Spirit Bound - Christine Feehan [137]
“Thomas. Think Thomas all the time. You can’t think of me as Stefan. And you have nothing to worry about, Judith. I said forever and I meant it. I’m a fairly single-minded man.”
“I meant it too. My sisters will eventually accept you. They have Levi. He kind of grows on you.” She paused, and then gave a little sigh. “When he’s not forcing us all to learn self-defense.”
“You know I’ll side with him on that issue,” Stefan said, unrepentant. “I’ll probably be far worse than he is. And we’re getting a couple of dogs. Big ones.”
“I’m a little concerned about the dog issue. Rikki brought it up the other night and we discussed it. Everyone seemed to be okay with it with the exception of Lissa. She’s sort of a warrior woman and I would expect her to totally want dogs on the property, but she was very silent on the subject. She didn’t advocate for them. Airiana did, but Lissa stayed quiet. I asked her if she was okay with getting dogs, but she didn’t exactly answer me.”
“Would the others balk if she did?”
“We tend to do everything around here together. It’s worked in the past. Blythe is the leader and the most diplomatic. She reads people very well,” Judith explained.
“I doubt if she reads them as well as you do. You’re empathic.”
She yawned and hastily covered it with her hand. “I thought I hid that very well.”
“Not from me.” He stood up, taking the mug from her hand and putting it on the small tray table beside his chair. “Come on, angel, you’re exhausted. I’m putting you to bed.”
“We get into trouble when we’re in bed. I thought I’d just sleep right here.”
Stefan shook his head and leaned down to pick her up, cradling her close to his chest. “I don’t think so, baby. You’d hurt your neck. I can restrain myself when it’s necessary.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned into him. “I wasn’t worried about you restraining yourself. It turns out I don’t have any discipline. At all. Not when it comes to you.”
Stefan took her through the open French doors to her bedroom, bending his head to reach her tempting mouth. She tasted of chocolate and passion, an inviting combination. He acknowledged to himself it might have been a mistake to kiss her. Once he started, he always found it difficult to stop. Kissing her was fast becoming a favorite pastime and it definitely led to other, erotic and pleasurable things, but she really was exhausted and he had work to do.
With a small sigh, he lifted his head and took her on through to the master bath. “Brush your teeth and I’ll rinse out your chocolate mug.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“You never go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink.”
She shrugged. “I don’t like to wake up to them.”
He sent her a small, smug smile over his shoulder as he went to collect the mug. “I know.” He had made it his mission to know everything about her in the short time they were together. He retained information, small details, easily and he filed everything about her away, her likes and dislikes, the things that annoyed her and the things that intrigued her.
Essentially, Judith was a happy person. She enjoyed life, loved her sisters and her work. She saw in color and to her, everything and everyone was a blank canvas she painted in her head. She took great joy in making kaleidoscopes for people all over the world, choosing each thing that went into them with tremendous care. The scope she had completed for Hannah Drake Harrington, the sheriff’s wife, was a perfect example. Hannah intended to use the kaleidoscope to focus on during her labor, and Judith had made it as easy to see the images as it was to turn the cell during difficult labor.
Maybe that was her secret: the caring of individuals. He didn’t have that, and maybe he never would, but he could feel the intensity of her spirit and it made him proud of her. He “got” her. He saw her. Even her sisters couldn’t see her the way he did—well, maybe Blythe could. Blythe was different. Not an element, but she had tremendous gifts.
“Are you coming to bed?”
Judith sounded