Chapter One
The thump of Aidan’s heavy boots echoed off the walls as he followed Chris Reordon down the long white corridor on Sublevel 5. Chris presided over the East Coast division of the network, which encompassed thousands of human employees who helped Immortal Guardians protect humans from psychotic vampires.
What looked like a large-screen television took up almost the entire wall at the end of the otherwise barren hallway. If Aidan wasn’t mistaken, it displayed a live video feed of the sunny meadow beyond the network’s parking lot, like an oversized window.
“That’s new,” he commented.
Chris nodded without looking up. “Melanie hoped it would make living five stories belowground a little more palatable for the vampires housed here. If they like it, we’ll add similar faux windows to their apartments.”
The doorways to Aidan’s right opened into Dr. Melanie Lipton’s office, a lab, an infirmary, a break room for employees, and Dr. Linda Machen’s office. The doors on the left marked a half dozen or so vampire apartments.
“Tell me again,” Chris grumbled, “why I should give you an apartment here when my team put so much time and effort into providing you with a nice, comfortable house in the country.”
Aidan shrugged. “Melanie and the other doctors were tired of me bunking in the infirmary.”
“Why the hell don’t you bunk at your house?”
Aidan stared at the back of the Reordon’s head. Chris pretty much loathed him. “Because I like it better here, where I can hang out with the vampires.”
He had never done that before—befriended vampires. Those he encountered on his nightly hunts were always either raving lunatics or halfway down the road to insanity with no interest in avoiding the destination.
But the vampires here were still lucid. And getting to know them was a new venture.
When one did the same old same old every night for nearly three thousand years, new was good.
No. He’d borrow a word from Cliff. New was awesome.
Chris stopped before a heavy titanium door that had an electronic pad beside it. “This is your key card.” He held up a card. “You’ll need it and the code I wrote on the back to get inside.” His cell phone chirped. “Hang on.” Tugging it from his back pocket, he answered with his usual brusque, “Reordon.”
“Mr. Reordon!” a woman nearly shouted from the phone. “It’s Veronica Becker. I work in—” Snarls erupted on the other end. She shrieked a curse. “I work in IT at the network!”
Chris frowned. “I know. What’s—?”
“I got a flat tire,” she interrupted breathlessly, “and two vampires— Shit!”
“Where are you?” Chris demanded.
“Sax-Beth Church Road just off Highway 54.”
Chris looked at Aidan.
“I know where that is.” Aidan pictured the location in his mind. The hallway around him darkened as a feeling of weightlessness engulfed him. Fresh air ruffled his hair as he found himself standing at the intersection of Saxapahaw-Bethlehem Church Road and Highway 54.
A full moon dominated a cloudless sky. The croak of frogs, hum of insects, and rustling of other nocturnal creatures filled the night. As did raucous laughter.
He looked to the west.
Vampires. Taunting their intended victim until howls of pain split the night.
Aidan’s nose twitched at the sharp scent of pepper. Running up the winding, two-lane country road, he traveled at speeds most drivers would deem unsafe. Two headlights appeared in the distance. Stationary. Flickering as bodies moved back and forth in front of them.
“Please hurry,” he heard Veronica cry. “I can’t hold them off much longer. And I think one just—” She swore again.
There. A woman. Small. Perhaps five feet two inches tall. Armed with a tire iron and the biggest can of pepper spray Aidan had ever seen.
He grinned. Smart woman.
Her cell phone lay on the hood of the car behind her. Chris’s voice swam out of it, expressing concern without tipping off the vamps that an Immortal Guardian now hunted them.
Two vampires danced around her, flashing fangs, their eyes glowing bright blue. When one blurred and sped toward her, she doused him with pepper spray. To a vampire with extremely heightened senses, it would feel like flames searing his eyes, nose, and lungs.
The vamp bent forward with a yelp and scrubbed at his eyes.
Veronica bashed him on the head with the tire iron, then pepper sprayed and whacked his friend. But the vampires recovered quickly and weren’t as stupid as they looked.
Even as Aidan raced toward them, one of the vampires tossed the woman a sneer and backed away to the other side of the car.
Michael!
Aidan heard her panicked thought and noticed for the first time a toddler slumbering in a car seat inside.
Fury rose. If the madness that afflicted vampires hadn’t fully taken hold, the vamp would use the child to torture the mother. And if the madness had fully taken hold…
Aidan stopped running long enough to focus his energy and send a sharp telekinetic push.
