When she dared to imagine what it would be like to sit down with the elemental, Elise always pictured it would be in a public place. A secluded corner of Golden Gate Park, perhaps, or on the jagged rip-rap that edged the Bay, where selkies basked and foam bubbled against the shore. Their meetings would be clandestine, but in the neutral territory of a public space.
Never, in all her planning and daydreaming, did she imagine he would follow her home.
When Cal told her he would meet her on the mainland early the next morning, she didn’t know what to expect. Not that she knew what to expect from any of this, of course. After all, who could have imagined the bargain he’d strike?
And what a bargain it was: Cal wanted to know what life was like for regular people, so for the time it took her to write his story, he would live with her, eat with her, and…
Be with her. Whatever that meant.
By the time she stepped off of the ferry and onto the early morning bustle of Fisherman’s Wharf, Elise had a kink in her neck from two nights spent in the sparse conditions of the Aerie and a stomach full of butterflies.
Why exactly had she agreed to his terms? Why did she feel this gnawing, possessive feeling in her gut? What if it turned out he couldn’t stand her and abandoned the deal after a night? Would he appear out of thin air? Would the fog roll in despite the bright, clear February morning, heralding his arrival?
The answer, at least to the last question, was no.
Elise adjusted her baseball cap to fight the glare of the sun bouncing off of the slate gray water. Maneuvering her way around throngs of tourists oo-ing and ah-ing over the old decommissioned warship the EVP Shadowbreaker docked by an overpriced seafood shack selling lobster rolls, she peeked over her shoulder at the lapping waves. He said he would meet her on the dock, but—
A hand closed over hers. The fingers were cool and smooth, the grip firm but not aggressive. Elise jumped, her head swiveling to her right.
It took her a moment to recognize him. Cal stood in the shadow between two salt crusted buildings. His face was unmistakable, but dressed in dark jeans and long-sleeved black shirt, he could have blended in with any crowd in the city. Only his long silvery hair and black eyes might have drawn scrutiny.
“Oh,” she breathed, letting him slowly reel her into his shadowed alcove. Her legs felt curiously unsteady. That possessive feeling grew with a lurch, digging into her with a ruthlessness that took her breath away. Her magic fizzed in her veins. This one is mine, it seemed to whisper. Don’t let him go.
Swallowing hard, she choked out, “You look…”
Cal quirked a brow and waited for her to finish her sentence, but Elise didn’t have the right words to do so. Not any ones that were appropriate, at least. He looked good. Not in the devastating, force of nature way he looked when he melted, buck naked, out of the fog, but in the ‘I could be in entertainment feeds or the face of a perfume house if I wanted’ kind of way.
Elise cleared her throat and tried again. She could feel her signature vivid blush already rising to her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t expect you to wear clothes.”
Embarrassment made her cheeks flush an even deeper, darker red almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Gods, why did I just say that?
“Nudity draws attention.” Cal’s lips thinned as he glanced at the tourists shuffling across the dock. If he noticed her embarrassment, he didn’t seem to care. “I don’t like attention, so I’ve learned to stash clothing in places I can easily access.”
“Right. Makes sense,” she replied, vividly recalling all the beautiful, almost opalescent skin she’d been lucky enough to see. Of course it would draw attention. Any person with a functioning brain stem would notice Cal, naked or not. Close behind the memory of all that beautiful, naked skin came their kiss, which she still felt all the way to her toes.
Seeing him there in the shadow of the alley, feeling his hand holding hers, she got a dizzying sense of vertigo. Was she really doing this? Trading her companionship for a story? Was she really taking the fog home with her? What would her father say if he knew?
As a father, he wouldn’t like it. As a journalist… Well, Bob Sasini had done a number of unscrupulous things in his lifetime to get the scoop. Surely playing house with a man for a few months wasn’t worse than going undercover as a feyrunner, or becoming a temporary anchor for a crooked vampire clan.
Right?
At any rate, she knew what she was doing. And even if she didn’t, Elise wasn’t certain she could just let Cal waltz back out of her life and into the fog, never to be seen again. Their meeting had altered something fundamental in her, though she still couldn’t — or wouldn’t — figure out what it was.
Cal’s gaze slid over her flustered expression. Brow crinkling, he asked, “Is the clothing wrong? My friend chose them for me. I assumed he knew what he was doing.” He frowned down at his shirt. “I did not consider the fact that he might have played a prank on me. He does that sometimes.”
“No, no, you look great!” Elise waved a hand in front of her face. “I was just surprised, that’s all. Your friend did a good job.” Hoping to steer the conversation in a less embarrassing direction, she asked, “Do you have a lot of friends?”
Cal’s expression gave nothing away. “No. Just one.”
Elise didn’t do what she did for a living and not know when someone didn’t want to talk, so she let the subject drop. She made a mental note to follow up on the conversation later. “Right, well, if we want to beat the early lunch rush downtown, we should probably head to my place.”
He cocked his head to one side. She watched, fascinated, as his hair flowed in the opposite direction — as if it moved with a will of its own. Was it an elemental thing, or something particular to him? “How will we get there?”
“I was going to take the m-lev. Why? How do you get around the city?”
Cal lifted a hand and flicked a finger in a dismissive gesture that was not quite wave and not quite wiggle, but some strange combination of both. “I don’t need transportation.”
Elise leaned forward, her interest piqued. The sounds of chatter and a busker playing kettle drums faded into nothing as she pinned her entire focus on the elemental. “How do you travel? Do you have some sort of m-gate ability?”