Page 100 of I Accidentally Hired a Shadow Walker
“Okay, so sticking around to go back to work isn’t in the cards, but there has to be something else. Right?” I looked around us at the scenery. Gentle creatures, fresh air, peaceful territories—that was all I’d seen of his world. I knew there had to be more to it, but from my short exposure, I had every reason to believe he would want to go back. “What do you want to happen? Do you want to stay here? Go back to Earth? I hate to say it, but this looks like the better choice. Even the air is cleaner.”
“Is it possible for us to figure that out later?”
Us? He said us. Not him, us. Oh, girl, stop it! So what? You’re acting like a child!
“What’s going on in there?” Raymond tapped my temple with his finger.
“What?” My eyes snapped back to his face.
“You get this far off look in your eyes whenever your inner voice starts to rattle off. What’s it saying now?”
“My conversations with my inner voice are none of your business.” I flicked his finger away from my face.
“Conversations? Hmm.” He nodded, squinting as he teased me. “So it’s a call and response. Do you talk back to it? Is this something you’ve shared with your therapist?”
“You think you’re funny, huh?”
I dropped my eyes from his, and he put his hands on my shoulders and firmly squeezed them. He kissed my forehead and inhaled deeply, pressing his nose against the top of my head.
“Whatever decision I make, you’ll know in full detail. I won’t keep you in the dark again. Is that okay?” He tightened his hold on me. “For now. Isthat enough?”
“Yeah…for now.” I nodded against his lips.
“Thank you, Jericha.” I could feel him relax more against me as he rested his head on top of mine.
“For what?” I dropped my head into his neck and rested on his chest. “You don’t have anything to thank me for.”
“Yes, I do.” His arms slipped around me in a loose hug. “I have to thank you for sharing your secret with me. You didn’t have to do that. I know it couldn’t have been easy. I want you to know I appreciate the vulnerability.”
“Well, you called me perfect, and I hate that word,” I joked. “I’m not perfect. I’m flawed, and if you’re going to be around me, I need you to know that.”
“Technically, I said damn near perfect.” He chuckled. “You snore. That takes away a few points.”
“You don’t have to sleep with me.” I pinched his waist. “Telling me I snore like I forced you into my bed.”
“Chill, woman. It was a joke.” He batted my hand away. “Ouch.”
“Ha ha.” I rolled my eyes. “Next time, it will be more than a pinch.”
“Look, I need you to know you can hate the world all you want, but even with the secret you shared, and the ones you haven’t, you’re still pretty damned perfect to me.” He sighed. “But if you don’t want to be called that, I’ll use another term. How are magnificent, angelic, the epitome of excellence?”
“Stop it.” I tried to move away from him, but he held me tighter.
Raymond moved his mouth right next to my ear, and in the deepest timbre, he whispered, “Make me.”
The only thing I could think to do in that moment was kiss him. So, I did. I lifted onto my toes and pressed my lips against his. Raymond took that as his cue and wrapped his arms around me, lifting me from the ground. He growled low as our kiss deepened, and I moved my arm to wrap around his shoulders.
“Can we just stay here?” I spoke against his lips. “I like it here.”
“No, but if you kiss me like that every time we come here, we’re going to spend a lot of time beneath these trees.” He slid his hand to my ass, cupping it with a light squeeze. “And not in all these clothes.”
“I think the others would be mad at us if we did that.” I smiled against his lips. “They’re probably already annoyed we left like that.”
“They’ll be fine. All it means is that we don’t ride back home with them. But you’re right. We should get back. There is a lot to do. We need to plan, to figure out what support we’ll have.”
“Do you think Klougus will lend you any of his men to help? Looks like he has plenty of them still on his side.”
“Honestly, no,” Raymond answered. “He won’t want his name to be associated with this if things go wrong. It’s why he’s making me do it. If I’m the one who gets my hands dirty, it doesn’t matter. I was already a man on the run.”
