Page 11 of Healing the Leonid Doctor's Heart
“Me? She likesme?”
“Yes, and thank Bastet, because you look at her like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat feast whenever you think she’s not looking. That’s the folly of it, isn’t it? We drop our guards when the objects of our affections aren’t watching, but that doesn’t mean everyone else is blind.”
“True, I guess. Although I wouldn’t say you look at Abi like you’re starving—more like she’s some really rare, really expensive medical equipment, and you can’t wait to take her home and try her out,” Dax mused.
Abigail gasped as Marcus suddenly seized his assistant and “helped” him out of the room.
“It was just an observation!” Dax hollered as he went skidding into the waiting area of the med bay.
Talos emerged from Wendy’s room, fire in his eyes. “Someone is making too much noise,” he growled, the thunderous snarl rippling ominously in the air between them.
“Abigail and I were just leaving. Come on. Buy you some cinnamon custard and we can talk?” Marcus held out his paw to her.
She took it, and this time she let herself feel the warmth of his pads on her skin, let herself feel the flurry of tingles in her chest.
“You’re on duty, Doc!” Dax hissed.
“I’m not leaving the ship,” Marcus said drily. “If you need me, send out a call.”
Chapter Four
“Dax shouldn’t have said what he said,” Marcus put down a tray between them as they sat at the small table farthest from the kitchen doorway. The dining area was empty, except for the two of them. “Floribunda biscuits and cinnamon cloud cake. The custard isn’t ready yet.” Marcus pushed her plate in front of her.
“That’s fine.”
He was grateful for Abigail’s silence this time. She didn’t demand answers. She didn’t ask, “Why shouldn’t Dax have said anything? Because it wasn’t true? Or because it wasn’t his place?”
Abi just smiled and said, “He means well.”
“He does.”
“And Skyla likes him?”
“Yes, even though he’s right—she is out of his league. You can tell with Canids when they constantly wrap their tails around you or brush you with them.”
“How can you tell with Leonids? I mean, Felids?”
Curiosity was the sign of an intelligent woman, and lying was the sign of an idiot. She probably just wanted to know. He’d want to know the unwritten rules if he lived in a new world with people who had vastly different customs than his own. He wanted to be honest, but he also didn’t want to expose the signs that he’d been showing. If he lied, and she asked anyone else, that would out him promptly.
Of course, now would be the right time to tell her. Maybe she’d think his interest was purely physical, part of him trying to get ready for any cub-making procedures.
But that’s not all I want, is it?
How to tell his heart to take more time when it had been waiting in a puddle of grief and loneliness for years?
“Purring. Wanting to be around you constantly. Physical contact. A Queen acting as though she’s in a heat cycle...” Marcus shrugged and cut into his cake as if the discussion was perfectly normal.
Abigail’s cheeks flushed. “We could eat and then go somewhere to talk more privately about what we... About what we should do next.”
“We’ll make everything legal, of course. You can speak to Jade and Layla, if you like, see what price points are, what wordings are beneficial.”
Abigail nodded, but her face creased in a frown. “A physical exam would be required, I’m sure.”
“Yes. Skyla can do that for you tomorrow, and you don’t have to tell her why. You can simply say it’s something you want done after your ordeal, to make sure everything is working properly.”
“I’m sure she’d be discreet. I also think—and this is me being mature, Marcus, that we should make sure there’s the possibility of this working on the most basic level.”
“Your bloodwork is perfect.”
