Was it possible, she wondered, bemused by the notion, that since he was in a human body he was actually experiencing human emotion? That all the emotions she’d thought she’d seen had been real not faked?
She had no idea what was possible and not possible when a fairy was in human form. She’d never stumbled across anything like this in the O’Callaghan Books. And—she glanced at the clock again—she highly doubted he’d give her any extra time to do some searching.
She could only pray that he was feeling, and feeling enough to make him keep his word to protect her, because, unfortunately, her back was to a wall.
Like it or not—and she didn’t—she was going to have to help Adam Black.
“Okay, I’ll do it, but we need to discuss terms,” she said flatly as she walked back into the kitchen.
He’d showered and dressed while she’d been up in her room and was once again leather-clad and sexy as all get-out, long legs outstretched, boots propped on the kitchen table, arms folded behind his head. He no longer looked angry but was once again coolly, almost lazily, at ease.
“A wise decision, ka-lyrra.” His dark gaze swept her from head to toe, a palpable, erotic caress that reminded her that, no matter how dead-set she was against him, her traitorous body was all for him. He inclined his head regally. “I am pleased you will aid me, and will consider your terms.”
She bristled at his princely demeanor but refused to be baited. Her terms were critical. “First, I will only approach a solitary Fae. I’ll reveal myself to no more of your kind than I have to.”
He shook his head. “You won’t find a solitary Fae. Have you seen any alone since they arrived in your city?”
Gabby thought about it for a moment. Now that he mentioned it, no, she hadn’t seen any alone. They were always in groups, or at least pairs. Even the one that had walked between her and Marian Temple, blowing her dream job, had only broken away from a small group that it had rejoined when it moved on.
“Why is that?” Her brows drew together in a frown. There was so much she didn’t understand about the Fae.
“Tuatha Dé do not walk the human realm alone. Actually they don’t walk alone much anywhere. Only the occasional rogue Fae will do so.”
“Like yourself?”
“Yes. Most of my kind have no fondness for solitude. Those who walk alone are not to be trusted.”
“Really,” she said dryly.
“Except for me,” he amended, with a faint, insouciant grin.
“I’ll approach a pair, no more. Minimal exposure is my goal.”
“Understood.”
“And you will guarantee not only my safety from your kind, but the safety of my future children. You must promise me that I can live out the rest of my life in peace, safe from being taken by the Fae, or having anyone I love taken. Can you do that?”
“Yes.”
“How?” she snapped.
Another lazy, appreciative glance down, then up, her body. “You’ll have to trust me, ka-lyrra. All I can give you is my word. And though you doubt me, once given, it’s inviolate. It’s securing my word that’s so difficult. But you have it. As you’ve had since the day we met.”
She supposed that was all she was going to get. Anything she did from this moment forward was going to require a leap of faith in some direction. She sighed gustily. “Fine. But you just better understand that, number one, I know how stupid it is to take the word of the sin siriche du, but I don’t have any other choice; and number two, if you don’t keep it, I’ll make your existence a living hell any way I can, and if I get killed somehow, I’ll come back as a ghost and haunt you. For all eternity. And if you don’t think I could, you don’t know the first thing about O’Callaghan women. We persist. We never give up.” Well, her mom had, she amended darkly, but she wasn’t including her mom.
He smiled faintly, bitterly. Her refusal to trust him chafed. He might mislead a bit, rely on disinformation and evasion from time to time, but on those rare occasions he gave his word he stood behind it.
“Come, ka-lyrra, you can threaten and malign me while we’re sifting place.”
When he rose and moved toward her, extending his hand, she backed up hastily.
“I am so not doing that vanishing thing you do.” She was firmly in the Dr. McCoy camp when it came to the transporter room on the Enterprise. There would be no beaming Gabby O’Callaghan up, down, or anywhere. She liked her feet firmly planted on the ground.
He arched a brow. “Why not?”