Sibyl threw herself on the bed and he watched as she bounced then came up on both her elbows and awarded him with a dazzling smile as she settled on her belly.
“I’ll move back to Brightrose at the weekend after she’s gone,” she told him, clearly (and inaccurately) having it all planned out.
“No,” he stated firmly.
She blinked in adorable confusion and her smile faded before she asked, “What?”
“You’re not moving back to Brightrose.”
Her relaxed and happy body froze and then she pushed herself up to her knees, resting her bottom on her calves and stared down at him.
“It’s safe now, she’s been caught. I can go home and you and I can, well… do things normally, like normal couples do. Like go out on normal dates and –”
She stopped because finally, after all the events of the day, that he found hilarious and he threw back his head and let out a sharp bark of laughter.
“What’s funny?” she asked over his hilarity, her brow furrowed and her eyes beginning to move from hazel to green.
“You want to date?” His voice was dripping with amused incredulity.
She pulled in both of her lip. Then said quietly, “Don’t you?”
He thought about pushing himself up to be eye-to-eye with her but decided against it and his hand snaked out and grasped her wrist, giving it a gentle yank and pulling her down. He rolled on his back and positioned her on top of him.
“I think we’re beyond dating,” he noted.
“What’s ‘beyond dating’?” She looked confused and very wary.
He gathered her hair away from her face and held it in a tumbled bunch behind her head in one hand while his other went to rest on her lovely, rounded bottom.
“You’re moving into Lacybourne, permanently.” He, too, had it all planned out. However his plan was the only plan.
Her head shifted slightly to the side and she watched him out of the corners of her eyes as her lips puckered. Then she whispered, “I don’t think so.”
“I don’t think you have a choice,” Colin returned.
Her body started and her eyes definitely switched, blazing an emerald green. “You can’t just order me to move in with you!”
“I just did.”
She put her hands on either side of his chest on the bed and pressed herself upwards but he came up with her and flipped her on her back, resting his weight on her.
“You’re… I don’t even know what you are!” Sibyl snapped, her temper hitting altitude.
“Sibyl, can you please tell me why everything has to be a struggle with you?” Colin asked, what he thought was patiently.
Her eyes rounded. “I have a home, a business, a life. I… you… you and I –”
“Yes?”
She clamped her mouth shut, unable to find any feasible reason why she shouldn’t move in with him.
“I didn’t think so,” he drawled knowingly and he couldn’t help but grin when she made a grumpy, frustrated noise in the back of her throat.
His knee pressed between her legs and they parted (even her legs moved mutinously, but they still moved) and he slid his hands slowly down the backs of her thighs to pull them up at the knees.
“Give me one good reason to move in with you,” she demanded and, if his chest wasn’t pressed against hers, he had no doubt she would have crossed her arms.
“I like you in my house.”