Both vampires flew backward, away from the car and Veronica.
Drawing his short swords, Aidan swept forward.
Scrambling off the ground, the vampires drew long bowie knives and lunged at him.
Neither scored a hit as Aidan tore into them, his blades opening major arteries.
Unlike immortals, vampires tended to bleed out very quickly when they suffered such wounds. Much like these, who sank to the ground and—seconds later—gasped their last breaths.
The odd symbiotic virus that infected them began to devour them from the inside out in a last, desperate bid to live despite the cessation of blood flow. By the time it finished, nothing would remain of the two but their clothing, watches, and dental fillings.
Silence fell in the wake of the brief battle. Even the insects made no sound, as though they were stunned by the violence they had just witnessed.
Aidan turned to face the woman. “Veronica?”
She gave him a shaky nod. “Yes.”
“I’m Aidan. Are you okay?”
“Yes. But I think the tall one might have called…” She trailed off as Aidan raised a hand.
Tilting his head, he listened carefully.
A few insects nearby tentatively made their presence known.
In the distance, several figures raced toward them at preternatural speeds.
Aidan swore. “Get in the car.”
The woman lunged for the driver’s door and yanked it open. “Are more coming?”
“Yes.”
She scrambled into the car and slammed the door shut.
Door locks snicked even as she swung around to check on the boy in the back seat.
The toddler’s face scrunched up in a frown as he slumped deeper into his car seat and continued to sleep.
“Sit tight,” Aidan said, loud enough for both Veronica and Chris to hear. “I’ve got this.” Leaping over the car, he plunged into the forest and barreled toward the vampires. This would go better if he stopped the vampires before they caught sight of the car and its occupants.
Tall trees thickened and blocked the moon’s illumination as he continued forward, leaving him in darkness his preternaturally sharp eyes had no difficulty penetrating.
Tiny lights flickered in the distance. Blue. Green. Silver. Always in pairs.
The faces that housed those glowing eyes swam into focus seconds before the vampires struck.
His own eyes glowing amber, Aidan swirled and struck and fended off blows. Though they outnumbered him six to one, he actually had the advantage. Aidan had been born in a time when all wars were fought with blades. He had begun training with master swordsmen as soon as his noble Celtic father had deemed him old enough to hold a wooden sword.
And he had been born with advanced DNA that bestowed upon him special gifts. Teleportation. Telekinesis, which aided him in deflecting blows whenever he had a second to focus his energy. Telepathy, which warned him of the vampires’ next moves. And the ability to heal with his hands.
That advanced DNA also shielded him from the more corrosive aspects of the vampiric virus that infected him. Humans were not so lucky. Humans infected with the virus turned vampire and suffered progressive brain damage. So even the kindest amongst them swiftly turned into psychopathic killers.
Like these. They knew a woman and child waited somewhere behind Aidan. The vamp who had called them had told them as much. And their plans for the duo sickened him.
Blood sprayed when Aidan sliced two of the vampires’ carotid arteries. As they stumbled backward, their hands going to their throats, Aidan severed another vamp’s arm and opened the femoral artery of another.
Four down. Two to go.
The fifth went down easy. The sixth took off running.
Cursing, Aidan raced after him. No way would he leave that monster alive to prey on other innocents.
Dashing through the forest at preternatural speeds could be dangerous, particularly if one became distracted.
Reaching into his coat, Aidan drew a dagger and let it fly.
The vampire grunted as the dagger buried itself in his back. Glancing over his shoulder without slowing, he ran headlong into a tree.
Aidan winced at the sound of bones snapping and puncturing organs. Skidding to a halt, he watched as the vamp sank to the ground.
The heart inside that battered body still beat.
Aidan crossed to him, then lopped off the vampire’s head to spare him a slow, torturous death. Poor bastard. He might have been a good man before the virus had taken its toll.
Once he’d wiped the blood from his blades, Aidan sheathed them and teleported back to the car.
Veronica shrieked when he abruptly appeared beside the driver’s door. Wilting with relief, she thrust open the door and stepped out into the night. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. And you?”
“I’m okay.”
“Were you bitten?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“Aidan?” he heard Chris Reordon call.
His eyes went to the cell phone on the hood of the car. Picking it up, he held it to his ear. “Yeah?”
“Did you kill the vamps?”
“Aye. Two of them on the road and six more in the forest to the west.”
“Does Ms. Becker require medical assistance?”
