“You so totally did.” But Drue’s quip seems threaded with new solemnity as she delivers one more parcel to Raegan. The small item, concealed in a plain white paper bag, has Raegan visibly stiffening. Why? “If you need anything else, you know where to shout, right?”
“Yes ma’am,” Raegan murmurs with a strange overtone of affection. At once, I am even more suspicious—but chastise myself for it. I have upended her world, not the other way around.
But I cannot shake my nagging paranoia. The instincts from a brain that I cannot stop now, with threads spun into dark plots and hunches grown into full qualms. Perhaps that makes me no better than Logan, but Raegan does naught to calm me as she takes all the bags into our room’s little kitchen and starts unloading their contents.
“Looks like D found us both a few more shirts. She’s officially pumped a few more dollars into every New York stereotype there is, but we’ll have some clean stuff to wear. No bottoms, though—but since she also found condoms, I think we can figure out a few ways to amuse ourselves after I hand wash those. Yay for drip-dry time, oui?”
“Raegan.” I wait until she stops for longer than half a second, hoping to dam her babbling brook with the firm log of my tone.
“Ohhh. She found Peanut Butter Boulders! With choco-twigs! Buddy, you haven’t lived until you’ve had the sugar rush from this stuff. Best cereal ever.”
“Raegan.”
More logs. But her brook is now a rambling river.
“There’s extra cheesy pasta swirls too. Fortunately, these are cook-in-the-cup, so we can nuke them in the microwave. And hot cocoa for afterward! With rainbow marshmallows!”
“Raegan.”
At last, she jerks to a halt—but not without adding an obvious huff. “Sweet panic at the disco, Desperado. I’m just as hungry as you are, okay? Just wanted to get some of this put away first.”
I step over from my watchful location against the wall, spreading my hand to the counter while leaning fully into her personal space. “Including the small package Drue slipped to you, not intending for me to acknowledge?”
Her whole form goes still. “Sometimes women just have shit they need to handle.” She angles her head, nailing me with the force of her pursed lips and flared gaze. “You know…female concerns. Now come on, let’s eat.”
I push off, letting her think she has triumphed by appealing to my stomach over my sensitivities. But now is a moment in which she could learn from her two-hundred-years-removed duplicate. As soon as I requested—well, decreed—to Magique that she would be my woman exclusively, she informed—well, decreed in return—that I would have to be privy to her female concerns. Ohhh oui, all of them.
But for now, I will let the woman be at ease. A self-woven web is often the easiest to be trapped in.
Very quickly, I learn of some additional advantages to the decision.
Not the least of those is the pleasure, complete and altogether carnal, of watching Raegan Tavish enjoy her food. Not just any food. As she soon demonstrates, soup dumplings, also called bao, are apparently among the most heavenly of foods.
The plump dough pouches contain a savory broth that is rich with chunks of pork and vegetables. But better than eating them myself is the experience of learning how, my eyes unblinking as she bites off the nubby peak and then sucks away at the juicy filling.
“Mon dieu.” The exclamation erupts from me in a choke while she prepares to slurp at her third dough ball.
Her eyes dance at me over the edges of the sticks in which she expertly holds it.
“He’s not going to help fill your belly, Desperado. And I’m definitely not going to finish all these by myself. It’s okay to use your fingers if the chopsticks feel weird.”
I narrow my gaze for a telling look. “And you do enjoy it when I use my fingers.”
She giggles around her new bite. “Indeed, I do.”
“As well as…my other body parts.”
The impish lights in her eyes continue to sparkle, but her reaction does not get close to the looser mien upon which I was counting. I have no opening to pursue the subject of her secret delivery from Drue—and nor does she plan on affording one.
Damn it.
Before I can shift to another approach, Raegan pushes to her feet and turns toward the sink. Not all the way. I can study her profile, even as she bends over to rinse off her plate.
“More for you,” she says with a forced breeze. “Guess I’m not as hungry as I thought.”
I tamp down a smirk. Why was I worried about a new opening? The woman herself has all but served it up with perfect garnishes.
“Is that why you look so tempted to empty your stomach into that basin?”
She whips her head up. “Would you seriously stop? I am perfectly fine.”
“And I am the king of fucking England.”
She pivots around. Her hands brace to the edge of the sink, poised as if to help her lunge forward any second. “Why have you suddenly decided I’m the enemy here?”
I arch one brow. “Because I am concerned about your health, ma chérie?”
“Because you’re watching every move I make.” Her knuckles get even whiter against the counter. “Honestly, what’s with the Bond-level antics now?”
I listen to intuition, holding my reply until another break ticks by. “And honestly…what was in the small parcel that Drue snuck to you?”
“Not a bomb or a gun, if that’s what you’re getting at.” She sniffs when I give her no rise for the quip. “And as I already told you—”
“Oui. I know. Female things.” I push away the food container, clearing room to spread my elbows on the small dining table. “Regrettably, that is not an answer to my satisfaction, Rayonnement. You see, I am the man privileged enough to have enjoyed your female things most recently. And the man who would also be honored to delight in them again. But if, in my passion, I have caused you pain or injury—”
“Unnnhhhh.” Her outburst is small but significant. Her head falls between her shoulders. “Okay, I should’ve known you’d go there. And I’m sorry for calling you out about it.” When she looks back up, her features have softened again. “I really am fine. You have my word. Takes more than some epic love bites and mind-bending orgasms to break me, buddy.”
“I am relieved to hear that.” I rise as well. “But it also takes more than a sweet smile to deter me from my ultimate purpose. You have been tense and conflicted since the moment Drue gave you that white paper package. Was it truly for feminine needs, or is there something troubling that you are keeping to yourself? Are there new developments about Logan and his activities?”
“No!” Her urgency rises in proportion to mine. “I mean that, okay? As soon as I get the latest on that front, you’ll get it too.”
I smooth the air with my hands, assuring her I believe that. But at the same time, I prod, “So what is really going on here? And why is it causing your spirit such contention?” From the moment I observe how hard I have struck her target, I move back around the table to re-approach her. “Your intimate tissues…are they tender or sensitive? Or is it time for your courses? It is naught to be discouraged or embarrassed about. I can certainly be…more creative about things.”