A Fare To Remember_ Just Whistle_Driven - Vicki Lewis Thompson [96]
Sabina wrapped his arm around her shoulders and helped him inside. He expected her to lead him to the sofa, but instead she took him to her bedroom. “Lie down,” she said.
“Here?”
“No, underneath the bed,” Sabina said. “I’ll go get you something for the pain. I think I have some arsenic around here somewhere.”
“I’m not taking anything that isn’t in a clearly labeled bottle,” Alec called. “I don’t trust you.” He leaned back into the pillows and surveyed his surroundings.
Sabina’s apartment had all the charm of a turn-of-the-century building, coved ceilings and built-in cabinets. She even had a fireplace in the living room. Compared to his overdecorated house, her place seemed homey and comfortable…lived-in. Everywhere he looked he saw bits and pieces of the woman she was—a pretty pillow embroidered with a bunch of violets, a jeweled egg, an old photo of a beautiful woman surrounded by an antique frame.
These were her things, yet he had no idea what they meant to her. He wanted to find out. Alec wanted to know every little detail of her life before him, the dreams she’d had and the disappointments she’d suffered. He’d never be completely satisfied until he knew it all.
Groaning softly, he stretched his hands over his head, trying to work the kinks out of his back. There had to be a way to parlay a momentary twinge into a full night of spasms. Alec was exactly where he’d always hoped to be—in her bedroom. And he had no intention of leaving anytime soon.
CHAPTER FOUR
SABINA STOOD IN THE hallway outside her grandmother’s apartment, wringing her hands and glancing over her shoulder. “I—I don’t know what to do,” she whispered. “This was my first curse. I never thought it would work.”
“Well, I am glad it did,” Ruta said, her voice defiant. “You should have wished that his manhood would have shriveled up and fallen off. A broken leg can heal.”
“Nana! I never meant to hurt him. I was just angry. I said the first thing that came to my mind.”
“And I say a fine time for your powers to show themselves.” Ruta walked out in the hall and peered into the open doorway of Sabina’s apartment. “Where is he?”
“I put him in my bedroom,” Sabina explained.
A horrified expression suffused Ruta’s face. “The son of my enemy is in your bed.” With a long string of Hungarian expletives, Ruta stormed into Sabina’s apartment and headed directly for the bedroom.
Sabina chased after her, pleading with her to stop, but it was no use. She caught up to her beside the bed, where Ruta was standing over Alec, her hands braced on her hips, her mouth pressed into a tight line. “So you have a little problem with a curse?”
Alec glanced over at Sabina and she smiled weakly. “You must be Mrs. Lupescu.” He held out his hand to her grandmother. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Ruta looked at his hand as if he’d just offered her a rotten fish. “There is no pleasure in it. Just this warning. As long as you are in Bina’s apartment, you will behave like a gentleman. If you do not, you will suffer the wrath of one of my curses. And I do not trifle with broken bones.”
She turned on her heel and stormed out, leaving a dumbfounded Alec in her wake. He drew a shaky breath. “Well, I think she likes me. What do you think?”
“Is your back really hurt or are you just malingering to get into my bed?”
Alec feigned shock and disappointment. “How could you think that?”
Sabina arched her brow. “You know, one of the benefits of being psychic is that I can spot a liar a mile away.” She tipped his chin up with her finger and stared intently into his blue eyes.
“Are you trying to read my mind again?” Alec asked.
“Yes,” Sabina lied, an uneasy feeling growing in the pit of her stomach. She couldn’t even figure out what was going on in her head, much less his. Her only thought was to kiss him, to lean forward and press her lips to his and see where it all led. Over the past