Page 8 of Immortal By Morning
Finished with the tin, she put it away and switched on the coffee machine. But as she turned to join them, she slipped on something and started to fall back.
Panic punching at him hard, Crispin shot forward to catch her, one hand sliding under the back of her head to prevent it hitting the countertop, the other catching her arm to stop her fall. In the next moment, she was on her feet again and he was peering down at her with concern. “Are you all right?”
Abril peered up at him with obvious confusion for a moment, and then her gaze dropped to his lips and stayed there. Her expression began to change. It softened, her mouth opening slightly, her tongue slipping out to run along her lips. But it was the increase in her heart rate, and the scent of arousal suddenly coming off her that really caught his attention. It stirred a responding arousal in himself and Crispin tightened his hold on her and started to draw her to him, intending to kiss her.
“Shall I give Lilith the promised treat?” Roberts asked, interrupting the moment. “Where do you keep them, Miss Newman?”
Confusion crossed Abril’s face and she gave her head a shake, then began to pull away from Crispin to turn to look at Roberts. “The treats?”
“Yes. You promised Lilith one as soon as you made the coffee,” he reminded her, but Roberts’s gaze was on Crispin.
“Oh, yes,” she murmured, moving farther away from Crispin and leaving him feeling bereft. After centuries of having a complete lack of interest in sex, he wanted to pull her back and claim her mouth, uncaring that Roberts was there. He wanted to pull her against his body and—Christ! She was his life mate, he realized with dismay. The thought had occurred to him out on the stoop, but he’d denied it to himself then, unwilling to even give thought to the possibility. But there was no denying it now. Sex was something an immortal lost interest in after a century or so of life. Only finding a life mate could reawaken such desires. For Crispin it had been more than two and a half millennia since he’d felt such urges, but they were definitely awakening now. That could only mean that Abril was his life mate. Or a possible life mate, he supposed, since she could refuse him if she chose.
“Finally sorted it out,” Roberts said with open amusement.
“I’m sorry?” Abril paused in the act of taking the lid off a white tin container with a dog bone painted on it, and glanced toward his partner with confusion.
“Oh. I was talking to Delacort, not you.” Roberts gave her a smile, and then offered, “If you tell mewhere I can find a mop and bucket, I will clean up the floor for you so you do not slip again. Next time you might hurt yourself.”
Abril peered down at the floor. Seeing the frown that crossed her face, Crispin glanced down as well to see that there was mud all over it. There were several tracks; paw prints from the pup, and footprints from him, Roberts, and Abril, as well as chunks of dirt that had obviously dropped off Abril’s clothes or the dog’s fur. She wasn’t surprised, both she and Lilith looked like they’d rolled in it.
“Maybe you should go change,” Crispin suggested solemnly.
“Yes. I should probably—Oh, Lilith no!” she cried suddenly, and rushed past him after the dog as she headed for the doorway to the rest of the house. While the Lab didn’t stop, she did slow enough for Abril to get close enough to step on the leash still attached and dragging behind the Lab. That did make the dog stop.
Bending, Abril snatched up the leash handle and straightened, then hesitated, her gaze going from the dog to the doorway and then around the room almost helplessly.
Crispin had no idea what she was thinking or looking for; he couldn’t read her mind. He did try, but was unsurprised to come up against a blank wall. This seemed like further verification that she was a possible life mate for him. While immortals could read mortals and any immortal younger than themselves, they couldn’t read the mind of their life mate.
“I will hold on to Lilith while you go clean up and change,” Roberts offered, crossing the room to take the leash from her.
“Oh, no, I—” When her protest ended abruptly and she simply handed over the leash and turned to walk out of the kitchen, Crispin knew his partner had taken control of Abril and given her a mental push to do as he suggested. That irritated the hell out of him.
“It is rude to take control of the mind of someone else’s life mate,” he pointed out grimly.
“I think so too,” Roberts agreed. “But sometimes it just makes things easier.” Ignoring his scowl, he handed Crispin Lilith’s leash and walked down to a door at the end of the kitchen. Opening it, he disappeared through it.
Crispin had started to follow him when Roberts reappeared with a mop, bucket, and two miscellaneous bottles of some kind of liquid under his arm. The room was obviously some kind of broom closet.
“Pantry,” Roberts announced, correcting his guess. After setting the bucket in the sink, he removed the two bottles from under his arm to examine the labels before holding one out toward him. “Go wash Lilith.”
“What?” Crispin asked with confusion, and then glanced at the label on the bottle when Roberts gave it a waggle. It was dog shampoo.
“Go bathe Lilith.” Roberts spoke slowly, as if he thought Crispin didn’t understand the order.
“I understood your words, Alex,” he said irritably. “But why on earth would I do that?”
“Because if you do not, then I am going to wash the floor and Lilith is going to muddy it all over again, and Abril will have to wash the floor when we leave, as well as give Lilith a bath.”
“Fine.” Crispin snatched the bottle from him andstarted to turn away, only to realize he had no idea where he was supposed to bathe the dog.
“There is a guest bathroom down that hall,” Roberts said, pointing to the hallway about fifteen feet from the sliding glass door.
When Crispin showed surprise, Roberts shrugged. “Before she left the room, Miss Newman was thinking that she would have to bathe the dog. She was thinking she would do it in the guest bathroom up the hall to avoid the dog going across the cream-colored carpet in the rest of the house.”
“Oh.” Crispin started toward the hallway, tugging lightly on the chain so that Lilith would follow.
Four
