“Hell of a way to keep from being followed,” Gedeon said, flashing her a grin.
The night was warm and humid with few clouds. Ordinarily Meiling loved coming out in the swamp and did so at every opportunity, but she felt the wild setting would only encourage Whisper to rise more often when she wasn’t ready to fully emerge. It was nerve-racking. She had come to believe she didn’t have a leopard, so she had never given the Han Vol Dan of her kind much thought. She wasn’t prepared for the constant state of arousal. The heat of her skin. The burning between her legs. The relentless drive she found so hard to ignore. Now she was nervous around Gedeon, which was silly.
Gedeon stayed very close to Meiling, more protective than she’d ever imagined he could be, but always the same on the outside—that dangerous, stone-faced man others stepped aside for. He needed to stay close to her. She wanted him to, because she was terrified of Whisper rising without Gedeon right there to help her when she needed him the most. Or when Whisper needed Slayer.
Whisper seemed to sleep now that she’d been officially claimed. That didn’t seem to bother either Gedeon or Slayer the way it did Meiling. They seemed to take it in stride that her leopard would just curl up and take a long nap, making everyone wait for her.
“Are you still upset because Whisper isn’t showing herself?” Gedeon asked.
He was driving the boat slowly through the duckweed, maneuvering around a few floating logs, including two that were alligators, not logs.
“Clearly, she’s a drama queen. A little diva,” Meiling said with a hint of disgust.
Gedeon laughed. Meiling couldn’t help but love the sound since it was so rare. Gedeon just didn’t laugh. Never when around others. He kept that sound mostly for her.
She gave him a look from under her lashes. “It isn’t really that funny, Gedeon,” although with him laughing it was. “Slayer’s going to have a little entitled brat on his hands. I don’t even know how she got that way.” Total exasperation.
“Lotus.”
The way he said his chosen nickname for her always sent a shiver of heat down her spine. “Don’t make excuses for her. She drives me right up the wall. I used to be even-tempered. Now I’m totally unpredictable. I don’t know what I’m going to do or say from one minute to the next.”
“I hate to be the one to let you in on reality, baby, but you’ve always been unpredictable.”
Meiling assessed his demeanor. He didn’t look or sound as if he was joking. She tilted her chin at him, daring him to be serious. “I am always the calm, reasonable one in every situation and you’re the powder keg. Look at how you were at the meeting with Guy Hawkins. If I hadn’t been there, you might have killed him.”
“But then he most likely deserves killing. I have amazing judgment in these circumstances. Ordinarily, you’re all about compassion, other than your atrocious temper, which, don’t worry, Lotus, I’m more than willing to overlook.”
His gaze had switched from her face to the water, as the boat chugged very slowly around the “bony knees” that were broken roots of cypress trees left in the shallow water. He took them down a channel that cut between two long strips of land before taking them out to the main flowing river.
Gedeon could make her laugh no matter if he was serious or not. That arrogant assurance of his had always appealed to her from the moment she’d first encountered him.
“Why haven’t you insisted on me moving in with you?” She blurted the question that had been bothering her the most since they’d returned to New Orleans.
Gedeon had made every effort to ensure that all details in their lives were back to normal. They took their walk to the Café Du Monde together in the morning and at night. They worked the three open cases together during the day. He didn’t go to the club at night, but he did send Rene to gather information. That was when she realized how vital the nightclub was to their business. It hadn’t been just a place for him to acquire women. It was also the place where he attained vast amounts of information. The one thing he didn’t do was invite her to his bedroom.
She knew remodeling was going on because the workmen were there continually. She could smell paint. He came to her room at night, but he always asked. Always. He had the ability to get in. He had the code to her suite, but he didn’t use it. He asked if he could come to her room, and she couldn’t help herself—she said yes.
Gedeon would lie on the bed with her just as he had done in his room, talking about nothing and everything. Making her laugh when she was tense. She would find herself relaxing, her fingers massaging his scalp just as she did when they were in his room. Whisper would remain quiet, and they would drift off to sleep together. Slayer seemed satisfied, leaving Gedeon in peace.