A Quick Bite(89)

"Yes, it is," Greg agreed. "And to answer your question, I've been waiting about half an hour. I got here five minutes early. Actually, I hit town half an hour early and stopped at a donut shop so I wouldn't look pathetically eager by sitting in the parking lot."

"Pathetically eager, huh?" Lissianna asked with amusement, relaxing back in his arms and toying with the buttons of his shirt. "It's probably good you stopped at the donut shop. I doubt you'd have been in this good a mood if I'd kept you hanging about for an hour."

He shrugged mildly. "You didn't know I was here."

Lissianna nodded absently, her gaze on the button she was fiddling with until Greg gave her a squeeze, and said, "I recognize that look, it's your 'worrying' look. What's up?"

"I was just wondering--"

"Worrying," Greg corrected dryly.

"If you'd thought about what this will do to your practice," she went on, ignoring the interruption.

"Ah," he said solemnly. "You mean you're worrying that it will affect my practice and I'll resent its affecting my practice and come to resent you for turning me."

Lissianna smiled wryly at being so easy to read. "You're pretty smart, huh?"

"Smart enough to recognize a good woman when I see her," Greg said easily, then pressed a kiss to her forehead, and said, "In fact, I have thought about that and it's not a worry. Most of my clients are employed and prefer evening appointments that don't interfere with their work. Up until now I've spent most of the day working on my book and updating patient notes, and the late afternoon and evening in sessions with patients." He shrugged. "Now I'll only take patients from five o'clock on and work on my book while you're at work, then sleep during the day."

Lissianna frowned. "So you'll be working while I'm off and writing while I'm working?"

Greg blinked. "That's right," he said slowly as realization sank in. "You start work at eleven o'clock and I'd probably be taking patients until ten. We'd never see each other." Now he was frowning too. "Maybe I could--"

"No wait," Lissianna said quickly, her mind working swiftly. "You wouldn't see clients on Saturday and Sunday, so if I changed my nights off to Monday and Tuesday, then it would only be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday that we didn't see much of each other."

"So I'd see you half the week? I don't think so," he said with dry displeasure, then blinked and a slow smile started on his lips.

"What?" Lissianna asked.

"It's just nice to know you do want to continue to see me," he said quietly. "I haven't been sure where I stood. You didn't seem to want to discuss the future."

Lissianna sighed and leaned her forehead against his chin. "I'm sorry. I was just a little..."

"Scared?" he suggested, when she hesitated.

"Yes, maybe. And a little overwhelmed too, I think. It's all happened so fast." She lifted her head and assured him, "We'll talk about it all when we get home; us, our hours, everything. Weil figure out a way to make it all work out."

"Okay." Greg hugged her, then he pulled away and gave her bottom a slap. "Go on, get your note written so we can get out of here. The sun will be coming up soon, and I'm already hungry again. I shouldn't be, I had a bag of blood before I left the house."

"You'll be hungry a lot for the next little while," Lis-sianna said sympathetically as she slipped from his arms.

"Yeah. Your family has been warning me about all the things to expect," he murmured, watching her reclaim her seat and pull a notepad in front of her. "Thomas has also promised to show me how to hunt some night while you're at work, so I won't be completely clueless if there's ever an emergency, and I need to feed off the hoof."

Lissianna stiffened and peered up at him to ask archly, "He has, has he?"

"Why, Lissianna, my love. Is that a touch of green I see in your eyes? And here I thought they were silvery blue."

Lissianna scowled at his teasing. "It would seem to me you know how to feed off the hoof. You've certainly practiced on me enough."

"How's that letter coming?" he asked with a grin.

Mouth twisting, Lissianna turned her attention down to her note and continued writing.

"I'll make a deal with you," Greg said as he watched her write.

"What's that?" she asked absently.

"You promise to bite only other women from now on, and I'll promise that when Thomas takes me out to teach me, I'll bite only another man."