Page 94 of Guild Boss

Gabriel gave her his slow smile. “Luckily I know one who has the talent to do it.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Lucy stacked her slippered heels on the balcony railing and took a sip of her brandy.

“Did you really call me a weather goddess this afternoon?” she asked.

“I did,” Gabriel said.

He was sitting beside her in the second lounger, ankles stacked next to hers. It was ten o’clock. Night cloaked the city, but the glow of the quartz ruins streaked the Dark Zone in green chiaroscuro. The paranormal buzz in the atmosphere was a pleasant complement to the brandy.

Dinner at the Hideaway restaurant had involved a cozy, romantic booth, an expensive bottle of wine, and no pizza. That was not a problem, because Otis was not around to complain. He had disappeared and was off doing whatever dust bunnies did when they got together at night.

Lucy swallowed some brandy and thought about Gabriel’s answer. “Did you mean it?”

“You can call down lightning to smite your enemies. Of course you’re a goddess.”

“Do you think I’m sleeping with you because I’m grateful to you for saving my life?”

“What the hell makes you ask that?”

“You’re in the business of rescuing and protecting people. I’m sure many of them are very grateful to you. Don’t get me wrong, I am grateful to you, too. Even if you did abandon me to those Blue Amber rogues.”

“After which you rescued yourself.”

“With Otis’s help.”

“You stopped those two rogues cold in the Ghost City without my help, and this afternoon you rescued yourself and Veronica. I’d say there’s plenty of evidence that you can take care of yourself. By the way, you aren’t the first person I’ve pulled out of the tunnels. I’ve never slept with any of the others. Just you. Where are you going with this?”

She tilted her head back against the lounge cushion. “I’m just trying to confirm that you don’t think I’m having an affair with you because I’ve mistaken gratitude for... something else.”

“Something else? Are you talking about physical attraction?”

“Mmm.”

“We’renottalking about physical attraction?”

“Mmm.”

“I’m not good at guessing games, not when it comes to relationships.”

She fortified herself with another swallow of brandy and lowered the glass. “I’m not interested in a short-term affair. I can’t let this relationship continue unless I see a future for us. That means you have to see the same future.”

Gabriel swept his feet off the railing and sat up abruptly. The soles of his low boots landed with a resounding thud on the floor of the balcony. His eyes burned in the shadows.

“I saw a future for us the night I found you in the Underworld,” hesaid. “I have never stopped seeing that future. It’s the first thing I think about in the morning and the last thing I think about at night.”

She took her feet off the railing and sat up. They faced each other across the short distance that separated the loungers.

“I’m glad to know I’m on your to-do list,” she said. “But where, exactly?”

He reached out one hand and threaded his fingers through her hair. He cupped the back of her head in his palm, leaned forward, and kissed her, a scorching kiss that aroused all of her senses. Energy heated the atmosphere around them.

He raised his head. “You’re not just on the list. You’re at the top. You’ve been there all along. Who do you think convinced the Guild Council that this sector needed its own Guild headquarters?”

Her pulse beat faster. Disbelief and excitement arced across her senses.

“You?” she whispered.

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