So charming, this man. “You told your friends in New York about me?”
“They could tell you were someone special by the way I acted when you texted. And then when I rushed out yesterday. Of course I told them.”
“I’m sorry I disrupted your work.” But not sorry he was there with her.
“You needed me. I came.” He shrugged and managed to look adorable, mussed and sweet all at the same time.
“How did anyone manage to tell you no growing up?”
“Believe me, people found a way. What’s your plan for today?”
“I just took it off to be with you.”
“You and I are going to the firing range. Then I’m taking you to lunch somewhere and there’ll be more sex of course.”
“The range? To shoot guns?”
“Here’s how I think it should go. You’ve taught me a lot about my magick. I appreciate it and hope you continue to do so. In exchange, I want to help make you safer in the ways I can. Are you already an Olympic sharpshooter or anything?”
She laughed. “Me? No. Why would you think that?”
“You’re good at everything. Okay then. So I’m good with a gun. Letting me teach you will make you stronger and safer. It’s win-win.”
“All right then.”
Chapter 14
HER fantasy bubble popped two days later when Meriel and Dominic came around the corner toward her front door and found Edwina standing there, her finger steady on the bell.
“There you are. Where have you …” Her gaze flicked from Meriel to Dominic, whose hand had been snagged with hers.
“Mother, come in.” Meriel dug her keys from a pocket and unlocked the front door. But it was Dominic who subtly, but firmly put his body first and went in, leaving the two women in the hall for a moment before he turned and nodded. She was more than able to detect an intruder, but it was nice that he wanted to protect her anyway.
Edwina made no secret of her curiosity where Dominic was concerned, as Meriel locked the door and the wards snapped back into place.
“I’m Edwina Owen, Meriel’s mother. And you are most assuredly not any run-of-the-mill boyfriend. I can see her all over your skin.” She turned to Meriel. “Why have you not told me about this?”
“I wanted to get to know him first.”
Edwina waved a hand and managed to make it look graceful. “Of course you do. You can do that after the ascension.”
Clicking her teeth together, Meriel turned to him with a forced smile. “Dominic, you said you had to make a run to your place? I’ll meet you at Heart of Darkness later.”
“No, you won’t. I’m here with you right now.” He held a hand out to Edwina. “I’m Dominic Bright. I suppose you know what I am at this point.”
Edwina allowed the whisper of a triumphant smile touch her lips and Dominic could see, quite clearly, where Meriel got her spine. But he sure as hell wasn’t going to allow this woman, or anyone else for that matter, make Meriel feel small.
“Who are your people, Dominic?”
“Why don’t we all sit and have some juice?” Meriel motioned to the table and her mother sent her a narrowed glare, which Meriel only shrugged off. Dominic stepped into the kitchen.
“Ladies, I’ll get the juice. You two go on and visit. I’ll be along momentarily.”
“How long?” Edwina got right to the point.
“I met him last Thursday.”
“As in a week ago? Or day before yesterday?”
“A week ago.”
“A week you’ve been possibly stalked by some gang of mages bent to kidnap and drain you. You could have ascended. Been far more powerful. You’ve not done the spell yet. Why?” It was a demand thinly disguised as a question.
Meriel drew a deep breath and it was as if he felt it too. Just at that moment their connection glittered. Her gaze cut to his briefly. Long enough to see the gratitude in her eyes.
“He’s outclan. He didn’t grow up with this as a reality. He didn’t even know he was full-council until Thursday. He asked for time, I gave it to him. It’s entirely reasonable and it’s not like there’s a time limit for the ascension spell to be given. It’ll be there next month or the month after.”
“You can get to know him either way. Why wouldn’t you do the ascension and then get to know each other? One doesn’t have to involve the other. He’s your bond-mate either way. Why you’d deny that or play semantics games is beyond me.”
“Which is why I kept this to myself to begin with.”
Dominic put the juice on the table and sat close to Meriel.
Edwina turned to Dominic. “Well? What do you have to say for yourself? You can do the spell and it cements the bond. It’ll open up your magick and hers too. She’ll ascend to the full-council and if something were to happen to me tomorrow, she could take over. Why would you rob her of this?”
Meriel interrupted, her magick washing over him and through the room. “Whoa. No. We will not discuss this in those terms. This is not robbing anyone of anything. This is why I didn’t tell you and wasn’t going to until he’d decided he was ready for the ascension. I don’t want him to be pressured to do it. It should be his choice.”
“So you hide from me for a week? And what’s all this nonsense about choice? He’s your bond-mate. He clearly enjoys you physically. You were holding hands when you came back just now so there’s a romantic connection. But beside any of that, the bond is there whether you play courting for a while or not.”
“Exactly. Which is precisely why I want him to make that choice himself. I lose nothing if I let him have the time and I gain the knowledge that when he comes to me for the ascension, he does it knowingly and purposefully. This is my life. This is my bond-mate. This is my heart and my soul and I won’t start off my life with him with emotional manipulations and or ultimatums. If he can’t come to me on his own, I’m not worthy and he sure as hell isn’t.”
“Do you think that sort of silliness was allowed when it happened to me? My mother didn’t just say, come to your true place on the council whenever you feel like it. I had responsibilities and so do you. I—”
Meriel made a cutting motion with her hand. “But I am not you.”
Dominic knew there was some difficulty between mother and daughter. Meriel had been very diplomatic when she spoke, though her jokes sometimes were sharp enough that he understood there was a lot of history there. He didn’t like it at all that this woman sought to make Meriel do something she didn’t believe was right. But at the same time, he knew Meriel wouldn’t do anything she didn’t believe was right.
And she did this for him. Because she wanted him to have that space and she’d fight off this strong woman across the table tooth and nail if she had to.
For him.
Which only made him totally sure he wanted to ascend.
HE ran a fingertip down the long, sexy line of her spine. He liked the way she looked, naked, mussed, glasses perched on her nose as she checked her email.
“I hope Edwina realizes you work pretty much all the time.”
She rolled, putting her phone down on the nightstand. “I’m sorry.”
She apologized to him a lot. Wondered if she saw it at all.
He kissed her quickly, still sated — for the moment — from the marathon session they’d just ended a while before.
“For what? Running the legal department of a very busy corporation? You spend the evenings with me at my business, why would I begrudge you your work?”
Her mother had left and things clearly remained tense between them. But he’d seen the love between mother and daughter even through the strain.