She had never seen a pure spread before, just as she had never seen a royal flush in poker. Today seemed to be a day of rare firsts. Normally she would have contemplated the spread and let her mind roam free to let the whisper of Power in the cards tell her what they would. While she had told Gideon the truth and she didn’t have much Power, the cards sometimes had a mind of their own.
But she couldn’t handle the implications of this kind of reading tonight. Her mind felt bruised and dull, incapable of hearing the still, small voice in the cards. If they had anything to say to her, it was going to have to wait. She scooped up the deck, tucked it away in the silk-lined box, and pushed to her feet with the slow, awkward movements of the emotionally and physically exhausted.
Gideon had moved to the kitchen. She could hear him pacing and talking. He had frightened her so much just hours earlier. How had his huge, energetic presence become such a comfort so quickly? She knew if he wasn’t already planning to spend the night, she would ask him to stay.
She went to the living room and lay down on the couch. She curled on her side to watch the gas flames and listen to the sound of his deep, gravelly voice.
Death and death and death. Death in the past, Peter and David. Death in the present, Haley. Death as the overriding force in her life, and death in her future. She had a killer on her side, and the Hunter as her challenge. She closed her eyes. She wanted so very much to turn her mind off.
She had the sense of something massive looming over her. She opened her eyes. Gideon bent over her. His hard face was softened into an expression of such kindness that her eyes watered. He stroked a curl at her temple. “What can I do for you?”
“Nothing, thanks. I’m just tired,” she told him. She pushed to a sitting position.
“And sad. I would like to see you happy, someday soon.” He cupped her cheek with long calloused fingers. “It’s almost one o’clock, and we’re done. Do you think you could sleep?”
She nodded. “I’ll get you some things, some bedding—”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said. The tough line of his sexy mouth pulled into a smile. “I have a toiletry kit in the Jeep that I’m going to get and then, if you don’t mind, I thought I might let my wolf out. He has a hankering to snooze by your fire if you’ll let him.”
She had no idea where her barriers had gone. They had simply vanished like morning mist. She put a hand over his and let her feelings show in her gaze. “I’d love to meet your wolf. I’m so sorry that we met the way we did, but I’m very glad we did.”
“That’s good to hear, sweetheart,” he said. He bent forward that little bit further and put his mouth over hers. It was a warm, tender, chaste kiss, and so utterly perfect for who and where she was at that moment.
She gave herself another gift: she leaned forward and kissed him back, touching his lean cheek with light, tentative fingers, and let herself trust in him.
He pulled back and growled softly, “Okay, Alice, fair warning. That’s as good as I’m ever going to get. You should know, most of the time I’m actually a bit of a shit.”
She shocked herself by bursting out laughing.
He gave her a lopsided grin. “Go get ready for bed,” he told her. “I’m going to get my kit. I’ll be right back.”
She watched him walk to the door. When he unlocked it and made as if to walk out just in his t-shirt, she asked, “Aren’t you going to put on your coat?” The temperature outside had to be subzero by now.
The glance he shot at her was icy pale but burning hot. “I could use a blast of cold air right now.”
Her breath shuddered in her throat.
Me, she thought. He means because of me.
He pulled open the door. As he went out a sword-like thrust of wind screamed into the apartment. She shot off the couch and retreated to the relative warmth and privacy of her bathroom.
After inspecting her hollow-eyed face in the bathroom mirror, she brushed her teeth and took a quick five-minute shower to wash away the grime of the city. Her lemon-yellow, thigh-length nightgown and dark blue robe hung from a hook on the bathroom door. She slipped them on and walked out of the bathroom.
Fifteen feet away in the living room, a white-blond wolf lay facing the bathroom door with his head on his paws.
She lost her breath.
He was enormous, easily twice the size of a mundane wolf, heavily muscled across the chest and rib cage with long, strong, powerful-looking legs. His eyes were the same icy pale blue as they were when he was in his human form. As she stared at the wolf, his tail waved gently. Despite his ferocious appearance and intimidating size, somehow he managed to seem diffident.
Gideon said in her head, I thought it might be a good idea for you to meet the wolf this way before you went to bed. I don’t want to scare you if you get up in the middle of the night. I don’t have to stay this way if it’s not all right.
All right? He was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, and the most dangerous. She fell to her knees and held out a hand. “You’re gorgeous,” she told the wolf. “You couldn’t be more perfect.”