“Did I?” he asked dubiously.
“Of course, you did,” she assured him.
“Well, she sure pulled away in a hurry,” Justin complained.
“She thought she’d hurt you,” Gia said solemnly. She hesitated, and then added, “Of course, now she feels just horrible and her guilt is twofold.”
“Twofold?” he asked with a frown.
Gia nodded. “She feels bad because she fears she hurt you, and she is experiencing a great deal of guilt. One, because she feels that she was unfaithful to her husband by responding to your kisses.”
Justin ran a weary hand through his hair and shook his head. He didn’t like the idea that she was feeling guilty about the kiss. She hadn’t chosen it. They’d pretty much forced it on her. Actually, it had been pretty much forced on both of them since there was no way in hell he would have stood by and allowed Dante to try to build that kind of fire in Holly, and Dante had known it.
“Yes, Dante was very naughty,” Gia murmured, apparently reading his mind. “He wanted you both to have a little taste of what you could have together. Holly so that she knows what she is missing, and you so that you understand just what you are fighting for here and take it seriously.”
“He told you that?” Justin asked with surprise.
“No. I read his mind,” she said with amusement. “Dante and Tomasso are easy for me to read.”
“Right, well Holly won’t think about what she could have with me so long as she’s suffering guilt over what she considers being unfaithful to her husband,” Justin said grimly and was quite sure it was true . . . although he couldn’t say how he knew that about her. “And I could be in trouble for it. Kissing her and rousing the life mate passion could be considered undue influence.”
“Dante forced you. It wasn’t your idea,” Gia argued.
“I could have let him kiss her.”
“Few immortals could stand by and allow another immortal to kiss their life mate. Nor would they expect you to.”
“I hope you’re right. Otherwise, my favorite body part might be in peril.”
“I thought you had decided her kiss was worth losing body parts and growing them back?” she said with amusement. “I’m pretty sure I read that from your mind when she stopped the kiss.”
“Stay out of my head,” he snapped and then, sorry for snapping at her when she was just trying to help, ran a weary hand through his hair and admitted, “Yeah. I thought that, and still do. But having to grow back a body part once is a different story than having your dick shredded over a hundred times. With the healing time in between, it would mean agony for—Hell I don’t even know how long,” he muttered, fighting the urge to cross his legs and cover his groin protectively with his hands. “Besides, I don’t want to lose my job.”
“Why would you lose your job?” she asked with surprise.
“The council tends to frown on having Enforcers who break our own laws,” he said dryly.
“Oh.” She bit her lip briefly and then said, “There is another reason Holly feels guilty, you know.”
Justin’s eyebrows rose slightly. The comment was so out of the blue . . . and he’d thought they were done with that part of the conversation. It seemed not, he thought and asked, “What reason is that?”
“Because thoughts of your one kiss bring on her fangs, while memories of all of her husband’s kisses do not,” she said quietly.
Justin’s head jerked up at these words, his mind whirling. This was good, wasn’t it? Not the guilt, of course, but that his kisses did what her husband’s couldn’t. At least the memories of them. Of course, as her life mate he’d known his kisses would have more affect than her mortal husband’s, but it surprised him that her husband’s kisses didn’t stir enough passion to bring on her fangs. That was rather interesting, actually, and telling.
“Well,” Gia headed for the door. “I came to tell you that we are ending lessons for the day and taking Holly shopping.” Pausing at the door, she glanced back and added, “And to see if you want to join us. The boys want more food and Holly needs clothes.”
Justin considered the matter briefly and then shook his head. He wasn’t going to get to woo Holly with Gia and the twins along. But their absence would give him the chance to move his wooing campaign ahead in other ways.
“You go on,” he said now, a smile pulling at his lips. “I have things to do around here.”
Gia peered at him curiously. Reading his mind, no doubt, he thought when concentration filled her face. After a moment, she smiled faintly, and nodded. “Buona fortuna amico mio.”
Justin merely grunted as she closed the door to his room. “Good luck, my friend,” she’d said, but he didn’t need luck. He had a plan.
“Why don’t you go upstairs and change into your new clothes?” Gia suggested as she followed Holly into the house from the garage.
“I was going to help bring in the groceries,” Holly said uncertainly, glancing back toward the loaded SUV. Dante and Tomasso were bigger shoppers than Decker, Anders, and Justin put together. But then they were also bigger eaters. In the two short days since they’d arrived, the twins had gone through nearly half the groceries the other men had bought.
“The boys can handle it,” Gia assured her. “And you aren’t terribly comfortable in those clothes of mine.”
Holly grimaced at the comment and glanced down at herself. She had got up this morning, redonned the sweater and tights Gia had given her the day before and then opened her bedroom door to find another outfit neatly folded and set on the hall floor. Relieved that she wouldn’t have to wear the same clothes twice, Holly had scooped them up and backed into the room to change. But the moment she’d realized how short the skirt was, and how see-through the top, she’d nearly changed back. Gia’s style was definitely edgy/sexy, while Holly’s style was . . . well, just not. She was more the jeans and T-shirt kind of gal when she wasn’t dressed up for work. And yes, she had been terribly uncomfortable in the other woman’s clothes.
Mind you, she hadn’t been any more comfortable at allowing the woman to pay for the clothes she was now wearing. Even when Gia had explained that she wasn’t buying them, the Enforcers were. Apparently, since Justin had turned her while on an Enforcer job, they were footing the bill for everything from the food they were eating to the clothes on her back.
“You’re right,” Holly said finally. “I guess I’m just not brave enough for your clothes. But they are beautiful and I do appreciate your letting me borrow them.”
“Bah.” Gia waved away her words. “I knew that. I can read your mind,” she reminded her and then urged her forward. “Come, let’s get these up to your room.”
Nodding, Holly turned and led the way upstairs. She had to do some juggling once they got to her door to open it, but then she stumbled in, headed for the bed, only to pause after just a couple of steps.
“What the—?” She turned slowly, her gaze moving over the flowers on every surface in the room. Flower arrangements sat on the bedside tables, crowded the dresser and covered every inch of the sitting table in the corner of the room. There were even flowers strewn on the bed and petals on the floor.
“Ah,” Gia said, and that was it. Just “ah.”
Holly shook her head with bewilderment. “Did someone die?”
Gia choked on a laugh and moved past her to the bed. She started to set the bags down, then paused to brush some of the flowers out of the way first. Setting the bags down then, she turned to survey the room and said, “I think maybe this is Justin’s idea of the romanticismo.”
“Romanticismo?” Holly echoed blankly. “What the devil is that?”
Gia frowned briefly and then offered, “The romance?”