“Nothing’s that simple.”
“I love you, absolutely. Nothing’s simple about it, but it’s complete. You never kissed me good-bye this morning.” He leaned down, brushed his lips over hers.
She couldn’t help it, the love simply welled up. “Bye,” she murmured, and made him smile.
He brushed her lips again, warm and sweet. “Hello. I’ll wager you haven’t had any dinner.”
“I’m spinning my wheels on this investigation. Haven’t thought much about food.”
“Think about it now.” He took her hand, linked their fingers, and used the other to scratch the cat when Galahad bumped his head against Roarke’s arm. “You’re looking tired, Lieutenant, and hollow-eyed the way you do when you haven’t eaten or gotten enough sleep. I’ll punch in burgers, that usually tempts you. And you can tell me about the case.”
He didn’t want to discuss the morning, she thought, or his meeting with Magdelana. He was nudging it all aside, very smoothly. But it had to be discussed. Had to be front and center.
“She came to my office.”
Nothing changed on his face, not by the smallest flicker. It was hardly a wonder he was lethal in business negotiations.
“Magdelana?”
“No, the Queen of the May.”
“A bit early for her. Does she work anything like the February groundhog?”
“Gee, that’s funny. But to get back to the topic. She came to see me at the end of shift. Thought we could have a nice, chatty drink, be pals. Guess what my answer was?”
He pushed off the desk. “I’m sorry if it upset you,” he said as he moved to a wall panel, opened it to take out a bottle of brandy. “She’s outgoing, impulsive. I imagine she was curious about you.”
“Is that what you imagine?” She felt the anger warring with something inside her, something she recognized as acute distress. “Even after you told her she wouldn’t like me.”
He glanced at Eve, poured the brandy, replaced the bottle. “No more than you would her. Very likely she intended to make the gesture and prove me wrong.”
Blind spot, Summerset had told her. “I think that was pretty low on her list of intentions. You’re going to work with her?”
This time irritation escaped control just long enough to show. “I’m not, no.”
“Then she’s a liar?”
“If she said I was, she misspoke, or you misconstrued.”
“I misconstrued?”
“Christ Jesus.” He knocked back some brandy. “You’re trying to box me into a corner here, and there’s none to be had. We had a perfectly innocent lunch, at which time she asked for my help with some investments she wants to make. I agreed to give her some direction, and some names of people she might work with. It’s nothing I haven’t done for other people countless times before.”
“She’s not other people.”
“Bollocks to this.” And there was the temper, rich and ripe. “Did you expect I would say, ‘Sorry, can’t give you the names of a few money people as my wife doesn’t like the fact we shagged a dozen bloody years ago?’ This isn’t like you, Eve.”
“I can’t say, as I haven’t been in this position before.”
“What position, exactly?”
“Having a woman you have feelings for thrown in my face. Knowing she meant for me to feel exactly that.”
“As I’m not a bleeding droid I’ve had feelings for other women before I met you, and you’ve run into a few of them. As for Magdelana, why would she want to antagonize you?” he demanded. “She’d have nothing to gain. You’re overreacting, and making a situation out of something that happened years before I knew you existed. Do you need reassurance from me? Promises, pledges? After all we’ve come to be to each other?”
“How is it she’s made all the moves, and I’m in the wrong here? You don’t see her.”
“I see you. I see my wife twisting herself into a jealous knot over something long past.”