Page 48 of Blood and Roses

"So this is where you are hiding." Balthasar wiped the snow off his head before taking off his gloves.

"I'm not hiding," she said, trying to cover up the flutter in her voice. "I'm baking cinnamon rolls." Rosa put the knife down and started to twist them up. He sat down on a kitchen barstool to watch her.

"Are you all right? You seem a bit..."

"What?"

"Defensive. I'm sorry, are you angry with me?" he asked, genuinely confused.

"I'm not angry with you," Rosa said as she placed the rolls on her baking tray. "Look, Balthasar, I don't know what you want me to say or how you want me to act right now. We had a night together. It was awesome, and I don't regret it."

"But..."

"That's just it, isn't it? There is a massive but. How about...butI work for you?ButI am a Wylt and a one-night stand? There are a million buts. I don't know your intentions. I don't know where I stand with you now, let alone when Eli comes back."

Balthasar folded his arms. "I can't believe you think I'm a one-night stand sort of person. Is there anything about my character that would imply such a thing?"

"Even half Unseelie hybrids have urges," Rosa said as she put her trays in the oven and started wiping the flour off the marble countertops.

"Then allow me to set the record straight, Rosa Wylt. Firstly, I would never do you the discourtesy of using you to satisfy myurges, as you so delicately described them. I didn't have sex with you because I wanted the sensation. It was because I wantedyou." Balthasar took a step closer to her. "Yes, you are a Wylt. Neither of us can help that. I don't see you as some forbidden fruit either before your mind decides to make that ridiculous leap. As for where you stand right now, it's in front of someone who you've been driving crazy all day. Someone who has been dying to kiss you all damn day because they feel like they are going to explode unless they do."

"Then what the hell are you waiting for?" she demanded, throwing the floury dishtowel at him. He dodged it with a blur of movement before lifting her up onto the counter and kissing her. He tasted like snow and sex, and her hands went underneath hiscoat to pull him closer. She kissed the side of his neck before burying her face into the collar of the shirt, crushing it like the petals of a flower so she could smell him.

"I'm sorry. This whole thing is so crazy, and I don't know how to handle it," she said.

Balthasar's hands moved up the back of her shirt. The touch of his fingers on her bare skin made her grip on him tighten impulsively.

He kissed her forehead. "There is nothing to be sorry about. You have every right to question my motives. All I can promise is to work it out as we go along. Eli told me that you need to sleep inside the mansion tonight. The stones are weakening, and it's for your own safety."

"My safety?" Rosa said, pulling back so she could look at him. "But my bed is so comfortable and has all my stuff there. Where am I meant to sleep?"

"I have a good idea where you can spend the night." He grinned suggestively, and she fought the urge to kiss him again.

"But I don't have my pajamas."

"You won't need them."

"I suppose the mansion does have all of the guest rooms cleaned out at the moment. Maybe I could—" Whatever smart retort she had ready vanished as he pulled her against him, kissing it away.

Balthasar's hands gripped her hips. "Notwhere I had in mind."

"Then where?"

"Hang on," he instructed, and she had just enough time to lock her arms around him before the kitchen and the mansion blurred around her. The bright pictures of the attic surrounded her as he lowered her slowly to her feet.

"You really need to warn a girl before you do that. I thought no one was allowed up here," she said innocently as she walked between his paintings. "Private chambers and all that."

"I'm willing to make an exception," he said, taking off his coat and laying it on the back of a chair.

Rosa poked her head around a particularly beautiful landscape of Venice. "Are you going to keep going?"

"And you accusedmeof having urges," Balthasar said as he untucked his shirt. "How do I know I'm not the one being used in this situation for my artistic skill and prowess as a lover?"

"You say that like I have the ability to convince you of anything," Rosa laughed.

"You are convincing me right now," he said as he walked towards her, undoing the buttons on his shirt. "Look, I have no control over my actions whatsoever."

Rosa stepped backward, and he pulled her forward again before she could crash into another painting. "If you are determined not to watch where you are walking, I am going to have to lead you myself." He placed her hands on her waist and waltzed her slowly through the maze of easels, books, and chairs.

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