Going back inside, I slipped off my nightshirt while another cup of coffee was brewing. I had become used to being naked around Rafe and the idea of either him or Cris coming out of her boudoir and finding me naked drinking coffee was actually titillating. I toyed with the idea of going back outside and hanging my nightshirt over a chair to dry. But then I decided that would be a little obvious.
Instead, I carried my coffee and wet shirt back into the bedroom to dress.
A couple of hours later, the two lovebirds finally opened their bedroom door and came into the kitchen. They were leaning into each other and the fingers of their nearer hands were interlaced. Rafe had slipped on jeans rather than his usual leathers, I guessed that meant we weren’t hitting the road immediately or expecting trouble. At least that was why I had chosen jeans and one of my few blouses. Cris was wearing another sleeveless sundress, this one of a similar fabric, but with little yellow flowers on a blue background. While the hem dropped below her knees, the neckline showed off the swell of her breasts.
“Well?” I asked.
“Well?” Rafe repeated.
“Did you wear him out?” I said, looking at Cris.
Cris ginned and bumped Rafe’s hip with her own, knocking him off balance. “Did I, Rafe?”
He copied her grin and shook his head. “No, well used, but not worn out.”
I nodded and went back to my third, or fourth, cup of coffee. I’d found bread and a toaster so I’d eaten toast an hour or more earlier. There’d also been butter in the enormous refrigerator and honey near the bread, but now that they were up, I was thinking about a good breakfast.
“Have you been up long?” Rafe asked.
“For a while, the Keurig is ready. Do you want me to make you a cup?”
“Yes, thanks.”
“Put one on for me when his is done. So, who wants breakfast?” Cris asked.
Both Rafe and I did. I knew why he’d be hungry, but ever since he told me to load up on calories in case I was injured, I was used to eating a big breakfast. It’s not as if either of us maintained a spare tire, but Rafe was solid and I had what he described as nice curves.
Cris let go of Rafe’s hand and raided the Frost King for sausage, eggs, cheese, peppers, and onions.
Thirty minutes later, my tummy was full of scrambled eggs with veggies and cheese, biscuits and sausage, and orange juice. It was an excellent meal and the sausage had just enough of a spicy kick to make it tasty.
I told Cris as much and she took my cleaning my plate as a compliment.
Since she’d done most of the cooking, I insisted on cleaning up while Rafe and Cris finished their second cups of coffee. They got a third cup apiece and moved to the back deck. I switched to decaf and joined them.
“Well, did you have any ideas after sleeping on Rafe’s problem?”
Cris eyed me as though I’d spoken a double entendre. I hadn’t, well, at least not deliberately. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
She grinned at me and then Rafe jumped as she did something to him out of sight beneath the table. “Actually, I do have a few thoughts on the matter.”
“That’s good to hear,” Rafe said. “Care to share?”
“You said you have some kind of night magic taint still in you and I agree with that. Your aura has changed. When we met, you had that false green aura of earth magic, but when you dropped it around me your aura had some green, but a pronounced gray overlaying everything. Now there are patterns of black running through your gray. If it’s showing up in your aura, then it must really be impacting you.”
I looked at Rafe and activated my enhanced senses tat. Concentrating, I could see what Cris was talking about. It was so obvious, that I was surprised I hadn’t noticed it earlier.
“Yes, I was afraid that it would be pretty obvious to other magic users. I can’t even alter my aura until I get this crap out of me,” Rafe said.
“About that, I think you need some form of exorcism. White magic is about the only thing that can cleanse a body of this sort of contamination. Oh, by the way, it hasn’t affected your soul. I took a good look into your eyes yesterday and there’s no sign of a change from when I first met you.”
“Thank God for small favors,” Rafe groused.
“That’s not a small favor,” Cris corrected. “If it had tainted your soul, I’m not sure even a white magic user could have cleaned it.”
“Ah, Cris, what do you mean when you said you read his soul by looking into his eyes?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, Tess, I thought Rafe told you about me.”
I glanced at Rafe. He frowned and shook his head. “Sorry, I didn’t really mean to keep something from you; I just didn’t think to tell you.”
“What didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Tess,” Cris said. “I have a rare ability to see into a person’s soul when I look into their eyes. It’s not perfect, but I can almost always get a good indication of the basic motivations in a person.”
“And that’s why you stopped right in front of me and spent all that time staring at me? What did you see?” I asked, suddenly uncomfortable that Rafe’s lover could actually read my soul.
Cris leaned across the table and took my hand. She gave it a light squeeze and then smiled reassuringly. “Nothing bad, Tess. I saw that you were a good soul. That you are fair and trustworthy. That you’ll do anything for Rafe.”
