“She’ll be here well before any of our staff get here.”
“Then yes, we can head over now. But I’d suggest putting pants on first.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Not so long ago you were all for me getting my legs out.”
“Oh, I still am.” His tone was somewhat droll. “But the wolf in me has no desire to share the lusciousness that is your bare butt. Not when I’ve had little more than teasing glimpses.”
I grinned. “Glimpses are all you’re likely to get given our current track record.”
“Believe me, I’m painfully aware of that.” A mischievous gleam appeared in his eyes. “But I could come up and help you dress.”
“And here I was thinking you’d prefer to undress me.”
“To do one, you must first do the other. More than happy to help with that.”
“Sadly for you, Belle and I have this rule about bringing lovers home. As in, we don’t do it when the other is likely to arrive home at any moment.”
“I’m destined to be a monk forever.”
His woebegone expression was somewhat spoiled by that gleam, and I laughed. “Does that mean if we ever do manage to have sex, I’m to expect nothing more than a short, sharp explosion?”
He raised an eyebrow. “I do have a little more finesse than that.”
“Well, if it’s been over a year—”
“If rumors are true, it’s been longer than that for you.”
And those rumors would be right. “Seriously, has this reservation got nothing else to do but talk about other people’s sex lives?”
“Apparently not. Go get ready. I shall help myself to another coffee and mourn the continuation of my monk status.”
I grinned, then spun around and headed up the stairs, aware all the while of his gaze following me; if the groan that chased me up the stairs was any indication, he was both enjoying and additionally frustrated by the flashes of bare butt.
I quickly swapped the oversized sweater f
or more figure-hugging jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt that had a deep enough V-cut to show the swell of my breasts—I certainly wasn’t above showing off what the man would be missing out on if we got kicked out. After slipping on my boots, I grabbed my purse and headed back downstairs.
“Shame about the lack of legs on display,” he murmured, delight etched across his features. “But I’m liking the fit of that top.”
I grinned. “I gathered that by the swirl of appreciation and desire in your aura.”
His eyebrows rose. “You can see desire?”
“I can see auras, and if the emotion is strong enough, it’ll certainly appear in the aura.”
“So the world is a rainbow of color to you?”
I smiled. “No, because I mostly have the ability switched off. It’s only when the emotion is very strong that it slips past my guard.”
“Ah.” He rose and pressed a hand against my spine, lightly guiding me toward the door. “Does that mean you were well aware of my hatred for witches the minute you set eyes on me?”
“It was more your grief I saw,” I said. “Your aura was almost black with it.”
“And now?”
“The grief is still there, but it’s not dominating.”
“I have you to thank for that,” he said softly. “You made me confront it; made me see that what I was doing wasn’t healthy.”