“Curran and Kate stood by the door.“I can’t believe you decided to come down here and check on me,” she said.“The guy once handed you a fan and told you to fan yourself if the sight of his naked torso was too much.”“That was like a year ago. Will you let it go already?”“No.” Curran grabbed her and pulled her to him, kissing her. “Never.”She kissed him back and smiled.Awww. Kate and the Beast Lord sitting in a tree…”

“Kate stood by the door with her arms crossed.That was an anti-Curran pose. What the hell was the Beast Lord doing here?I padded to the door.“First, you didn’t come home.” Curran’s voice held zero humor. “Second, I’m told that my mate is lingering in Raphael’s house. There can’t be any good reason for you to be here.”“Are you spying on me, Your Furriness?” Kate asked.”

“The rage of the Beast Lord was a terrible thing to behold. Some people stormed, some punched things, but Curran slipped into this icy, bone-chilling calm. His face hardened into a flat mask, and his eyes turned into a molten inferno of pure gold. If you looked at it for longer than two seconds, your muscles locked, your knees shook, and you had to fight to keep from cringing. It was easier to look at the floor,but I didn’t. Besides, he wasn’t angry with me. He wasn’t even angry with Kate. He was angry with Anapa. I had no doubt that if he could’ve gotten a hold of the god at that moment, he would’ve broken him in half.“It’s only ribs,” Kate told him. “And they’re not even broken. They are fractured.”“And the hip,” Doolittle said. “And the knee.”There you go. Don’t expect mercy from a honeybadger.“How long do you need to keep her?” Curran looked to Doolittle.“She can go to her quarters, provided she doesn’t leave them,” Doolittle said. “I can’t do anything else with the magic down. She must stay down until I can patch her up.”“She will.” Curran reached for Kate. “Hey, baby. Ready?”She nodded. Curran slid his hands under her and picked her up, gently, as if she weighed nothing.“Good?” he asked.She put her arm around him. “Never better.”

“You like doing that, don't you?''Yes, I like kissing you.''No,' she said, 'lifting me off my feet. Carrying me around. Pulling me down to kiss you whenever you get the urge.' She turned to him with a mock glare. 'I think it goes hand in hand with the telling me what to do stuff.'He didn't let go of her hand as he lifted his to run the back of one knuckle down her cheek. 'You like it, too.”

“As he passed me, he leaned to Curran and handed him a paper fan folded from some sort of flyer.Curran looked at the fan. “What?”"An emergency precaution, Your Majesty. In case the lady faints.”Curran just stared at him.Raphael strode toward the Pit, turned, flexed a bit, and winked at me."Give me that,” I told Curran. “I need to fan myself.”"No, you don’t.”

“If you think it means I'm asking you to move in with me, you'd be right." Her expression turned more serious. "If you also think it means that I wake up every morning wondering what I did to deserve having you back in my life, well, you'd be right about that, too."Jack just sat there for a moment, just... stunned. No one had ever said anything like that to him."Come here," he said huskily. He grabbed her chair and pulled it toward his. He kissed her, softly at first, then his hand moved to her back and pushed her close as his emotions got the better of him. He pulled back to hold her gaze. "I love you, Cameron. You know that, right?"She kissed him back, whispering the words in his ear. "I love you, too.”