Chapter 185

Russo’s POV

Lisa leaned to stretch and slump back in the chair beside me. “Where did your friend go?” she asked.

My head jerked up in surprise, and I glanced around the room. Randy was nowhere to be seen.

“I don’t know,” I said. “He must have gone next door to talk to Justin and Helen.

“Really?” Lisa asked in surprise. She cocked her head and nodded in the direction of the clock.

I followed her gaze, shocked to see that it said one in the morning.

“Do you really think he went over there at this time of night?”

I glanced at the door between our rooms. “Maybe. Do you have any idea how long he’s been gone?”

Lisa shook her head. “I was so involved in the work that we were doing I don’t know what time he left.”

“Me neither,” I agreed. “I think we can safely say he’s been gone a while.”

I leaned back and stretched, as well. “We’ve been at this for hours, and while we’ve come up with a solution, and that’s fantastic, I don’t think there’s much more we can do by continuing to read tonight. Besides, we already know we’ve got two weeks to work on this.”

I was actually a little disappointed that Randy had gone and left. We had two double beds in our room, and a tiny little part of me wished that he was sleeping in one of them because that would have given me an excuse to invite Lisa to join me in the other under the guise of not disturbing him.

But now we had two beds, and I had no reason to ask for her company. I don’t know when in the last five or six hours of working with her, I had gotten attached, but I had. I also really hoped I wasn’t reading the signals wrong because I swear that she felt the same about me.

Ever since we’d gotten deeply involved in the book, every time she wanted to show me something, she would gently touch my hand before pointing it out. And when we were reading together, she would lean against my shoulder, tipping her head towards mine so that we could both share the book.

Maybe it was because we were both part of an endangered species, or maybe it was just the desperateness of our situation, but something seemed to have sped up my infatuation with her. I’d lived amongst witches and wizards for a very long time, and I’d never felt the sort of attraction to any of them before.

Not that falling in such a desperate and concrete manner would make sense anyway. Fae and witches and wizards weren’t like werewolves and lycans. We didn’t have a spirit animal behind us choosing a mate for us.

Before my kind had been almost wiped out, I remembered some of the older teens talking about magical connections. They made it sound like the human equivalent of tantric sex, something deeper than just a skin-on-skin interaction, an act that drew two people together in a nearly spiritual way.

But before I’d been old enough to experience something like that with any of the other fae, they were gone. I’d been involved with a couple of witches, but something about Lisa made me feel warm all over every time I looked at her.

And we were back to the only thing I could think of that was different at this moment was that my feelings had to be a byproduct of our desperate situation.

But even if it was, would it be so wrong to get involved with her? We could both use some companionship and a little bit of distraction.

While I rolled all of this over in my head, she had ducked into the bathroom to change into pajamas. She hadn’t come with any sort of bag because she’d come right after work with Helen, so she must have used some sort of magic to conjure up the little camisole and shorts she came out in.

If I thought my reaction to her had been strong before, it was nothing to what I felt now. She had slim curves and small but appealingly perky breasts. Thank God for camisoles because, through the thin fabric, I could clearly see her nipples.

Everything in me wanted to tweak one. Or, even better, put it in my mouth and see what would happen from there. Her flawless skin was the color of cream, and now that her long dark hair was out of a ponytail, I could see it cut well below her shoulders, straight and silky.

Did she have any idea what a horrible tease she was, just standing in my room looking that tempting?

“My turn to use the restroom,” I said, hurrying in before she caught my indiscretion.

My pants had suddenly grown very tight over a painfully hard erection. My body wanted her, but I refused to be shallow enough to request that of her. We’d only met a few hours ago, and we’d talked about nothing except destroying the Huntsman. I was nothing if not a romantic, and I refused to take advantage of the moment for a single night of sex, no matter how pleasurable it might be.

I quickly pleasured myself to put myself in a calmer state. Then I changed into my pajamas, brushed my teeth, and headed back to bed, sure that now I would be able to rest more comfortably around Lisa.

She was tucked into her bed when I came out, and I flipped off the lights, snuggling down under my own covers. Almost the moment I finished moving to settle in, Lisa’s quiet voice came from across the room.

“Russo?”

“Yes, Lisa.”

“Can I . . . can we talk for a bit?”

“If you’d like,” I agreed.

A moment later, I got a cold draft of air as she lifted the covers, and the bed jostled as she climbed in. She settled on the pillow next to me, squirming around and getting herself tucked under the covers before speaking.

I let her do her thing. Clearly, she was uncomfortable with whatever she wanted to talk about. Or nervous.

My heart fluttered at that. Maybe she wanted me the way I wanted her.

Unfortunately, for my libido, she broke the silence to ask, “Does it scare you? Being the last of your kind and all.”

My whole self deflated like she’d thrown cold water across me. “Not in the way you’d think,” I said.” I’ve had some time to consider this, and honestly, I think living as the only one of my kind is far more frightening than dying and leaving everything behind.”

It was my turn to squirm uncomfortably. “Honestly, I’m not sure how Justin does it. Maybe it’s because he knows that any pups he has with Helen will be lycans. Since lycans have the dominant gene, he can slowly repopulate by marrying his children off to compatible werewolves. It’ll be time-consuming, but he doesn’t have to be the last of his kind.”

“I haven’t had any word from any other witches or wizards,” she whispered. “What if I’m the last of my kind?”

I reached under the covers and found her hand and squeezed it. “Then we can be the last together,” I told her quietly. “At least then we wouldn’t have to be alone.”

She didn’t answer me, but she also didn’t let go of my hand.

The next thing I knew, sunlight streamed through the cracks in the curtains, giving the room a slight glow from their shafts of light. Lisa was curled in against my shoulder, and something about the morning felt complete.

She signed and stretched out long against me, drawing up that very visceral response again. Her eyes fluttered open, and she gazed up at me, smiling.

“Thank you for keeping me company last night.”

“It was my pleasure,” I said. And meant every word.

“Somehow, just knowing I have a companion makes the idea of everything we’re going to be doing just a little less difficult.”

I moved my arm so that it wasn’t just underneath her but actually holding her and gave her a little squeeze. “I agree,” I said.