“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hoping this was the last time I’d have to say that.
He huffed out a laugh. “Stop apologising. I get it.”
“You do?”
“We’re possessive creatures by design. When it comes to things like this, we’re slaves to our base selves.” His nose brushed the side of my neck and I closed my eyes, savouring his touch. “If it was you going out to meet someone else, I’d be exactly the same.”
“Even if you knew it wasn’t real?”
“Even then.” He let go of me, so I turned to face him. His hands automatically cupped my face, and the urge to kiss was so strong it physically hurt not to lean in and cover his mouth with mine.
I had to make do with touching my forehead to his instead. “I’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”
“Naked?”
I laughed, shaking my head. “You like torturing us, don’t you?”
He traced his thumb over my bottom lip, sucking in a breath when I caught hold of it with my teeth. “I distinctly remember a rather happy ending the last time we were naked.”
Heat swept through me at the reminder. Yeah, I could go with a repeat of that. “We’d have to be careful. Clean up straight after.”
Jake grinned as he realised what I was saying. “Yeah? You want to?”
I reached for his hands and held them tight in mine. “I do.” And if I happened to cuddle him before during and after to replace Myla’s scent with mine, so be it. We didn’t have anywhere to be this weekend, except Axel’s—which I hadn’t mentioned to Jake yet, didn’t want to while he was already stressing over this lunch. There’d be plenty of time when he got back.
“You’d better get going. Don’t want to be late.” I let go of his hands and stepped back.
He sighed. “No, I don’t.”
“See you later.” I blew him a kiss and he smiled liked I’d hoped.
“Naked?”
I shrugged. “You’ll have to wait and see.”
His gaze swept over me, so much heat and longing in his eyes, it left goosebumps in its wake. I shivered.
“Later,” he whispered, and then he was gone.
I watched the doorway for way too long. Despite everything we’d just said to each other, I felt his absence like an ache in my chest. I reached up to rub the spot over my heart as my phone chimed with a text. Myla’s name flashed on the screen.
For a second, I wondered if she was messaging to cancel. Then common sense kicked in. If that was the case, she’d text Jake and not me. With more than a little curiosity, I opened the message.
Myla: I got the information you wanted. Xen called my dad at 1:10am that night, well morning. It lasted 2 mins 35 seconds. Hope this helps.
Max: Thank you. I hope it does too.
I stared at her message.
Jake and I had arrived just after 1:55am. I knew that because I’d made a note of the time when we’d pulled up outside the bar. Force of habit. If only we could get our hands on the footage from the surrounding buildings. Thanks to Gabriel, I knew at least two businesses had security cameras that covered part of Stella’s. And they still had the footage from that night.
I just needed probable cause to go to DCI Thornton and request it. The two businesses weren’t paranormal owned, so that meant going through different channels than what we’d have to for Stella’s. And Thornton would need more than what I could offer her at the minute. Which was fuck all.
Hopefully that would change soon. If luck was on our side, Axel’s fae magic would work tomorrow and he’d be able to read John’s mind like he’d read Blake Tehlin’s when he’d had no memory of going through the gateway to collect Blue Alhuirn.
And if he did do it?
No part of me believed John Allen had killed Faris, but if it turned out that he did? Then we’d deal with that too. At least we’d know the truth.
