He sank into her mouth, sliding his tongue over her juicy bottom lip and then inside, tasting the sweetness of her, the spice of her magick as it rose against him, twining around his.

Loam and fur, sun-dappled leaves and the lap of a lake against the shore filled him. Her magick, snowflakes and pomegranate slid around it. They were opposites and yet complementary.

Something clicked in him. An utter surety that he’d felt rarely enough that he trusted it to his toes.

He took her hand, squeezing it as he pulled away.

She nipped his bottom lip and he was back for more, deepening, his tongue dancing with hers. The sounds of the night all around them began to filter through the heat of their kiss. Of traffic on the street, voices just inside the house, the merrily running water just a few feet away.

When he broke the kiss, it was only because he knew there would be more.

Laughter sounded from inside and she smiled. “Let’s go in.”

He stood and she took his outstretched hand, letting him pull her up.

Chapter 7

“SO, you want to talk about anything?” Molly tried to hide her smile when she sidled up to Helena as they both filled their plates at breakfast.

“You scare me. It’s so early and you’re so perky. I do, however, covet that blouse.”

Molly preened a little. “It’s so nice to be around someone else who loves clothes as much as I do. Also? Fifty percent off. Sale rack. It was missing a button, but I can sew enough for that.”

“Nice score. The color is good on you.” It was true, Molly’s coloring worked well with the deep blue of the silk.

“Thanks. One of these days I’m going to take you shopping with me so you can show me all the places I can find clothes with enough pockets to hide weapons.”

Helena laughed. “You have Gage. You don’t need to hide weapons.”

“He does come in handy.” Molly blushed. “I have no idea how you manage to look like you’ve walked out of an ad for designer clothes when I know you’ve got guns and knives on your person, and you’ll still be able to run and kick people in the face.”

They moved to the table and sipped coffee.

“It’s a gift.” Helena winked. “It is hard to find pants cut right for ease of face-kicking though. The thing is, magick is easier to use, I don’t need special clothes for it and it’s free. Unfortunately, when I’m doing four things at once, a nice face kick clears the decks for me to do other things and not run my power down. Plus? It’s really satisfying to kick a jackwagon in the face.”

“What’s going on between you and Faine? I’m sorry for my bluntness.” Molly’s laugh told Helena she was no such thing. “He’s going to be lumbering down here with Gage any minute and I want to hear all the details.”

Helena hoped she wasn’t blushing. “Nothing really. I mean.” She looked toward the door and, finding the hallway empty, she leaned closer to Molly and kept her voice down. “He kissed me. A few times now. I like him. He’s ridiculously easy to look at, he’s got fists the size of giant hams, his butt is spectacular and he doesn’t try to do my job or treat me like a fragile flower. But, it’s just a kiss or three. We don’t have a lot of time to make it anything else, and that’s okay because he kisses pretty damned well.”

“I figured Tosh would make a move.”

“You’re the second person who’s said that to me lately. He is a lovely man, handsome, powerful, he knows how to wear a suit and I bet he knows his way around a lady’s business. But it’s not me he’s into. It’s Delilah. He gets a dreamy look on his face when he’s looking at her and thinks no one notices. Hello. My job to notice things.” Tosh really was cute, the way he crushed on Delilah.

“He’s always looking at your boobs. I just figured . . .”

Helena barked a laugh. “He’s a dude, Molly. Plus, if I do say so myself, I have great boobs. But when Delilah talks he watches her mouth. He likes to touch her a lot and he finds any excuse he can to seek her opinion and to sit next to her. Boobs are one thing—he looks at yours too, though he’s at least pretty wily and I figured no one noticed. But when a dude can’t stop looking at a woman’s mouth that’s a whole different level of interest.”

Molly’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Oh my goddess, you’re totally right! I’ve noted that he seems to listen to her well and now that you mention it, he does look at her mouth. Ha! I’m going to rub Gage’s face in this so much!”

Helena laughed as she ate her bacon. “He used to get that line between his brows every time you and Tosh would talk. And then he’d be all, ‘Oh, we’re just casual, it’s not a big deal’ about you.”

Molly rolled her eyes. “Lucky for him he’s gotten past that point now.”

“He is lucky. You’re a good catch. You smooth him out when he gets ragged.”

“Thank you. He’s . . . well, I never expected him.”

Helena figured that’s how it always worked. “It’s always the ones you do expect who fuck you over. You have your list—and I know you did, because we’re alike that way—so you get the guy who is 9 of 10 on that list and you feel so accomplished. And he turns out to be wrong for you in every way.”

“You lucked out. I mean, I don’t know the whole story. But the broken engagement.”

Helena liked Molly a great deal. They were alike in temperament, which helped just then when she decided to share.

“He hit on my sister. He was a fool and so was I for never seeing it. He was so perfect on the outside. He had a great job. He drove a great car. He was handsome, but not too handsome. His family was a great family. He stood up when my mother came into a room. My judgment is flawed, clearly, because I didn’t see past any of it to who he really was.”

Molly waved that away. “You were what? Twenty?”

“Twenty-three. I’d known him for years.” He’d made her feel pretty.

“We all make mistakes. I’m sure Lark made him sorry he hit on her, and you did the right thing by breaking up right away.”

“I’m assuming you heard the whole story.”

“No, I mean, I knew he hit on Lark and she told you and you broke things off and things were tense between you two for a while. But that’s really it.”

“Things weren’t tense because I blamed her. I would never, ever have believed she’d betray me like that. He was mistaken in any attempt to claim that. I should thank him though because once he tried that it made it even easier to cart him to the curb and leave him there. He was a dick. Is a dick. I doubt he’s changed.” She chewed her bottom lip.

“You don’t have to say more. But if you want to, I’m here. I like you, Helena. I consider you a friend and I’d like you to confide in me, but I understand it’s hard.”

“My judgment is bad. That’s really it. Later, once he was gone and I looked back, I could see it all so clearly. All the stuff he did that was crappy. But I missed it during the relationship. Or maybe I ignored it. Either way?” Helena shrugged. “It was pretty obvious. I didn’t care that he looked at other women. He’s a dude, they all do. Most of them just do it well enough that we don’t notice too much.”

“That’s respect.”

“Exactly. I look too, for heaven’s sake. But my sister. My. Sister. Lark never in a million years would do that to me. No matter what. I never doubted that. It just, it sucked that he’d try to betray me in any sense, but with the person I was closest to in the world. Hell, maybe I was jealous that he preferred her to me.”

Molly sniffed. “He did it to hurt you. He chose her because it would hurt you if you found out. Yes, Lark is lovely and I quite enjoy her. But he didn’t hit on her because he preferred her; he hit on her because he could, because he liked the thrill of the potential to get caught. And, I’d wager, he figured that even if she turned him down she’d never tell because Lark didn’t want to hurt you.”