Page 76 of Hallow Hill at Halloween: Part One

“Seems silly to let something so good go to waste.” I must’ve given away that I didn’t know what he meant. “You haven’t tried them, have you.” He said it as a statement, not a question.

“Of course not. Like I said. Not for eating.”

With that, he reached out and pulled a single plump petal from one of the roses closest to him and held it out to me.

“Just try it.” He smiled.

“Look here,” I said in my best officious voice. “Are you going to bite anybody?”

His first reaction was surprise, but when the confusion cleared from his face, he grinned in a disarmingly sexy way and said, “Do youwantme to bite you?”

I pulled back. “I certainly do not!”

Looking from him to the petal in his fingertips, I suddenly wanted to taste it, but a slight commotion took my attention away.

Bold as life two dashing sephalien in Casino-Royal formal wear sauntered into the room like they owned the place. Mine was the one who was smiling – right up to the second when he realized I was about to be fed roses by a werewolf in his chair.

It was crazy how fast that beautiful smile transformed to a thunderous dark look. While he stood stock still, sorting out the situation, Kagan made his way to Esme and sat down.

Everybody clearly heard the question posed to Esme by Kagan. Rather than opening with how glad he was to be back in time or how beautiful Esme looked, he said, “What’s that werewolf doing here?”

It seemed that would be the theme of the evening.

I jumped up from my chair, went to Keir, and gave him a big kiss on the cheek. “You made it!”

“Yes,” he said with considerably less enthusiasm than my greeting. He put his arm around my shoulder and guided me out to the foyer as if we were walking on the Galveston boardwalk on a balmy evening. When we were out of sight and hearing, supposedly, he dropped his arm and faced me. “Surprise. I’m back. Just in time to see a werewolf hand-feeding my wife.”

Gosh. When put that way, it didn’t sound good.

I’m quite sure I looked like a deer in headlights, and I could feel color rising in my cheeks. Without looking in a mirror, I knew the contrast would be especially pronounced because of the pallor my complexion had taken on lately, no doubt a side effect of too little sleep.

Explanation. Explanation. Explanation.My mind raced, sorting through possible things to say to deescalate quickly. The paradox was that, by leaving the dining room to avoid a scene, we had caused a scene.

“If you think that looked anything other than innocent, then you’re imagining. I was simply asked if I’d ever tried a Baccara Rose petal.” His glower didn’t lesson one bit. “I didn’t eat it!” My protest sounded lame even to me.

His nostrils flared a little to match the storm clouds in his eyes. I’d never seen Keir angry before. At least I’d never seen him angry at me or angry at all when he was in anthropoid form.

With a forced smile, I said, “I missed you.”

Did I see the anger lessen? Just a little?

“What is thatthingdoing in my chair?” he asked.

“He wasn’t invited.” I was shaking my head. “I’ll throw him out of your chair myself. Your name is on the place card.”

Keir’s glare seemed to soften a little more. “I’d actually like to see that.”

“Sure. No problem.”

I turned to head back to the dining room, but he caught my wrist and pulled back bringing me to a full stop against his body.

“You look beautiful tonight,” he said. Aw. My heart was pure putty. Then he put his lips next to my ear and whispered over a low growl, “Beautiful enough to kill for.”

That didn’t sound like hyperbole. It sounded like he meant it. And, if I hadn’t seen my enforcer in his sephalion form, I might think he was a relative of Vuk Redfurd.

I’d never seen the jealous side of Keir, and I was conflicted between loving it and being worried over dealing with arealmurder at John David’s party.

“Don’t joke about that,” I said. “He’s just a lonely werewolf. Sad, really.” I could see by the look on Keir’s face that my defense of Vuk hadn’t helped at all. “You’re going to love the oyster bisque.” His slow blink told me that segue way had not worked like I’d hoped.

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