guess how much food to buy for you, I wouldn't be able to carry it all home!"
Luke's heart did an absurd flip and thump. "Shopping forus?"
"Well." Sabrina turned toward him and stretched her legs in his direction. The robe twisted with her, riding even farther up her thighs, and he couldn't stop his gaze from following it as he vividly recalled what it hid. She tugged the robe's shoulder back up, though it fell down again and she muttered at it beforewiggling her toes. "Sure, for us. You've just told me that we're meant to be together, right? You've got magic telling you, and I…" She smiled at him, her eyes dark and happy. "Well, it feels right to me, too. So we could go through all the little steps, but why not just jump in? I have this apartment for a few more months, so…why not? Unless you don't want to?"
"No! No, I would love to. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than—" Luke hesitated, then slid his hand along her ankle to squeeze her leg gently. "Than be here for you. Than be herewithyou. If you're up for it, so am I."
Her gaze darted to his hand and then rose to meet his, a little smile on her lips. "Mmmhmmm. I bet you are."
Heat rushed along Luke's jaw and dropped to spread through his body, increasing along the way. "That wasn't what I meant, but now that you mention it…whattime do you have to be at work?"
Sabrina purred, "Not yet," and set her coffee cup aside before Luke tugged her ankles, drawing her toward himself, and did his very best to give her good reasons to hurry home again after work.
Between work, moving in together, and dealing with his family's glee over him finding his fated mate, the next few days sped by in a blur, punctuated by stand-out moments of joy. Most of them were incredibly simple: finding out how much Sabrina liked cinnamon-and-sugar toast, or discovering that his favorite movie was in her top ten, too. Evenings of trying to figure out whether they should go to bed at the same time or accept their schedules were just very different ended in laughterand lust and, gradually, with Sabrina getting more sleep, which she begrudgingly admitted was probably good for her.
"I'm not getting up at five to hit the gym with you, though," she warned, and Luke rubbed his hands together like an old-timey villain.
"My cunning plan is working! In time, you shall succumb to my unnatural desires!"
"The worst part is I'm afraid that's true," Sabrina admitted, but even a couple of weeks wasn't enough to change her schedulethatmuch. He started leaving coffee to brew for her when he left, and in return got happy sleepy photos of her every morning with her coffee cup. They usually met for lunch, either at Kate's or the brewpub, which was run by a guy named Steve, who was a bear shifter almost as big as Luke himself. One afternoon he ended up helping Steve lift kegs while Sabrina and Steve's mate, Charlee, sat aside and whistled and applauded appreciatively before dissolving into giggles.
The train station was getting back on schedule faster than Luke had imagined, while the investigation proved that whoever had set the accelerant had done so long enough before the fire started that the wood and other building materials were soaked completely through. Noah's part in helping to save not just the station, but Virtue itself came out, and the kid took his new level of celebrity like it was just another part of the day.
"I was not that cool at eleven," Luke told Sabrina, who laughed.
"Me either. His parents must have really level heads on their shoulders, to be raising a kid like that. I wish they could find the arsonist, though. Even with the security team there at night, I still keep worrying."
"It's your project," Luke said, drawing her into his arms. "I'd be concerned if you weren't worried. But it doesn't seem like it's anybody in town. They've interviewed everybody, and therailroad's detractors half a dozen times. Everybody's got alibis or absolutely nothing in their history that suggests violence, or buying the materials to set that fire. Maybe it was just some jackass kid trying to cause trouble on his way through."
"Because Virtue is on everybody's path through upstate New York," Sabrina said wryly.
"It will be once the train is running." He kissed her hair and curled her close. "It'll be all right. Do you need to be on site early tomorrow?"
Sabrina groaned and leaned in. "'Need' is a funny word here. I'm just the architect. Most of my job is done, unless we run into some kind of design flaw that I should have already anticipated and fixed. But the company's approach is hands-on, so I'm meant to be around without micromanaging. Right now I'm afraid all I'm doing is driving Tiffany nuts."
"Are you actually, or are you just afraid you are?"
"Mostly just afraid I am. I hope! She says I'm not." Sabrina tilted her head up to wrinkle her nose at him, as if he needed a reminder of how cute she was. "And I'm trying not to ask every five minutes to avoid havingthatdrive her nuts."
