Feeling like a child whose parents were discussing her, Sherry cleared her throat and pointed out, “It’s our turn.”
“Our—? Oh!” Katricia said with surprise as she glanced around to see that the line in front of them was gone and it was their turn at the till. She moved forward at once, and then paused to glance back at Sherry and her father. “What would you like?”
“A small coffee regular and a Boston cream donut,” Sherry said, smiling at the server.
“The same for me,” Basileios murmured as the girl began punching keys on her cash register.
Katricia nodded and turned to finish giving the order, and Sherry glanced at Basileios, a slow smile crossing her lips.
“You ordered food,” she said softly, and then her smile widened as she recalled that he’d been eating breakfast that morning when she joined them. She’d been so kerfluffled by the rush that she hadn’t noted it at the time, but now she recalled that he’d had a plate heaped with bacon and scrambled eggs when she settled at the table.
“I am feeling a bit peckish,” he said, smiling in return. But the heat in his eyes as he slid his arm around her waist and drew her to his side suggested food wasn’t what he was thinking about.
Sherry grinned despite the blush she could feel rising over her face at this sign of his reawakening appetites. She still wasn’t sure that what she’d experienced with him the day before was this shared pleasure business he’d mentioned. The passion had been crazy strong, but it seemed to be her own, not his and hers combined. Still, he couldn’t read her and his appetites were definitely in evidence. She probably was his life mate . . . She just had to decide what she wanted to do about it, she acknowledged, some of her inner glow dimming a bit. So far she liked the guy and had a serious compulsion to jump his bones, but this life mate business was like marriage, as far as she could tell, and she’d only known him a day, not even a full twenty-four hours.
While she was known to be spontaneous and impulsive, jumping into this seemed a bit crazy rather than just impulsive. She really needed to think about her future and what she wanted . . . which didn’t mean she wasn’t going to jump the guy at every opportunity while she was doing so. He had some serious mojo going for him. Sherry was incredibly aware of every inch of male body pressed against her side and had to fight the urge to run her hands over his chest and kiss him. Closing her eyes, she bit her lip and imagined just that, sliding her hands up his chest as she shifted to press against his groin. Claiming his lips with her own and nipping at, then sucking on, the lower one as she—
“Why don’t you two go wait in the van?” Katricia suggested suddenly. “I will take care of this.”
“Good idea,” Basileios said, swinging Sherry away and urging her toward the exit.
Sherry went willingly, but couldn’t help peering at him curiously. He’d practically growled the two words, and the only time she’d heard his voice go that raspy was during their shared passion experiment in the kitchen at the Enforcer house last night. One look at the silver flaring in his eyes told her that his thoughts were running along the same line as her own, so she wasn’t surprised when he hurried her into the back of the van, tugged the door closed and then dropped onto the bench seat and pulled her into his arms. He didn’t have to do much pulling, she was already shifting closer, her arms reaching for him.
His kiss was as exciting as she recalled from the night before. It hadn’t simply been the situation and high adrenaline after the escape from Leonius, which was something she’d considered last night while trying to get to sleep. Any possibility that it was hormones or events that had raised her passions so high fled as his tongue lashed her own.
Dear God, the man was one hell of a kisser, she thought, and moaned when his hand found her breast through the silk of her blouse. When he then undid the top four or five buttons and tugged the shirt and bra aside so he could cup her breast unimpeded, Sherry gasped into his mouth and blinked her eyes open. Groaning as he squeezed and kneaded, she stared blindly out the window behind him, some small part of her mind thinking it might be a good idea to watch for Katricia and the others.
Glimpsing blond hair across the parking lot, she tried to focus, but it wasn’t Katricia. She didn’t think the person was even a female, but someone who looked a great deal like Leonius. Frowning, she focused on the man, trying to see if it was him or not, but in the next moment a semi drove past, blocking her vision, and then Basileios broke their kiss and dropped his head to claim the nipple he’d bared. Sherry glanced down with a gasp as he closed his lips over the already hard nub and began to suckle.
“Oh, God, Basileios, don’t do that. They’ll be back any minute,” she moaned even as she cupped his head to urge him on.
He mumbled something around her nipple and then added an exclamation point to whatever he’d said by sliding one hand down to cup her between the legs through her skirt. Sherry cried out and covered his hand, pressing it more firmly against herself, all thoughts of the blond man in the parking lot slipping from her mind.
In the next moment, she was on her back on the bench seat with Basileios on top of her, his groin grinding against her own through their clothes as his hands replaced his mouth at her breast and he returned to kissing her again. Every nerve in Sherry’s body was clamoring now and straining toward the explosive release she was sure was coming. Her legs were wrapped around his hips for a better angle and her hands were alternating between pulling at his clothes and squeezing his behind to urge him on, and then the sound of the door sliding open hit her ears and she heard Stephanie saying, “So try to remember to use contractions more often. You know, he’s, she’s, they’re, and stuff like that and— Hey, how come the windows are all fogged up?”
Basileios froze and then broke their kiss and lifted his head to give her an apologetic smile.
Sherry stared back wide-eyed as it slowly occurred to her that she’d been dry humping in the back of the van, something she hadn’t done since she was a teenager. And they’d been caught, she realized as Basileios eased off of her and shifted to sit on the end of the bench as she heard Stephanie say, “Oh, there you are.” There was a pause and then she offered, “We can go back inside for five or ten minutes if you like. But I’m not dressing you guys and buckling you in when we come back to find you both passed out and naked.”
“Get in.” Drina’s voice sounded half amused and half exasperated as she gave the order, and Sherry felt the van shift as Stephanie climbed in. Realizing that she was laying there with her top open and her breast still out of her bra, Sherry quickly straightened and did up her clothes, then ran her hands through her hair as she shifted her legs off the seat and sat up.
“Hungry?” Stephanie asked with a grin as she settled on the bench seat in front of them. She raised the Tim Horton’s bag she carried and added, “For food I mean.”
Sherry responded with the maturity she was known for and stuck her tongue out at the girl.
Stephanie just burst out laughing.
“I like her.”
Basileios turned from watching Sherry disappear up the curving staircase to the second floor of Casey Cottage, and smiled at his daughter. “I do too.”
“Good thing since she’s your life mate,” Katricia said on a laugh.
“Yeah,” he agreed, and then raised his eyebrows. “Are you heading back to Teddy’s now?”
“Nope. He’s actually on his way here,” she said wryly, and then explained, “Lucian asked us to stay for a day or so until they have a better handle on the Leonius situation. I talked to Teddy, he agreed, and was going to pack bags for both of us and meet us here. He should arrive any minute.”
Basileios didn’t hide his surprise at this news and asked dryly, “What? Lucian didn’t think six rogue hunters in the house were sufficient?”