Stepping into the hallway, away from all those keen ears, she pulled out her cell. It had been on silent all day, and she held out a secret hope that his name would flash on the screen. A missed call or even a text. But there was nothing. Taking a deep breath, she dialed his cell and waited.
This is Inspector Paul Keenan. I’m unavailable at the moment, but your call is important to me. Please leave your number…
Was she listening to the voice of a dead man? The thought made her shudder, and she stuffed her phone away. She crouched with her back to the wall and put her hands to her cheeks. It was time to come to grips with the fact that she was excitable. This wouldn’t be the first time she’d whipped herself up over nothing.
Any number of things could have kept him away, and none of them would find him bundled into the bowels of the Sanguine Sea. Still, she couldn’t help herself. Friends were a rare commodity in Aurora’s life, and she couldn’t help fearing she’d lost one.
It’s okay, she told herself. Everything is going to be okay.
So why didn’t it feel that way?
Twenty
In true fashion, Hollow House had dimmed and cozied up around them. Where doors usually hung, red velvet curtains deepened the sense of opulence. Sconces were replaced with burning tapers, and even the faint trickle of a fountain called out to them from somewhere deep in the house.
This place is laying the romance on thick.
Not that Aurora minded.
The tongue-in-cheek splendor to all of it was irresistible. It made their leisurely evening just a wee bit more fun. Not that she needed a nudge to have fun with this werewolf who pursued her with cautious steps. He was working overtime to embody the picture of composure.
Except for his newfound habit of trying out different pet names and peppering them into his conversation. Eventually, one was bound to stick, but the exercise of it was playful and disarming. When he’d ventured upon “Pookie,” Aurora had reeled off a cackle unlike any that she could remember. She laughed so hard she’d nearly spilled her wine.
At last, she’d truly begun to settle into his company. It didn’t hurt matters any that he had stepped back a bit from his full-court-press brand of wooing. No doubt, if it had been up to him, they would have been screaming through the night on a motorcycle or something. What they settled on was far more her speed.
Time cuddled with Dane on the sofa was doing the right amount of work to dispel the clouds hanging in her mind. He was good that way. As gentle as he was with her, an undeniable wildness about him made her question exactly how he got to be a judge in the first place.
“I mean, I thought members of the National Ruling Council were supposed to be level-headed.”
“Are you saying I’m not?” He grinned at her, obviously taking wicked glee in catching her out.
Instead of backing down, she rose to the bait. “You know what? Yeah! That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Oh, wow!” He tipped back his head and let out a throaty bellow of laughter. She admired the lines of his neck as he did. “You’re something else, Rory. You know that?”
“Uh, no,” she said with a good-natured wince.
“What?”
“Rory. Ugh. My mother calls me that and it always makes me feel like I’m six.”
“Noted,” he said, raising his hands in mock surrender. “The bridge too far.”
“It sure turned out to be. Not that I’d ever say that to my mother. You know something terrible? I made the mistake of telling one of the other juniors about it and now they do it all the time.”
“They do?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s a pretty nasty place most of the time. I was fool enough to hand them the ammunition. They can be pretty rough on each other, but it feels like they go out of their way to get under my skin.”
“Nasty little pricks. Want me to go beat them up?”
He was smiling, but she could never quite tell if he meant that kind of thing or not.
“I’d rather you stayed here with me.” The words caught on the ends of her lips.
“You know what? Me too.”
Missing the deeper implication behind her words, he reached over and picked up the bottle of wine from the coffee table. Breezily leaning over and refilling her glass, he barely seemed to notice that she was silently fretting. Only when he was filling his own did he appear to register she had gone quiet. “Everything all right?”
“Yeah, it’s just… Nothing.”
“Oh, really?” He laughed again, putting the bottle back. Her legs were over his lap, and he shook her by an ankle. “It’s never nothing with a busy mind like yours. Tell me. So long as it isn’t work,” he pointed a playful warning finger at her.
“No, not work.” Taking another sip, she edged her way into the thing that had been underpinning so much of their time together. “I’ve been wondering... when are you going back to Florida?”
The question seemed to hit him square between the eyes, and he shook his head. “What do you mean?”
“Now that the trial has been scrapped, aren’t you going back home?”
“Why would I?” He put his glass down and took her hand in his. “Aurora, I’m not going anywhere without you. So until you make up your mind, I’m staying right here in Othercross. And if that’s forever, then I’ll be happy.” He leaned in to emphasize the point with his eyes. “I would never willingly leave you.”
She dropped her head sideways onto the cushions and gazed at him. It was the perfect answer, and it melted a bit of the shield she kept around her heart.
He’s perfect.
Dane clearly wasn’t a patient man, but he was learning what it meant to wait. She was teaching him. Not only that, but she was learning a lot herself. He was showing her how easy it could be to fall and fall quite hard. More than anything, she knew she could trust him. And in a world where trust was something she’d come to guard like gold, that was a powerful realization.
“You really mean that. Don’t you?”
“With everything I’ve got, dear one.” He squeezed her palms. “If you want, I’ll even pinky swear.”
“You wouldn’t,” she cried in pretend shock.
“Try me.”
She held up a pinky and he linked his through it.
“Aurora Rhonelle, I’m not going anywhere. Pinky swear.”
They kissed their thumbs to bind the pact and dropped their hands on top of her lap, still loosely holding each other by the little finger.
“I’m worried.”
“Already?” he asked in surprise. “That didn’t take long. What about this time?”
“Paul Keenan.”
At the mention of her boss’s name, Dane almost choked on a mouthful of wine.
“Really? If you’re worried about him, you’re the only one.”
“I’m serious. He didn’t come into the office today.”
“So?”
“So? He promised to promote me, Dane.” She’d been saving the good news until it was final, but she had to tell him to get across the gravity of things.
“He did? Aurora, that’s fantastic!”