He hadn’t given her a straight answer, but she knew the answer. It was nothing. A pleasant interlude. This, in front of her, that was her life. It was a pretty damn good life.

“Do what you need to do. I’ll get your staff calmed down.”

He meant it, which was shocking enough, but the fact he’d decided to help her was even more unsettling. He touched her arm, a firm grip. “I’m here, Raina. You’re not in this alone. Let me help.”

She gave him a stiff nod. “If for no other reason than I’ll be fascinated to see what you do to calm them down.”

“I’m sure you have a game of Twister somewhere in the house. Twister calms everyone down.”

She looked down, pressing her lips against an aching smile, and he touched her chin. When she lifted her gaze, he bent. He didn’t kiss her mouth; he did something far more devastating. He pressed his lips to that graze on her shoulder, keeping his kiss there long enough that a tremor went through her lower belly. Her hand found its way to his head, fingers burrowing in his hair. She laid her forehead against his temple.

“I’ve been through far worse, Mikhael,” she said. “It’s okay.”

His arms went around her, held her close, and she relented, curling her arms around him under the strong grip of his. “Don’t do that again,” he said against her neck.

“We have very few gunfights. Except on Ride a Cowboy night.”

Lifting his head, he did that gentle stroke over her hair. She was aware of Marisa’s fascinated regard, but then he let her go, pivoted and strode toward the house. She didn’t know what he said to Ana and Luke, the other two who’d come out, but they turned and followed him.

“Li’s doing fine,” Marisa said. “Gina says she’s all right, but I think she’d be better off out of it for tonight. Li says he’s ready to go. What do you need me to do?”

15

RAINA WORKED WITH THE CLEANING STAFF TO MAKE sure the upstairs parlor was restored to its normal appearance, atmospherically and physically. She handled the former and the maids handled the latter. But when she was done, her curiosity got the better of her. Laughter and occasional raised voices, like kids clamoring to be next for a treat, kept drifting up from the first floor. Following the sound to the lower parlor, she discovered Mikhael had indeed found a way to settle her staff, get them in the right mind-set.

With tarot cards.

Somehow he’d found out that Min did readings. In the past, they’d occasionally whiled away a rainy afternoon with the activity, so once he had them pointed in the right direction, it seemed several of them had volunteered to have their fortunes read. Min’s interpretations were of course being subjected to the peanut gallery formed by the rest of them, the source of laughter and raised voices.

It wasn’t just the choice of activity that amazed her. As she stood in the parlor doorway, she realized he’d taken to heart what she’d said about them being children in many ways. He’d apparently moderated his behavior accordingly, because instead of maintaining a cautious distance from him, they were clustered around him like kids around a mall Santa Claus. Okay, maybe not that bad, but still…

Min had talked him into having a tarot reading, so he was the one in the hot seat across from her now. They’d already taken him through several questions. About half of Raina’s staff crowded around the wingback chair he was occupying, the rest around Min.

Sophia was kneeling next to Mikhael’s leg, her bosom pressed into his knee as she leaned over it and offered alternate scenarios, since she and Min both did tarot and regularly argued over interpretations. Catalina sat on the other chair arm, and Mikhael had his hand casually laid along her hip and thigh to steady her as she twisted around to exchange quips with Saul, standing by Mikhael’s one shoulder, Luke hanging over the other. It couldn’t be comfortable to a warrior like Mikhael to have them at his back like that, but he showed no sign of it, exercising his dry wit to win nervous laughter and draw them out.

It was like leaving a room before an execution and coming back to find the hangman and sentenced sharing a Coke and a smile. Cue the swelling overture that assured the viewer that anyone could get along, as long as a soft drink was involved.

She noted Mikhael did appear to have a Coke, which almost made her smile. It broke free when Ana stole a sip from it, thinking he wasn’t paying attention. Good luck with that, sweetie. The man misses nothing. Sure enough, he pinched her, telling her to behave, and though she jumped, he won a cautious, playful smile.

“You have to phrase your questions in a more open-ended way,” Sophia told Mikhael. “Tarot’s not really good for yes/no answers. It’s not an eight-ball reading.”

“You’re not old enough to know what a magic eight ball is,” Mikhael scoffed.

“All those things are retro now.” Aiden smirked. “You probably remember it as going to the Oracle at Delphi for guidance.”

