guarantee she wouldn’t. She’d attacked three men on the pirate ship. Each man had attacked her first, but she could still remember her rage and determination to hurt those men in response. She couldn’t swear the same thing might not happen with G.G. at that most important moment, and that being the case, she said, “So, we’ll take it slow.”
G.G. nodded, but said, “And I’d like you to go to Marguerite’s son-in-law for counseling.”
Ildaria’s head jerked back under the emotional blow, but she managed to hold on to the temper that exploded inside her at the demand. Swallowing her anger, she merely said, “Fine. If you go to him for counseling too.”
Now it was G.G.’s turn to rock back in shock. “I don’t need counseling.”
“Really? So seeing your mother mid-turn didn’t affect you at all? Make you resistant to the turn?”
G.G. stared at her silently and then warned, “Counseling might not make a difference about that.”
Ildaria shrugged. “It might not make a difference for me either, but we can both give it a try, can’t we?”
After a short pause, G.G. nodded. “All right. We’ll both go for counseling.”
“All right.” Ildaria turned and plucked a muffin off the large plate, set it on her own smaller one, and picked up her knife to cut and butter it as if everything was fine. But she was already worrying about this counseling thing. She wasn’t used to talking to people about her past. In fact, G.G. was the first person she’d told it to, and she’d only done that because she’d felt he should know if they were life mates . . . and despite not knowing him long, she trusted him. Opening up to someone else . . . Yeah, this was going to be hard.
Nine
“Yo.”
Ildaria glanced up from the computer and smiled faintly as Sofia pushed the office door closed and crossed the room.
“Yo,” she greeted back. “What’s up?”
“That’s what I was wondering,” Sofia said dryly as she dropped into the chair in front of the desk. “What is going on? G.G. only stuck around for a few minutes tonight and then he left that new guy, Jarin, to man the door and went to take a nap.” She widened her eyes incredulously. “What the hell? I never thought I’d see the day. The man is always working.”
Ildaria shrugged mildly, but her mouth was twitching with amusement. “I guess he’s tired.”
“You think?” Sofia asked sarcastically, and then asked. “So what has him so tired? And what’s going on with you two? This last week he’s still exhausted, but in a much better mood. And where did you guys go today? I saw you pull up together in his pickup just before we opened. Where were you coming from? Why is he smiling all the time when he’s still exhausted and there’s been no Mimi yet? Or has there been Mimi and I’m just misreading things? Because what I’m getting from his head feels like shared dreams rather than the real deal.”
Ildaria stared at her with eyebrows arched for a moment, torn between annoyance at the intrusive questions, and an eagerness to spill her guts and tell Sofia about her and G.G. When Sofia simply waited, apparently impervious to the look she was receiving, Ildaria finally gave in to her urge to talk about the man. “We talked last week. The day you took me shopping. Well, the morning after when he came to collect H.D.,” she corrected. “I told him that the dreams he’s having are shared dreams and that he’s a possible life mate. He agreed to be my life mate.”
“Yeah?” Sofia asked with a smile, and then smirked. “Yeah, you look and sound all stoic and calm on the surface about this, but your inner voice is doing the squealy girl thing.”
Ildaria sneered at the suggestion. “I don’t do squealy girl.”
“Oh, yeah, you do,” she said on a laugh. “You’re practically singing ‘Sweet Mystery of Life’ in your head.”
“I am not,” Ildaria denied quickly, but she and G.G. had watched Young Frankenstein the day before, and the song Madeline Kahn sang when Frankenstein made love to her had been running through her head ever since.
When Sofia just laughed at her, Ildaria scowled and turned her attention back to the spreadsheet on her computer.
The room was silent as she pretended to concentrate on work, but Ildaria was very aware of the woman seated across from her. She knew Sofia was trying to read her thoughts and tried to block her,