Aidan examined her again. “Do you require medical assistance?”
Eyes wide, she shook her head. “No. I’m okay.”
“She’s fine,” Aidan told Chris. “Just a little shaken up. I’ll see that she gets home safely.”
“Thank you. I’ll send one of my guys to collect the vampires’ weapons.”
“You have the location?”
“Yeah. We LoJack all employee cars. I know where she is and can have a guy there in five minutes.”
“Do you want me to stay until he arrives?”
“No. That won’t be necessary. Thanks again for helping Ms. Becker.”
“Happy to do it.” Aidan ended the call and handed Veronica her phone.
Her fingers trembled as they closed around it. “I left it on the car.” It took her a couple of tries to get the phone in her pocket. “When you told me to get in the car, I forgot to grab the phone first.”
“Don’t worry about it. I know movies like to pretend otherwise, but people rarely think clearly in an emergency. Although I have to say, the pepper spray was a brilliant move.”
“Thank you. I hoped it would hurt more with their heightened senses.”
He smiled. “I’m sure they found it quite painful.” His own eyes burned a bit just from being near it.
“I can’t seem to stop shaking,” she said with a hint of embarrassment.
“That’s normal. Try taking deep breaths.” He drew in a long deep breath, held it, then released it to demonstrate.
She followed his example.
If he weren’t splattered with blood, he would’ve offered her a hug to help calm her. “May I ask you a question?” he asked instead, hoping a distraction would help.
She nodded.
“What does LoJack mean?”
She smiled. “Did Mr. Reordon say he’d LoJacked my car?”
“Yes.”
“It means he can track the location of the vehicle at all times and get the GPS coordinates.”
“Ah.” Aidan and his fellow immortals spent their nights hunting psychotic vampires, so they had little time left over to learn all the fascinating things the latest technology could do. “Well, he’s sending someone to clean up our mess here and said we’ve no need to wait for him.” He motioned to the car. “If you don’t mind my dirtying up your front seat a bit, I’d be happy to escort you home.”
Her pretty features smoothed out with relief. “Thank you. I’d appreciate that.”
“Would you like me to drive?” he offered.
She shook her head. “I’m okay. I’m not shaking so badly now.”
“Then give me a minute to change your tire and we can be on our way.”
Reaching into the car, she popped open the trunk.
Aidan changed the flat in less than a minute, then tucked the old tire and tools in the trunk and closed it.
As Veronica got back in the car and closed the door, he glanced at the first two vampires he had slain.
All that remained were their clothes and weapons.
Aidan kicked the lot of it off the road, then circled to the passenger side and settled himself in the car.
“So,” Veronica said as she started the engine and drove forward. “Why were you late?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Late?”
She nodded. “When I realized I had a flat tire, I expected you to be right along to change it for me.”
He stared at her.
“After several minutes passed, I figured you must have gotten held up and started changing it myself. Then the vampires showed up.”
“You thought I’d appear and change the tire for you?” he asked.
“Yes. That’s what you did for Kimberly and Dawn.”
His stomach sank. “You, uh… you know about that?”
“Yes. I have to admit I was surprised to discover I’m on your list.” Glancing over at him, she grinned. “You look dumbfounded.”
“I suppose I am. You know about the list?”
“Of female gifted ones? Yes, I know about it.”
Hell. “How do you know about it?” he asked. Only a handful of immortals knew Aidan had inspired Chris’s wrath and come damned close to being executed by Seth, the Immortal Guardians’ leader, for breaking into network headquarters and stealing a list of female gifted ones in the area.
Gifted ones were men and women like himself who had been born with advanced DNA, the source of which they still didn’t know. Only gifted ones could be transformed by the virus without descending into insanity. And, after nearly three thousand years of loneliness, Aidan had defied Seth and acquired the list so he could arrange chance meetings with the women in hopes of hitting it off with one and—at long last—finding someone who would love him enough to transform and spend the rest of eternity with him.
Again she smiled. “Dawn gushed over you for days after she got a flat tire on the way home from work and you miraculously showed up to change it for her. Then Kimberly got a flat tire and”—she grinned—“a certain Celtic immortal appeared like a knight in shining armor and took care of it.”
He grimaced. Perhaps flattening the women’s tires, then gallantly showing up to aid them hadn’t been the wisest way to arrange a chance encounter. But the odd hours he kept made it hard for him to bump into them at the grocery store. “You’re saying I need a new MO.”
