Page 86 of The Healer

“The same as you, Lona-love. I’m a bear, and salmon happens to be my favorite.” His expression softened.

“Now I know something about you.” She smiled, drained her cup, set it in the sink, and abandoned him before she succumbed and kissed him. Damn, but he had a kissable mouth.

He found her in her parents’ walk-in closet fifteen minutes later. Mom was far too petite for any of her clothing to fit Ilona, but she gathered her jewelry, and Dad’s wristwatch collection, placing them inside an empty black handbag she had always liked. She had packed Dad’s laptop and Mom’s tablet, along with all their important paperwork Dad kept in a folder marked ‘Important Paperwork.’ Seeing it had summoned a smile.

Thankfully, before Gran had left Fenneg, she had sold the vehicles. It meant one less thing for Ilona to deal with. She followed Rhys to the dining room, set the handbag on the table, and sat to enjoy her salmon.

“You know, I never liked raw fish before or Chinese food for that matter.” She moaned as she bit into a sliver of the sweetest fish she had ever tasted.

He stilled and watched her take another bite. “Lunar, woman, don’t do that. I’m hard again.”

She laughed. “What if I strip, and you eat pieces of fish off my body?”

He growled and lunged for her.

Squealing, she darted around the table, flushing at the hunger in his eyes. “Rhys. Stop, we don’t have time—”

He caught her and silenced her with a kiss.

Groaning, she climbed him like a tree to spread her legs wide across a hard bulge. She wanted him again, as if they hadn’t done it twice this morning. The taste of salmon sent her to heaven, and she sucked his tongue deep into her mouth. He rumbled, wrapping his arms around her and crushing her against him.

The auctioneer intruded, and despite the heat on her cheeks, she led the bespectacled man through the house. He mentioned an amount, and she accepted, only if he could take it all that day. When she returned to the kitchen, her phone pinging with proof of payment, Rhys was talking to a man in a gray T-shirt and jeans.

“All the boxes, except these two to this address.” He rattled off somewhere in Inner City she had to assume was her new home. “Your apartment?”

“Can go in my car. Just clothes, and Carl, maybe an appliance or two.”

“Carl?” Rhys growled, his shoulders stiffening.

“My cactus.” She winked.

“Good, because I don’t share.”

“Carl doesn’t mind.” She grinned. “Once this place is emptied, we’ll head on over. I need to stop at Amity for Evie to draw my blood.” At his furrowed brow, she showed him her palm. “For research.”

“No more cutting yourself.” He tugged her into his arms, running his hands up and down her back to cup her gluteus maximi.

She nodded, shifting to ease the growing ache between her thighs when he massaged her. “Now, tell me, was it Dimitri’s saliva that healed my scar or Dane’s blood?”

He shrugged. “I’m not the doctor. All I know is bite marks heal with a swipe of their tongue. You can ask Callie or Dimitri. Maybe even Syl can tell you.”

He shuffled his feet as if in a slow dance, rubbing his erection against her stomach.

She struggled to gather her thoughts. “Syl?”

“He’s the head suckblood of the de Winter hold.”

Chuckling, she sidled closer, swaying her hips. “Suckblood?”

“Callie’s term. I like how it lowers their mysticism. They suck blood. That’s what they do.”

“And her term for you?”

He had the grace to snort. “Beast.”

Ilona’s breath caught. “In the bed, out of the bed?”

He rumbled, dipping to nip her neck. “Anywhere with you.”

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