Darkness Unbound (Dark Angels 1)

He laughed again, and this time I did sigh. “Do you want help tracking down the number?” he asked. “I’m sure I could dig up a nefarious friend or two.”

“The boring investment adviser has nefarious friends?”

“No, but this incarnation of me has only been around for the last eight or nine years. I was something far less savory before this.”

I opened an eye and peered at him. “Like what?”

A grin teased his lips and crinkled the corners of his bright eyes. “A politician.”

“No!” I stared at him for a minute. “Seriously?”

He nodded. “Of course, having to kiss babies got old really quickly. So I lost the election and retired gracefully from the scene.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It’s true.” He looked at me, eyes wide. “Google news reports for the Shire of Merredan. You’ll find several mentions of me.”

“And why would you be mentioned?”

“Because there was a severe lack of lovely half-Aedh up there, which meant I had no choice but to assuage my more earthy needs with local lasses.”

Lasses, plural. I smiled. “Just how many lasses are we talking about?”

“More than two. Less than ten.”

I laughed. It hurt my head, but I didn’t really care. “So that’s what lost you the election.”

“It wasn’t so much my lascivious tendencies, but rather the fact they included several married women.” He slowed the car and pulled into a parking spot, and I realized with surprise we’d arrived at my warehouse. He looked up at it for several seconds, then said, “It’s a lovely old building.”

“It’s lovely inside, but no one with any taste in architecture would call the outside lovely.” I undid my seat belt, then leaned across and dropped a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you for an interesting afternoon.”

He smiled and ran his thumb down the side of my cheek. “My pleasure. In more ways than one.” His lips met mine, the kiss brief and yet intense. “Until midnight tomorrow.”

“Until then,” I said, and forced myself out of the car.

He left with a squeal of tires, the rumble of the big engine shaking the windows in the houses opposite. I smiled and headed up the stairs, typing in the key code, then peering into the scanner. The door clicked open, and Ilianna said from the kitchen, “About time!”

“Sorry,” I said, dumping my handbag on the couch, then making my way toward the bathroom. “And you were wrong about us being followed. They haven’t given up.”

Her head appeared around the kitchen doorway. “You all right?” Her gaze swept me, and she frowned. “God, you look like shit. Did they attack you?”

“No.” Quite the opposite. I waved a hand—the same hand that had been in that man’s chest. “I’m fine. I just need a shower.”

“Grab one, but fast. I need you to plate up the desserts ASAP. Everything else is ready to go.”

“Be there soon.”

I stripped off the remnants of my clothes and tossed them in the trash rather than the laundry chute, simply because there wasn’t enough left to wash. It took a good twenty minutes to get rid of the fibers stuck to my skin, but I was betting I’d still be pulling out bits over the next couple of days.

Once dressed, I helped Ilianna with the desserts, then grabbed some tape and wrapping paper from the cupboard we used to store such things and headed into my room to wrap Tao’s present. Only to discover two parcels sitting on the dresser rather than the expected one.

I frowned and picked them both up, looking at the postmarks. One was from England, which meant it was the rare cookbook I’d ordered. But the other had no identifying marks, no stamp, and no return address.

“When did this other parcel come in?” I shouted.

“Yesterday,” Ilianna replied.

“Did the same rat-faced courier deliver it?”