She laughed. “Yes, you do. But don’t worry. I think I’m the only one who has put two and two together. And I only guessed it because I happen to know that they’re both gifted ones.”
“Oh.” He didn’t really know what else to say.
“So, why were you late?” she asked again.
“Actually, I didn’t flatten your tire tonight,” he admitted, fearing it might offend her. “You aren’t on my list.”
“Oh. Well, that’s a relief.” She frowned, then laughed. “And yet I feel oddly insulted, which makes no sense whatsoever.”
He smiled. “It isn’t because I don’t think you’re worthy,” he assured her. “I love strong women. And you showed great courage tonight, standing against those two vampires. I admire intelligence as well, and Cliff says you’re brilliant.”
She blushed. “The vampire Cliff?”
“Yes.” Cliff had been amongst the first vampires to surrender to the Immortal Guardians and seek their help, hoping the scientists at the network would be able to stave off the madness that would soon claim them. “Since he lives at network headquarters and has heightened hearing, he pretty much knows everyone’s business.”
She shook her head. “Poor guy, listening to everybody’s drama all day.”
Aidan shrugged. The vamps all viewed it as an ongoing soap opera or reality show and found some entertainment in it. “Cliff told me you lost your husband last year,” he said, broaching the subject gently.
Grief darkened her features.
“He also told me you loved your husband a great deal, so I assumed your heart still belonged to him.”
Her throat moved in a swallow. “It does.” She blinked quickly several times as moisture welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I still can’t talk about it without crying.”
“No need to apologize.”
Silence fell as she navigated the dark country road.
“Does it bother you?” he asked curiously. “The list?”
“No.” She cast him a curious glance. “Is it true you’re almost three thousand years old?”
He released an exaggerated sigh. “Yes, it is.”
She laughed. “I heard one of the other immortals at the network say that immortal/human love affairs always end badly.”
“They do. The human ages while the immortal remains young. Even if bitterness over that fact doesn’t worm its way into the relationship, the mortal dies and leaves the immortal alone to grieve for centuries.”
She shook her head. “So you’ve been by yourself all this time?”
He shrugged. “I’ve had the friendship of Seconds.” Mortal men assigned to guard him during the day, provide companionship, and offer a semblance of normalcy to neighbors and anyone else who might be paying attention.
“But no wife?” she prompted softly. “No lovers?”
“No wife. And it’s difficult to take a lover for more than the briefest amount of time when I must hide my abilities and so much of my life from her.”
She slowed the car to a stop at a red light. The low rumble of the car’s engine filled a comfortable silence until she spoke. “You know, Tom and I only had nine years together. He worked at the network, too. And when we ran into each other the first time… something just clicked. It was like we became instant best friends. We wanted to spend all our time together from then on and would spend hours laughing and talking in the cafeteria after our shifts ended. Then we started going out to dinner and…” She shook her head. “He was it for me. He was the one.” When she gave him a sad smile, tears glistened in her eyes. “People keep telling me that I’m young. That I’ll move on and find love again. I smile and nod. But I know in my heart that I won’t. I’ll never find someone I can have that deep a connection with again. And the knowledge that I’m going to spend the rest of my life without that—without Tom, without love—is unbearable sometimes.”
Aidan read her thoughts and knew her sorrow to be true.
He also heard the words she didn’t speak aloud: How have you lived for three thousand years with that sorrow and that loneliness when I can hardly bear the notion of living another forty or fifty years with it?
She cleared her throat. “So I get it. I get the list.”
Nodding, he murmured, “I see that you do.”
The signal light turned green.
Driving forward once more, she forced a bright smile. “Any luck so far?”
“Nope.” He returned her smile. “But as it happens, I have an appointment in”—he consulted his watch—“thirty-five minutes with a lovely psychic in Carrboro.”
“Ooh, a psychic,” she repeated, her voice full of intrigue. “Maybe she’s seen you coming.”
“If she had,” he countered with a wink and a grin, “she would’ve canceled the appointment.”
Veronica laughed.
Thirty-five minutes later, Aidan stepped out of his Tesla Model S and studied the small shop in front of him. It was half of what appeared to be a duplex that had been converted into two businesses with homes above them.
Closing the driver’s door, he pocketed the keys.
A tingle of excitement fluttered in his chest. Anticipation rose. As did hope.
It made him feel young again and brightened spirits that had been dark for too many years to count.
He knew this was a long shot but savored the moment nonetheless.
