“What do you mean what?” I growled at him.
“It could be some supernatural force,” he replied, completely serious.
“Ghosts with guns? This is what you’re saying?” I’d forgotten for a moment, when I was thinking that being in bed with him would be amazing, that he truly believed in things I thought were ridiculous.
“No, but a singular entity, an uneasy specter, could be possessing myriad different people to try and hurt me.”
“Ghost possession?” I asked, and the words nearly stuck in my throat. “I thought only demons possessed people.”
“Certain other entities have been known too as well.”
I had to remind myself that he thought we were having a serious conversation.
“Could you focus, please?” he scolded.
“Me?” I asked like he was nuts.
“Once this is done, before you get on your horse and ride off into the sunset, I want a chance with you. Tell me you agree.”
“But once this is fixed, I’m outta here,” I explained, just in case he’d missed the whole “fixer” part of my job description.
“Then I guess I won’t be able to wait, and I’ll have to double my effort to seduce you.”
“No, God… no,” I pleaded with him. With how cuddly he looked, and sexy at the same time, the hooded eyes and how his face lit up when he looked at me, and how comfortable he was in my space, there was already no doubt that I wanted him. If I saw him at a bar, I would make a beeline for him. He was gorgeous, simple as that. Anyone would have wanted to go to bed with him. What was messing with me more was that I wanted to sit and debate with him, and argue, and hold his hand. The passion made sense. The other part, the desire to snuggle in front of the fire, that was new, and that was bugging me. Where in the world was this all coming from? Worse, even, was how was it happening so fast? I didn’t like people. Or more to the point, I didn’t like people so soon after meeting them. It took me a bit to warm up, but with Benji I wasn’t just warm, I was hot and ready.
“Shaw?”
I realized I’d been completely in my own head and tuned out on him. “Sorry. What?”
“Should I not redouble my efforts because you’ll never succumb to my charms, or is it more that you like me too?”
Fuck. “I like you too,” I said flatly. The wicked grin with the eyebrow waggle made me growl.
“Well now, that’s encouraging.”
Turning to face him, my leg on the couch bent in front of me, gave me what I thought was a natural barrier, but he annihilated it when he put both of his hands on my calf. “Listen,” I began gruffly, “I need you to––”
“I won’t tease you,” he murmured, taking a breath, “and I’ll stop flirting, even though it’s going to kill me a little bit.”
“We need to figure out who’s trying to hurt you. That’s our number-one priority.”
“Agreed,” he responded, his fingers digging into my leg. “But so we’re clear, in the meantime, if you decide you want to kiss me, you have my permission.”
“I won’t kiss you because I’m gonna be too busy protecting you,” I promised him.
“Yes, dear,” he assured me, slipping a hand around the side of my neck, and there it was again, that delicious heat from his palm. It struck me then that the warmth wasn’t anything as simple as my physical response to him. It was something more.
“You’re hot,” I declared, upset with myself for missing that he was probably sick.
“What?” he gasped.
“No not––” I growled. “I mean yes, you’re very pretty, but I think,” I muttered, taking his hand in mine and feeling the heat coming off his skin, “you might be running a fever.”
He scoffed. Loudly. Even gave me a raspberry at the end, like perhaps he wasn’t completely in control of what was going on at the moment.
Putting my hand on his forehead, I felt him push against it and wiggle closer, nearly in my lap, smiling like he was drugged.
“Oh, man,” I groaned, because he was burning up. “Where is your thermometer?”
“I have an infrared thermometer. Would that help?”
“No,” I groused at him. “I need a regular human thermometer.”
“Wow.”
“Wow what?”
“Your eyes are gorgeous,” he answered with a long dramatic sigh, gazing at me. “You know Sian has green eyes too, but yours have flecks of gold and brown in them that are just…wow.”
“Uh-huh,” I agreed, easing him gently off me so I could get up and go to the bathroom and hunt for what I needed.
“Your hair is that orangey-red in real life, isn’t it?”
I had no idea what he was babbling about.
“You don’t dye it, do you?”
Dye my hair? Man, he was out of it.
“I have an EMF detector,” he called out. “But that might not help either.”