missed him in all sorts of ways.
He made a small noise, one that told me he was listening to my emotions with his empathic knack. Until I met him, I paid little attention to my own feelings. But he did. He often pointed out nuances Iâd never considered . . . like arousal. He said that my accompanying emotions sounded like a song going up an octave, and he could identify it even when I was ogling him from several feet away.
âDare wants to see us,â he said.
âUs,â I repeated languidly. My wandering hand stilled. âWait, us ?â
âAbout those missing kids.â
âHuh?â I tried my damnedest to process this information. What in the world did we have to do with two missing kids in La Sirena?
âTomorrow afternoon. Wants some favor from you. Probably magick. He wanted us to come today, but I told him youwere working a shift later.â His eyes flicked to Mr. Piggy curled up by my feet. He scooped up the sleeping hedgie, toted him across the room, and set him down inside his open suitcase.
âYou couldâve called. And if the meetingâs tomorrow, then why did you leave the shoot early?â
In answer, he returned to the bed and lay down on top of me over the covers. The box spring groaned with his added weight, dipping lower when he shimmied to wedge his thighs between mine. He immediately kissed me several times in quick succession before I could protest.
âDo I have disgusting morning breath?â I asked after the assault, slightly breathless, but unable to stop smiling. Damp locks of wavy hair fell around his face. I tucked it behind his ears.
âNo worse than your evening breath.â As I laughed, he slipped his arms around me, gathering me close to bury his face in my neck. âGod, I missed you,â he murmured near my ear in a voice that was alluringly deep.
Tiny jolts of happiness surged through me. His warm weight resting on me felt so good. He was startlingly firm between my legs, even through the heavy quilt between us. His beautiful halo swirled in my vision, forest-green flecked with bits of golden light. When he held me close like that, our halos mingled around the edges. I wrapped my arm around his broad shoulders, holding up my hand in the middle of the cloudy haze. Gold, silver, and green lazily curled around my fingers like smoke.
âYou kinda look like a sexy Jesus,â I whispered, running a slow hand down his back.
âWould you like to reenact the Gospels?â His mustache tickled the sensitive skin behind my ear. âYou could be Magdalene and wash my feet with your hair.â
â Pfft . You could wash mine instead.â
âOr you could pretend to be paralytic. Iâll heal you.â
âWith what? Your cock?â
He pulled back to look at me, slitted green eyes shining as he grinned. âThe night before I left for Mexico, you said it was a gift from God.â
That coaxed a laugh out of me. âHmm . . . this does sound better than Nurse and Doctor.â
âHow thin are the walls here?â
I sighed. âPaper.â
âYour Silence spell?â he asked with hope.
He referred to a handy sigil that, when charged, would create a field of white noise a few feet around a door. It was too small to help here, and not worth the trouble to set up several in a perimeter along the wall. Iâd be so tired by the time I finished, Iâd be too nauseous to do anything else. I shook my head no.
âDamn. I was looking forward to hearing you wail.â
My jaw dropped indignantly. âWail?â
âMmm-hmm. Like a cat giving birth.â
I squeezed one eye shut, considering. âWow . . . thatâs what I call romantic. I guess I should thank you for choosing cat over hippopotamus or some other sort of extra-degrading analogy.â
âYouâre welcome.â
âIs that why you came home early?â
âMaybe.â
It totally was. I grinned up at him.
Melinda Tankard Reist, Abigail Bray