Gifted ones born in previous centuries had always refused to be transformed. Even those who had fallen in love with immortals had steadfastly remained mortal, fearing what transforming would mean for their soul. The church had long deemed vampires minions of Satan. And until modern medicine had enabled immortals to better understand why they were the way they were, immortals had assumed the same rules applied to them. So they had never pushed the women they loved to transform for them because they didn’t want to be responsible for damning them.
But in the past century or so, their mortal doctor and scientist friends had identified the virus that infected both immortals and vampires as well as the advanced DNA that made gifted ones and immortals different, easing their fears.
Then Sarah Bingham had shocked the immortal world by doing what Aidan and the others had believed no mortal ever would. She had asked to be transformed so she could spend the rest of eternity with Roland Warbrook.
And hope had surfaced.
All Aidan had to do was find the right gifted one—a woman he could love, who could love him in return and who would be willing to transform for him—and he could view the future as more than just an endless stretch of days in which he slew vampires every night, then went to bed alone.
Strolling forward, he pushed open the door. A bell dinged as he ducked and stepped inside.
At the sound of the bell, Dana Pembroke turned around and felt her jaw drop.
Holy crap.
The man who stood just inside the door had to be three or four inches above six feet. His thick black hair was short and so wavy it almost curled. But it by no means lent him a feminine air. His strong jaw bore just a hint of a five-o’clock shadow. Deep brown eyes captured hers and sparkled with amusement beneath dark brows.
Because she was drooling over him?
She let her gaze dip lower.
What woman wouldn’t drool over him? He was freaking hot.
A black T-shirt stretched taut over broad shoulders, revealing a very muscled chest and thick biceps. Casual black slacks hugged slim hips, what she guessed would be a really nice ass if he turned around, and muscular thighs.
His lips stretched in a friendly smile. “Good evening.”
His lovely bass voice flowed through her like hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night.
Straightening, she struck a dramatic pose and touched her fingertips to one temple in much the same way Shawn Spencer did in the television series Psych. “Aidan O’Byrne?” she intoned.
His smile broadened, revealing straight white teeth. “Aye. Let me guess. You saw me coming.”
Grinning, she abandoned her pose and shrugged. “Kind of hard not to when you make an appointment.”
He laughed. “Would you be the charming lass I spoke with over the phone then?”
Damned if she didn’t feel a little blush of pleasure heat her cheeks as she strode forward and offered her hand. “That would be me.” And his accent was even sexier in person. “Dana Pembroke.”
He took her hand in his much larger one and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
She didn’t think a man had ever kissed her hand before. Why did that make her insides go all gooey?
Staring up at him, she offered no protest when he didn’t immediately release her hand.
Damn, he was handsome. And he had one of those smiles that made it impossible to resist smiling back.
Until blood abruptly splattered across his face and neck.
She gasped.
A deep slash opened on his chest. Another opened on his left arm, then his right. The hand holding hers grew slick with warm, wet blood.
Fear streaking through her, Dana yanked her hand out of his grasp. She looked down at her trembling fingers.
No blood stained them, but she could still feel the warm wetness of it.
When she looked up, Aidan was as he had been before she had touched him, his handsome face clean, his clothing flawless, his flesh unmarred. No blood. No cuts.
Her heart slammed against her ribs.
His smile faltered. “Dana?”
Had she just seen the future? His future?
“Are you okay?” he asked, concern darkening his pretty brown eyes.
The future had never come to her so quickly or clearly before.
She forced a smile. “I’m fine. I’m sorry.”
He tilted his head to one side, his gaze turning watchful. “You saw something.”
For once she found herself at a loss for words. Normally she would have denied it, unwilling to inform a client she had just met that she’d foreseen his death. But something told her this man would recognize the lie. “Yes.”
“It disturbed you.”
“Yes.”
“Past or future?”
She considered it a moment. “I’m pretty sure it was the future.”
“But you do sometimes see the past?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see me wounded?”
“Yes.”
“Badly?”
Her eyes clung to his. “Yes.”
He nodded, strangely unconcerned. “I’m guessing you saw a slash across my chest. About here.” He drew a line across his chest. “A couple more on my arms.” He traced two paths on his arms exactly where she had seen the cuts in the remarkably clear vision.
Relief suffused her, relaxing the muscles she hadn’t even realized had bunched up in her shoulders. “Yes.” She smiled. “So it was the past. Good.”
He smiled.
