Robin came back in with a can of pop in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. He held out the water as he kicked the door shut again behind him. “Here. Are you all right?”
I gave him my best superior stare and a cool tone. “Of course. Why?”
Most men backed down when I treated them to Alaric-the-cold-bastard. Robin got a glitter in his eyes. “Because I fucked your pretty mouth hard, and I hope you’re not regretting it.”
No one had ever called me pretty, in any way. I didn’t like it. Much. I twisted the cap off the bottle and poured cool water down my throat. Which Robin had fucked.Big mistake. I’m distracted as hell.I couldn’t manage to regret seducing him, though.Because it worked, of course.“You weren’t that rough.”
Robin’s eyes darkened and he ran the tip of his tongue around the rim of his pop can.
I ignored the effect on my apparently not-fully-spent dick. “By the way, I’m a fan of old furniture. What will you sell thisarmoire for?” I waved at the cabinet. “It would fit well in my study.”
“It needs a lot of refinishing.” Robin eyed the piece, his head tilted. “Once that’s complete, maybe eight hundred? Although I’m thinking of keeping that one. It’s unique.”
Damn.“I’d love to learn refinishing,” I lied. “Maybe I could buy that cabinet as is and bring it home, and you could come over togive me lessons.” I gave his crotch a suggestive leer.
Robin shook his head. “Without all the right power tools, you’d spend months working on it. I tried a little sandpaper and whatever that wood is, it’s hard as hell. I have all the equipment here.” Then he broke into a wicked grin, making my stupid dick twitch again. “If you want to learn refinishing, I work here in the evenings after we’re closed. You could come on back, and I could teach you a few things.”
I managed a matching smile. I couldn’t make headway with opening the cabinet if I was working under his supervision, but maybe I could finagle some alone time with that hulk of malevolent furniture. “I’ll take you up on that offer.” I licked my lips to suggest it wasn’t the cabinet I meant. “Are you working tonight?”
“Tonight?” Robin chuckled. “Eager, are we? Sadly, I have to do some shopping and there’s an online chat group I should check in with. Friday?”
“Friday, then.” I didn’t show my relief at having a clear field tonight. I’d break in and take a real shot at the cabinet, unhampered by time and noise limits. I had plenty of tricks I hadn’t tried. If I still failed, I could persuade someone to help me steal it on Thursday.
“We need to get back to work.” Robin tugged his shirt straighter and buttoned his jacket. “I guess tomorrow I can skip the managerial costume and come in jeans. And you might aswell call me Robin. Unless you prefer Mr. Forrest? It does have a ring to it.”
I lowered my eyes demurely. “Yes, Mr. Forrest.”
Robin threw his head back and laughed. Watching out of the corner of my eye, I was caught by a powerful desire to grab him and bend him over his workbench. Or perhaps vice versa. The lines had become a bit blurred.
Since this was neither the time nor the place, I followed him out onto the warehouse floor and headed back to help take the hardware off the newly delivered doors. I noted that Robin paused, five paces outside his workshop, then went back and locked the door.
Harry would be fine— there were very few spaces a rat couldn’t get out of, or into— but I wondered what made Robin decide on that lock. I’d opened the door without a problem last time.
There was no way Robin knew what that cabinet was. I’d checked all the employees with my Othersight the first day, and none of them held more than a wisp of magical talent. So what had changed to make him wary? If he doubted my honesty that much, he surely wouldn’t have fucked me.
Or maybe he would. How much of a risk-taker is Robin?
It bothered me that I couldn’t decide. It also bothered me that the idea of him fucking me while restraining me and imagining I was some kind of thief struck me as hot. I’d been mostly vanilla in my sexual tastes until now. After a week of staring at Robin striding around in his suits, and now finding myself on my knees, I was discovering desires I didn’t recognize.
By the time the Three Rs closed its doors at six p.m., I was hot and sweaty and plastered with dust. There was some satisfaction in seeing the stripped oak doors sized, stacked, and labeled, and all the hardware sorted, lubed, and put into bins. We’d already had a remodeler come by and buy ten of the antique hinges right out of my hands, soreusewas already happening. I hadn’trealized this place existed until the Council meeting, but I could imagine volunteering now and then, for a good cause.
Harry was waiting for me under my car in the employee lot. I paused, holding the door open while blocking the view with my legs so he could jump in, then got in after him. He sat on the passenger seat cleaning his whiskers, as I headed for home.
“Any luck checking out the cabinet?” I asked as I pulled up to the first stop sign.
“Nope. It’s an odd one. Got a spell on it, sure enough, that makes me half-forget about it when I turn away. No markings on the outside that I can see, but that nasty, greasy magic taste if I pay attention. I didn’t want to touch the wood.”
“Agreed.” I’d made sure chalk, or paper towel, stayed between my fingers and the surface of the cabinet. “Whatever’s inside, book or not, Fairborn was protecting the contents with a lot of magic. Which means we need to get it open and look.”
“Need to put the whole thing on the flames, if you ask me.” Harry chattered his teeth. “Solve the problem quick and easy.”
“Except then we’ll never know if theKimberwas in there or we still need to look for the book elsewhere. I have to open the compartments before any burning.”
“Fair enough. You got a plan?”
“Depends on what you have for me.”
Harry grinned, baring yellow incisors. “I have the spare back door key, hidden behind a rock. And I have the alarm code. No one looks overhead when they punch those things in. Unless I want ’em to look up, of course.”
