that my last few lines had been the exact sort of thing a churchman might say to churchwomen having an argument.
Rules. I had just set boundaries, demanded actions and attitude changes. Like a churchman demanded of his women. Shame curled inside my heart. “Well, dang,” I muttered.
“That was impressive, Nell, sugar.”
I opened my eyes to see Occam in the open doorway between our rooms. I hadn’t heard him come in. He was leaning against the jamb, ankles crossed, arms loose, damp hair hanging forward and curling under his scarred jaw. He had already showered and changed into faded jeans and a long-sleeved Henley tee in a soft faded purple shade. I always looked at his neatly trimmed nails, and he smiled when my eyes dropped down to his toes. He scratched them into the low-pile carpet, much like a cat might scratch on a post, letting me look. They were so different from my deceased husband’s old beat-up feet and long thick jagged nails. Something in my middle flickered, heated, and spread, bright and quick, like fireflies in the night, calling to one another. My cat-man was here. Feeling light as a . . . as a sprite, maybe, I stared at him, taking in his damp hair, his slightly scruffy face, at the way the Henley conformed to his long, lean chest, committing this image to memory, so I could pull it up again, anytime I wanted. The fireflies in me multiplied and I placed the cell facedown on the bed.
“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop,” he said, “but the door was open. I only heard the last bit.”
“I was pretty loud. I reckon I didn’t care who heard me.” I looked from the phone back to him. “I love you, Occam,” I said.
His eyes began to glow the yellow of his cat.
“I apologize for my jealousy,” I said. “I renounce the church and the fear and the jealousy that made me react to Etain’s interest in you. I also renounce treating my sisters like churchwomen instead of equal partners. Sometimes I’m just all kinds a stupid.”
He had begun to grin as I listed my sins. It was the kind of grin that said he thought I was cute as a kitten. Adorable. Even when I got all thorny and prickly. One hand had been held at his side, slightly behind his hip. He drew it forward and in his fingers was a single, long-stemmed lavender rose.
“It’s called Sterling Silver,” Occam said, as its fragrance filled the space between us.
John had brought me wildflowers, but never anything so magnificent. Something bittersweet and urgent and needy flooded into the fireflies within me.
Tears caught at my eyes; my chest twisted into some impossible spasm of delight. My words shuddered when I said, “I love you and I know you love me.”
“With all I am and all I ever shall be. With all my heart and soul. With my claws and fangs and with my human body. With your leaves or without. With thorns, like this rose, or smooth-stemmed like an oak. To the full moon and back.”
“Oh. My,” I said, the strange tears spilling over. “So. Cat-man-who-loves-me. Where are T. Laine and FireWind?”
“Busy,” he growled. “At least an hour behind me.”
I had thought my question and his answer were an invitation, but he didn’t move. Didn’t say anything else. But then, he had placed our entire relationship at my feet, in my hands. And . . . we had an hour. A whole, entire hour. Alone. I got up and walked to him, touched his chest with one hand and touched his hand, holding the rose, with my other. His skin was cat-man heated. He smelled of hotel soap and shampoo and I curled my fingers around his. Pushed him gently into his room. I shut and locked the door to my room, the one I would share with T. Laine. Slowly, I spun us and pulled him after me, crawling up onto his bed, and patted the plump pillows. “C’mere, cat-man. I got some making up to do, and I plan to do it in this here bed.”
Occam purred, a full-on throat-vibrating purr. He pulled off his Henley. Balled it up and tossed it across the room.
FIVE
FireWind texted us to gather in his suite for an EOB—end-of-business—debriefing and dinner, as soon as he and T. Laine had a chance to shower off the death stink and change. When we got there, we found pizza boxes with the logo for Bellacino’s Pizza