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His comment burst my admiration bubble and sent reality crashing through my mind. “Good,” I replied. “I’d hate to glue ya to the cot in the cage later because that’s yer bed tonight. No others are available. Warn me if ya feel the need to betray me, please. I’ll go easier on ya for owning up to it. Compulsions are powerful magick. We can’t assume my touch broke them.”

Rasmus turned to me. “Aran, you can’t think Jack is working with the demons. He’s a demon hunter. That would make no sense.”

His mind was sharp, and it had made a giant leap already. I lifted one shoulder and let it fall. “I don’t know what to think at the moment. There’s more to this hunt than finding an open demon portal. I knew something was off when I agreed to help, but now my instinct is shouting it’s a cover for something else. This is a time to tread carefully.”

“I’ll warn you if I start to feel mistrustful again,” Rasmus said.

I nodded as we climbed out of the basement. “I think one of yer compulsions had to do with me specifically. My direct contact with that one would break it if that were true.”

“That would mean Jack sent me to you knowing full well I would never trust you.”

I shrugged. “Or maybe he wanted to make sure ya wouldn’t come to like me. Let’s go get something to eat. There are several wonderful restaurants within walking distance. Conn will find us later.”

Rasmus looked at me. “I doubt Jack ever imagined we’d be working on such an intimate basis.”

I chuckled. His comment wasn’t even a joke about me patting his butt instead of his back. His gaze was all innocence and shock. Only once today had I glimpsed the real male Rasmus was. “Things would have been worse if I’d had to put ya to sleep, even though I might have been less embarrassed. Ya might have woken up feeling violated, though.”

“Is it really true that Jack never came to see you at the cottage?”

I snorted. “Not once. Fiona came nearly every weekend unless she was doing things with her friends. There was a year or so around fifteen where I barely saw her, but then she got a broken heart over some boy and felt her father had no sympathy for her pain. The only other people I saw were the daily checkers that the council sent to make sure I stayed put.”

“It’s still hard for me.”

I giggled. “I find that absolutely amazing after Conn hovering over yer naked body for thirty minutes. Ya’re quite the man if his demon breathing didn’t put ya off.”

When I glanced up at him, Rasmus was red-faced and smirking. It was a good look for him.

“Well, thank the Goddess ya have a sense of humor. I feared Jack had done worse to ya than he had to me.”

“Doesn’t it matter about there being a compulsion on Jack too? Maybe he wanted to be with you but he couldn’t be because of it.”

“I would have broken it eventually, but sex wasn’t the breaking point of our marriage. I’m hurt but rapidly recovering from his infidelity.”

“Why were you so determined to divorce him then? I still don’t know why you didn’t hear him out before going through with it. That’s what most married people do.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Jack stole my family’s property. The divorce was about freeing myself from someone I should never have trusted. I gave Jack what I could in exchange for my freedom back, even though I owed him nothing. After this is over, I don’t want to see him until Fiona gets married. We share a child but he will never share my life again.” I interrupted and pointed at a restaurant. “Let’s go there. The food is excellent.”

Rasmus stopped before we went inside. “Wait... I have no money on me. Your demon didn’t let me grab my wallet.”

He was determined to see Conn as evil. Maybe that would never change. So long as he didn’t harm Conn, I probably could live with the suspicions that came so naturally to most.

“Don’t worry about yer wallet. I’ve got dinner tonight. Order what ya want because I’m not destitute any longer. Ya can validate that with my mother. She was certain I was going to be sleeping on the streets and panhandling for change after I got out of prison.”

I snapped my fingers and my small cross-body purse appeared. I slung it over only one shoulder for ease of removing it later.

Rasmus smiled. “That’s a good trick. Can you teach me that?”

“Maybe. It depends on how much magick ya have in ya. I can tell ya have some. Ma could tell ya for sure how much and maybe where ya got it. Conn could tell ya as well, but he won’t. He says magick, like life, is a journey of discovery. He’s tightlipped at all the wrong times. I’ve learned to live it.”

“After that full body search, you probably know as much about me as my wife,” Rasmus said as he followed me inside.

I thought about the reality of Rasmus being married as I asked for a table for two. After running my fingers over every inch of him, I guess I was feeling a bit of jealousy for the woman he wanted to do it.

I also knew it was only a severe case of lust talking—one of the many advantages of being forty instead of twenty. I would scratch my itch soon enough and with someone safer than a demon hunter, but I wouldn’t forget touching Rasmus for a while. He had the kind of body that made a memory for a woman.

We took our seats at a table by the window and I looked over it at him. “Do ya think we can finish a meal together in peace?”

Rasmus sighed as he stared back at me. “No promises,” he said.