Sherry stilled and glanced toward the crack of light around the door. It sounded like Stephanie’s wary voice, she noted, but took her cue from Basil and remained silent.
“Sherry? Basil? Is that you two in the closet?”
Basil sagged with defeat, and it was Sherry who said, “No,” on a laugh.
“Yeahhhh . . . rrrrright,” Stephanie drawled, and then sighed with exasperation. “You do know you’re in a boardinghouse, right? I mean, there are a ton of bedrooms in this place and you both have one. Why are you in the linen closet?”
“Because Basil has no pants on,” Sherry admitted with a wicked grin.
Basil groaned at her announcement, but he wasn’t alone. Stephanie groaned too and then said, “Oh, that’s just gross. He isn’t touching any of the linens is he? I don’t want Basil’s bare butt prints on the next face towel I use. Gawddddd. You life mates are all crazy.”
“I am not touching the linens,” Basil announced with what Sherry considered great aplomb considering the situation. “And we shall be moving along just as soon as you leave the hall. I simply did not wish to alarm you . . . and possibly ruin your dinner,” he added dryly.
“Too late,” Stephanie announced. “Well, you can come out. I’m going to my room to get something. Please, please, please move the party to Sherry’s room or yours before I come back.”
“Certainly,” Basil responded with dignity.
“Good. I’m going now,” Stephanie announced. “Count to ten before you come out so I can get to my room.”
“Of course,” Basil said on a sigh.
“Where is her room?” Sherry asked curiously.
“The back right corner if you are facing the house. On the other side of the small hall to the sunroom,” Basil answered as they listened to her footsteps move away.
“Oh,” Sherry murmured, and then smiled wryly when she heard a door slam shut from that direction.
“I believe it is safe, if you could get the door?” Basil said in a ridiculously polite voice.
Sherry reached for the doorknob, quickly opened the door and then closed it again after Basil carried her out. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders again as he carried her to her room.
“You do know you are a menace, do you not?” Basil asked conversationally as he walked.
“Am I?” Sherry asked with amusement.
“First seducing me in the sunroom, then trying to keep me in the sunroom when I very chivalrously tried to bring you to somewhere safe from prying eyes and then, ‘Because Basil has no pants on,’” he quoted back to her dryly. “Was that punishment for not letting you have your way with me in the sunroom and insisting on moving to another room?”
“Yep,” she admitted.
“Yep?” he echoed, apparently surprised she’d admit as much.
Sherry shrugged unrepentantly and then reached out to open the door to her bedroom when he stopped in front of it. “Guess I’m just a naughty girl,” she said as the door opened. Turning back, she grinned and asked, “What are you going to do about it?”
“I’ll think of something,” Basil muttered, carrying her into the room and kicking the door shut with one foot.
Eight
“So then I look out the window, and the shed’s on fire,” Victor said, shaking his head. “And who do you think is locked inside?”
“Elvi?” Sherry and Basil guessed together, both grinning with amusement.
“Exactly,” Victor said, and reached out to squeeze his wife’s hand affectionately as he added, “The woman nearly got herself killed half a dozen times after we first met. If it weren’t for the nanos, I would have hair as white as snow now.”
“Fortunately, you do have nanos,” Elvi said dryly, and then pointed out, “Besides, you were the biggest threat to my life. You were here hunting me.”
“What?” Sherry squawked, dropping her fork onto her plate with a clang that drew as much attention from the other guests in the restaurant as her shocked cry did.
“Victor was a Rogue Hunter,” Elvi told her with a nod. “He was sent to hunt me down and bring me in for judgment.”