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"You got smacked by your teacher?"

"Teachers I had a variety of the I ever got was during s" He grimaced "I stepped on Taliesin’s harp and broke it"

"You did not"

"Scout’s honor"

"You were never a Boy Scout"

"Just an expression"

"So ‘Scout’s honor’when you say it"

His eyes twinkled, but he kept his gaze on his task She was curious now, though "So were you instructed by Merlin, too?"

He grunted "We were on different paths while he was alive I had the good fortune to study with soh every century Some of the best ones were quiet ertips,them warmer, then pulled her in closer to tuck both of her hands under his are of his warreat manuscripts for the libraries of the Church and the wealthy And not all of those monks did it as a tedious exercise Many really read what they were transcribing The works of great Greek philosophers, Renaissance scientists, obscure texts by Samurai warriors, you name it Monks were keepers of the word, and they studied theo to certain monasteries to seek counsel One of my favorites, and hteen hundreds He eventually left his order to become servant to a vampire queen"

"You made that up"

"Did not I actually did some work to protect her froain later I let her believe that was an ancestor of ht it Woht played with the somber cast of his eyes, so she wasn’t sure as truth and asn’t "Like that e, the ability to question that which most people don’t And you’ve used it to take your abilitiesher "No, now, don’t get all fuzzed up like a cat Hearwith… You may think you have to handle all that alone, and you probably have your reasons for believing that But I’ you need to talk over, you can talk to me I can’t promise to be perfect about it, but I’ll do ic user, not as your lover Okay?"

She studied hiive itat the sky "Dao now Just for a few hours I’ll be back byweek, so you can use ht?"

She tried to quell her disappointment, the resentain, like a candy held out and then jerked out of reach, a child’s taunt Psyche Why’d he coain?

Then she thought of the urgency hich they’d coether She’d been iht about his perspective, the fierce insistence of his kisses, the hard need of his body She sed

"Got a date?" She put an acid bite in her voice so she didn’t give away her reaction to the fanciful idea that he hadn’t wanted to wait anotherup in Atlanta" He curled a strand of her irl"

"Sorry; that’s where I keepI’ll be sure and ht be nice if you earing nothing"