“Spells that will contain a lovely little sting in their tail, Ranger.” Ashworth’s smile was wide. “And you’d better believe I have one or two of those up my sleeve.”
Monty raised his eyebrows. “Care to elaborate?”
Ashworth slapped him on the back hard enough to send him staggering forward a step before he regained his balance. “One thing at a time, lad. One thing at a time.”
The two of them moved into the house. Eli followed, but not before muttering a somewhat bemused, “And there goes the rest of our nice, quiet evening.”
“And there goes ours,” Aiden said softly. “I’ll have to stay here and supervise.”
He didn’t actually have to, as there were other rangers within the reservation. But I withheld the rather snarky comment—the fact of the matter was, I had to accept his job was his life, and that would never change, whether he was with me or the love of his life.
Something within me twisted at that, and I wasn’t entirely sure if it was the green-eyed demon or the prophetic part of me warning of what would be.
I rose on my toes and kissed him, long and slow. It was a promise of what might have been, and what might yet be. But not tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow night, depending on how all the aches and pains went.
Rather reluctantly, I pulled back out of his arms. “I’d better go.”
“Do you want me to drive you home?”
“I’m frustrated enough. I don’t need to be in the close quarters of a truck with you right now.” I hesitated, a smile twitching my lips as my gaze skimmed downward. “And from the look of things, neither do you.”
He chuckled softly and lightly brushed his fingers down my cheek. “Here’s hoping that we catch a break with these cases and manage some time together. Otherwise, I might just explode.”
I grinned. “You managed over a year flying solo, Ranger. I’m thinking a day or two extra won’t do you any harm.”
“Then you would be wrong.” He glanced around at the sound of sirens. “That’ll be the fire department and Mac. I’d better let you go.”
I kissed him again?
??this time briefly—and then called for a cab. It only took a few minutes to get home, and I arrived to find the promised bath waiting for me. The highly scented, herb-enriched water did wonders for both my energy and pain levels, and the solid ten hours sleep that followed didn’t hurt, either.
Over breakfast the next morning, I said, “Did you manage to uncover anything else about fire spirits last night?”
Belle shook her head. “It seems the spell book we need is in storage.”
“Which is always the damn way,” I said. “I wish we had room for them all here.”
“It’s probably better that we haven’t.” Belle picked up her coffee and leaned back in her chair. “The café has already been hit once. We were lucky it didn’t cause all that much damage to our personal effects, but next time that may not be the case.”
“True.” I tore off a bit of toast and mopped up the leftover egg. “You know, it might be time to make preparations against that possibility.”
“As in, make an e-copy of each book?” Belle grimaced. “That’ll take a damn while.”
“Yes, but it’s better than losing any of her information.” It also guarded us against the possibility of the high council discovering the existence of the library and confiscating all the books.
“It’d only be a safeguard if they’re stored on a drive that’s not, in any way, connected to the net. But having a backup is a good idea.” Belle briefly pursed her lips. Though her expression was thoughtful, there was an odd glint of anticipation in her eyes. “One of our regulars is an IT guy. I might talk to him and see if he can help us out.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Who?”
“Kash Kennedy.”
Amusement twitched my lips. “Now there’s a name that must have given him hell as a kid.”
“Apparently so.” Her silver eyes twinkled. “And it’s also probably the reason he looks so damn fit now.”
“Oh, hello,” I said, grinning. “Do I sense the possibility of a romance brewing?”
“Possibly.” She shrugged. “We actually met at the gym—he’s a part-time trainer there. He’s asked me out a couple of times, but I’m playing it cool.”