Garters and Gargoyles

I’d had a few romantic speeches made to me in my life, but nothing could ever come close to that.

“I need time to think,” I said. It was all I could manage.

“It’s the same as how anyone should spend their life successfully. It’s taking one day at a time. This very popular notion of living in the moment was discovered long ago and is still the best way I know to find happiness. I don’t look at you and think of sixty years ahead. There will be challenges ahead, and we’ll face them together. I look at you and see the woman I want to be with for as long as we have.”

He reached for my hand. “And I believe I could make you happy, Lucy.” I felt my heart pick up its pace. He turned me to him and kissed me, slowly. I pulled away slowly but kept hold of his hand. “Are you proposing?” He chuckled softly. “I’m offering everything I have at your feet.”

He glanced over at me in that moment as though he knew I was thinking about him and gave just a slight smile. It was a ghost of the smile he kept just for me.

I felt as excited as if I’d nailed a new spell. Better, in fact, because if I was right, I’d used deductive reasoning and not magic to find the answer and hopefully catch a killer.

Oh, this was nice. Now I was going to be stuck in the middle of a tug-of-war, with two men pulling at me emotionally.

I didn’t have to hide my true self from Rafe. What I felt for him was deep and complicated, and I couldn’t see how it could end well. Still, there was no doubt that we were more than friends.

Rafe never looked very happy when the subject of Detective Inspector Ian Chisholm came up. Probably because he knew I had dated Ian a few times. The romance hadn’t really gone anywhere, but I think Rafe always worried that one day we might pick it up again. What he had to offer and what Ian Chisholm had to offer were so very, very different. I liked Ian, but my secret powers would always be between us.

He made a sound almost like a growl. “You will not make a match with Lucy and anyone from the Gargoyle Club. Is that clear?”

And, if I knew Rafe, and I did, he’d be waiting to take me home.

I was half tempted to take offense at his controlling manner, except that I knew how much Rafe cared for me.

Rafe interrupted, looking thunderous. “Lucy will not be chasing after some overbred Oxonian who could be a murderer. Is that clear?”