Page 74 of Crown of the Fae King

“Sounds like you’ve memorized it.”

“Oh no. Just the important bits. It’s in my thesis.”

“Oh? I’d love to read your thesis too.”

She paled, like it was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her. “Of cour…of course. It’s not complete, but…”

“Persi, can you take down her number? We can meet up sometime.”

My hands were shaking too hard to handle a phone and enter a number correctly. Besides, if I pulled out my phone, Griffon would start getting ideas.

The topic of conversation turned to Archeology, and I couldn’t steer it back to The Covenant without being obvious, so I let it ride. Griffon was content to smile at me and twist our fingers together. I ignored the fact that Persi and Wickham were watching our hands closely.

Finally, the girls had their fill of adult conversation and profiteroles and begged off.

“It’s far from midnight,” I said, “but I don’t think I can last much longer.”

Wickham and Persi said nothing. I thought they’d take the hint and leave us alone, but they didn’t, so I pretended they weren’t there.

“How about I buy you breakfast?” I aimed the question directly at Griffon. No one else invited.

His caramel eyes lowered. “Or I couldmakeyou breakfast…”

My body found enough blood to heat my face. “Daddy won’t let me out of his sight.” I pointed my thumb at Wickham.

Griffon’s smile faltered but recovered quickly. “May I at least see you home?” He looked at Wickham for his answer.

“Tell you what,” the Highlander said. “Persi and I will take a stroll and meet ye at the car in say…half an hour?”

I nodded, grateful I was allowed even that.

He left a hundred-pound note on the table near Griffon’s elbow, and he and Persi navigated their way to the front door. He turned to give me a warning look, then was gone.

Griffon lifted my hand and kissed the backs of my fingers which were still caught in his. “I take it there will be no sleeping with the enemy?”

“Are you the enemy?”

“Wickham seems to think so. But then again, he seems like the type to see enemies everywhere.” He chuckled. “And at this point, I feel obligated to ask if maybe you are being held prisoner or something. He’s not forcing you to marry against your will or some such nonsense? That sort of stuff goes on where you least expect it, you know.”

I rolled my eyes. “I am here of my own choice.”

“And if I invited you to follow me out the back door…and play hookie all night?”

“I would obviously be tempted—”

“Then let me tempt you beyond what you can resist.” He pulled on my fingers and brought me close, then captured my mouth with his. I worried that everyone in the dining room was staring, but the kiss was short. Much too short.

Kissing professors was highly underrated.

The waiter showed up to ruin things. He handed Griffon the check while eyeing Wickham’s hundred-pound note laying forgotten on the table. As a recent coffee-pourer myself, I couldn’t have touched it to save my life.

Griffon noticed us both staring and laughed, then scooped it up and added it to the pile of money he’d pulled from his wallet, then handed it all over. “Come on,” he said, and pushed away from the table. He took my hand, and we rushed outside like we were late for a train. When he turned toward the back of the building, I didn’t think, just followed. So eager for that next kiss, I thought of nothing else.

As we passed the corner, he twirled me around. He was humming--no words, no tempo--as he spun me toward a short stretch of brick wall, nudged me into it, then pinned me against it with our entwined hands above my head.

“Where were we?”

I struggled to catch my breath. “Can’t remember. It was so long ago--”

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