Realizing what she’d just said, she hastened to clarify, “I mean, not good that you were wounded. I just…”
“Thought you were about to lose a client?” he suggested with a wink.
She laughed. “Well, I didn’t think you’d want to come back if the first thing I told you was that you’re going to be seriously, perhaps fatally, wounded.”
He grinned. “I was in the army in my youth. And since then I’ve been working in the private security business. Both have proven to be dangerous on occasion, so I’ve had my fair share of nicks and bruises over the years.”
That had been one hell of a nick. “Private security?” She motioned for him to accompany her and began strolling toward the back of her small shop.
He shrugged. “There always seems to be someone out there who wants to kill or kidnap someone else. I, and my brothers, offer protection to those who need it.”
“Your brothers? Do you have a big family then?”
“They’re brothers in spirit, not by blood. Most of us don’t have families of our own, so we consider each other family.”
Dana had no family of her own either, so she could appreciate that. An only child, she had lost all her grandparents before she turned seven. Then, after reaching adulthood, she lost both parents in a car accident. “Is this the first time you’ve consulted a psychic?”
“I admit,” he said with another smile, “this is the first time I’ve ever made an appointment with one.”
She had thought so. “Well, usually clients seek me out because they have concerns or questions they would like answered. They’re often stressed and worried, not to mention nervous about seeing a psychic for the first time. So I do things a little differently than other psychics.” She opened a door and stepped into what used to be a sizable dining room before the duplex apartment had been converted.
Since purchasing her half, she had painted the walls in soothing earth tones. Large plants flourished in every corner. In front of the central window, she had created a garden with sand and stones, a variety of plants, and a rock waterfall. At one end of the long room, she had placed a small round table with two comfy chairs in what would make a great reading nook. Two more chairs were parked on the opposite wall beside a bookshelf that held books, puzzles, paper, crayons, and markers for clients who brought children with them.
And at the other end of the room, she had installed a comfortable massage chair.
She motioned to that now. “I usually start things off with a massage to relieve some of the tension and ease nerves.”
He arched a brow. “And because touch strengthens your gift?”
She regarded him with surprise. He was the first one to guess that. “Yes.”
He eyed the contraption warily. “I’m supposed to sit on that?”
“Yes.”
“I hate to tell you this, but I don’t think I’ll fit.”
She laughed. “You are taller than most of my clients”—and heavier with muscle—“but I can adjust it to accommodate you.”
He continued to look doubtful. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea.”
“It’s actually very comfortable,” she coaxed.
“I still don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why?” Did he really think it wouldn’t support his weight? She might not have any clients who were as muscular as he was, but she had had clients who weighed more than she guessed he did and hadn’t had any problems thus far.
“Should I be blunt,” he asked, “or would you prefer I sugarcoat it?”
“Blunt,” she responded without hesitation.
“As you will.” He drew in a deep breath. “I don’t think it would be wise because I’m attracted to you.”
Surprise and pleasure warmed her.
“And if I park my caboose in that chair—”
She laughed. “Caboose?”
He grinned. “My friend has a two-year-old daughter who only seems to repeat the naughty words she hears, so I’ve had to clean up my language a bit.”
Too cute. “I’m sorry I interrupted. Go on.”
He dipped his head in a slight bow. “As I was saying, I’m attracted to you. And if I park my caboose in that peculiar chair and let you put your hands on me, I fear my body may react in ways that will embarrass you.”
Was that another blush heating her cheeks? “Oh.”
He winced. “I should have sugarcoated it, shouldn’t I?”
“No. No, it’s fine,” she said. “I just…” A brief self-deprecating laugh escaped her. “I just have no idea how to respond to that. Almost all my clients are women. And now I’m blushing like a teenager, aren’t I?”
He grinned. “Yes. I find it quite fetching.”
Something about this man just made her feel lighthearted. Comfortable. Almost as if they were good friends who simply hadn’t seen each other for a long time.
Perhaps it was his old-world mannerisms. Kissing her hand. Using words like fetching.
But she couldn’t seem to stop smiling. “You know what? It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Brushing her hands together, she motioned to the chair. “Go ahead and park your caboose in the chair. I’ll adjust it until you’re comfortable. And if your body responds to my touch, I’ll just pretend not to notice.” Yeah, right. Because she had been so successful with not blushing when he had broached the subject. “I really do need to touch you though in order to give you the most accurate reading.”
“As you will,” he said again.