“Jealous?” He lips brushed my neck as he asked, sending a shiver down my spine.
“Please tel me you have clothes on.” I knew he didn’t have a shirt—my halter top left enough of my back bare that his skin against mine was obvious.
“Mmm-hmm,” he said, the sound vibrating over my skin.
His embrace was deliciously warm—not blisteringly hot, but a wonderful, content-making warm that made my body tingle with his nearness. It was also completely unacceptable. What is wrong with you, Alex? This morning Death left your skin singing with a ghost of a kiss, and now you’re going all melty because of Falin? I seriously needed to get my head examined. Logic demanded that I couldn’t desire two men at once, right? But I could. Oh, it left me confused, but it didn’t drown the desire. An assassin and a soul collector—how screwed up is that?
I tried to shrug away from Falin, and the movement brought my elbow in contact with his side. He sucked in a breath and I winced on his behalf. Half spinning as I stepped out of his arms, I rounded on him.
“I’m sor—” I caught the apology in time. “Are you okay?
Did I reopen it?”
“It’s fine.” He straightened as if his posture could prove his health.
He could say he was fine al day, but I couldn’t see that he was fine. Wel , actual y, his glamour made his smooth chest look perfect, but obviously it wasn’t.
“Drop your glamour so I can see that wound.”
He grunted in response, turning away from me, and I grabbed his arm to stal him.
“Falin?” I said his name the same way I’d normal y say
“please” but with none of the debt incursion.
“please” but with none of the debt incursion.
He turned, emotions warring for his expression.
Obstinate resistance flashed across his face with a quick thinning of his lips and narrowing of his eyes and then gave way to something softer, but by the time he stepped forward that had faded and a smile I could only describe as sly curled his lips.
He reached out, cupped my face with both of his large hands, and leaned forward. “If you’re that concerned, you can kiss me and make it better.”
“No.”
The smile spread wider, as if that was exactly the response he’d expected. “You’l change your mind,” he said, and then turned, and with the way he said it, I half expected him to ruffle my hair or tweak my nose as he sauntered away.
I shook my head, not sure if I should laugh or throw something at him.
Either way, I stil wanted to get a look at that wound.
“Falin,” I said again, but this time it was just his name, meant to cal his attention. As soon as he turned, I cracked my shields. My grave-sight snapped into focus. I dropped my shields so I could see through his glamour, and as I stepped forward to study the wound, I realized that this once the decay benefited me because I could see bits of the gash through the rotted gauze—I just had to be careful not to touch it. I didn’t want his dressing ending up like my poor porch. I caught sight of only smal sections of the wound, which were dark against the shimmer of his soul under his skin, but I could see enough to reassure myself that I hadn’t reopened the wound with my careless elbow. I also saw enough to be amazed at how much he’d healed since this morning.
Falin frowned at me when his gaze landed on my glowing eyes. “I told you I was fine,” he said, turning his back on me and heading to his dresser. After pul ing a shirt out of the top drawer and shrugging into it, he commenced shoving top drawer and shrugging into it, he commenced shoving clothes into the duffel bag. “Try not to make anything in my apartment decay. I’d like to get the security deposit back when I leave.”
“Right.” I slammed my shields in place and my vision returned to normal—or at least to the shadowed landscape that passed as normal. I stepped closer to see exactly how much Falin was packing, and he knelt to pul a false floor out of his bottom drawer.
Another pandora-trap charm locked the safe in the bottom of the drawer. He reached out with one hand, and then paused, glancing up at me. “What, do you want to do it?”I backed away, holding my palms up flat in front of my body. The charm on the safe had been created by the same person who cast the charm on the box, so it had the same flaws. Falin hadn’t been pissed when I cracked his first pandora-trap, so I assumed that wasn’t the issue now.
Note to self: He doesn’t like me breaking his glamour. Of course, if our roles were reversed and someone could wil y-nil y look at anything I tried to hide, I guess I’d be peeved too.
He unlocked the safe and pul ed out three guns and several magazines, as wel as his FIB badge, an extra harness, and an extra pair of knives. Some of these disappeared to various concealed locations under his clothes and the rest went in his duffel bag.
I blinked at the haul. “Are you planning to go to war? Sure you don’t want to pack an assault rifle as wel ?”