“Actually, the village wisewoman just read the bones.” Mikhael gave him a quelling look. “Stripped out of mouthy youngsters.”

“She is right,” Min said shyly, looking down at the cards. “It’s better to be open-ended. And you really have to choose the questions. I mean, it’s worked okay with me choosing some standard ones, but you should at least choose one or two. Something that’s important to you, not like your last question.” She dared a reproving look at him. “The Universe doesn’t like to be mocked.”

“PB and J or bologna and cheese for lunch is a very important question to me. And the Universe has no problem mocking us. Turnabout is fair play.”

“Choose a question about love,” Ana prompted.

He slanted her an amused glance as Luke and Saul groaned. “Girls always want it to be about love. Min said it had to be important to him.”

“Love is important to men,” Ana protested. “He can ask about it in a way that means something to him. It doesn’t have to be girly and romantic.”

“Yeah, like: Is forever love possible with a large-breasted porn star who can suck chrome off a trailer hitch?”

“I’m in love just hearing about her,” Mikhael agreed with Aiden.

When Min shot them all a searing glare, Mikhael lifted a hand of truce. “All right, then. Let me think.”

It could be wishful thinking, but Raina couldn’t deny how the scenario looked. The way the males were looking at him and the females were drawing closer to him; how they were all being respectful, but also trying to tease, to engage his attention…That authoritative demeanor of his, patient and yet projecting the boundaries of his tolerance…It was what a strong male role model should provide. Very few of her staff had experienced such a thing in their lives, but it didn’t mean they wouldn’t latch on to it.

Mikhael might be horrified by her thoughts, or he might know exactly what he was doing. Now that she’d stepped in the room, she discovered it wasn’t all clever intuition and his nonexistent charm that achieved the impossible. He was putting off a hum of low-level energy that dampened their fears, helped them put away what had happened earlier. But he was also giving them what she herself had enjoyed—the cynical yet somehow appealing edge of his humor and patience.

“What should be the highest priority in my life…love or duty?”

She stilled. While he hadn’t acknowledged her, she was sure he knew she was there. Min drew out the cards. She was using the Gaian Tarot, another exceptionally appropriate choice. Between her and Sophia, they had more than two dozen decks, but the Gaian deck was the one that was about healing, about soothing the agitated heart while offering guidance to bring the viewer back in rhythm and harmony with natural forces. Typically, both females allowed the one being read to choose the deck, and she saw the basket of their inventory behind them. The fact Mikhael had picked the one that reflected his goal with them was just…fascinating.

He’s centuries old, Raina. He knows shit.

She gave herself a mental chuckle. Yeah, he did. Maybe that, even more than the low-level energy around him, was why Sophia was at his knee, and the boys felt brave enough to make male-bonding jokes. Raina herself had experienced both sides of this particular Dark Guardian, hadn’t she?

She tuned back in to his question. Love or duty. What had prompted that one?

“Six of Air,” Min said, showing him the card. Her brow furrowed. “In some of our decks, that’s about victory, but in this deck, it’s about celebrating the day with people who mean something to you. It suggests that you don’t really celebrate your successes with anyone. You do your duty without acknowledgment.”

“Acknowledgment isn’t necessary. Just commitment to the task at hand.”

Min nodded, but when he met her gaze, she quickly shifted hers to Sophia. The young woman was considering the card as well, but she had the temerity to voice what Min hadn’t. “I think this card is saying you need to let love take a higher place on your list of tasks.” She nodded to another card. “Remember when Min asked how you see the people around you? The Nine of Fire came up. You maintain an even balance by avoiding people, but you can’t. You’re going to transcend, but your path to enlightenment may be different than you expect.”

“That’s pretty vague.” Mikhael grunted. “Good for roadside fortune-telling.”

“Like when you drew for where does he get his strength.” Luke pointed to the table. “You pulled that Ten of Water, Min, which you said meant he gets strength from other people’s happiness.”

When the boy scoffed, Mikhael gave him that direct look that could wilt courage at a hundred paces. “Is there something about me that suggests that’s not true, Luke?”

Luke paled, stammering. “W-Well, I meant that—it’s just that you’re—”

“It’s true. He loves puppies, and nothing makes him happier than kissing babies and helping little old ladies across the street.”