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Gibbs was already awake, there at the stove making coffee, tea, and porridge.

“Where is Atta?” he asked after handing Sonder a newspaper. “She wasn’t in the room where her stuff is at.”

“Don’t worry about that. You look frazzled, lad. What is it?”

He handed Sonder a note in his perfect handwriting. “Already had three calls since Marguerite got the line diverted. It’s up and running this morning. You can see one patient this afternoon.”

Sonder set down the newspaper and glanced at the name and address of the Infected person—Inhabited, he corrected inwardly. “It’s a posh part of Dublin this time.”

Gibbs nodded his agreement and Sonder set to pouring tea for himself, coffee for Atta. “There’s still no clear rhyme or reason with this Plague.”

“Not yet. But we’re close.”

Without another word between them, Sonder carried the teacups up the stairs to his room.

In the doorway, he stopped.

She must have sensed he’d gotten up, because she’d turned over in her sleep onto her stomach, her arm reaching over to his empty side, giving him the most glorious view of her body from behind. He leaned against the doorframe watching her for a long moment. Warmth flooded his heart at the sight of her naked in his bed, bathed in golden, watery sunlight beginning to stream in from the window. They were either in for the ride of their lives or a hellish nightmare.

Quietly, he set the cups on the nightstand and lowered himself onto the edge of the bed. She didn’t stir, so he brushed the hair from the side of her face with his fingertips. When that didn’t work, he smiled devilishly to himself and began trailing light kisses from her arse all the way up to her neck. By then, she was smiling, her eyes still closed. He pulled away, and she opened her eyes, then rolled over.

Sonder wanted to sketch her, paint her, sculpt her. Immortalise her just like that, clothed in nothing but the sun and the scent of him.

“Good morning,” she said groggily and he handed her the coffee.

“Rise and shine, darling. We have another faerie to exorcize.”

Her eyes widened. “But we’re not ready.”

Seeing a potential disaster before it could take place, he took the coffee back from her, as it was perilously close to sloshing all over the bed.

“Then we will prepare.”

“We don’t even know how to contain a faerie with finality.” She threw her arm out toward the window. “Ilostone back out in the wild!”

“Then let’s figure it out. First, though I don’t relish the thought of it, Gibbs is downstairs, so you might want to get dressed.” He bent and pressed a kiss to her breast.

Grumbling, Atta rose and picked up the first item of clothing she came to—one of his collared shirts. She put it on, buttoning only one button just below her breasts, and Sonder officially had another image of her seared into his brain quite pleasantly.

In fact. . .

He abandoned his tea and followed her.

Atta

Sonder had rather abruptly interrupted her shower, pressing her against the glass, one leg wrapped around his hips.

Even washed clean and dressed in sheer tights, a sensible brown skirt with a black turtleneck and an oversized tweed blazer, she was still dizzy with the way he made her feel. She’d never been especially good at compartmentalising, but she would need to be now. At least, that’s what she told herself as she tied her Oxfords and went downstairs.

Sonder was sitting at the table with Gibbs, Sonder with a newspaper open in front of him, Gibbs munching on a piece of toast. When she entered, Sonder’s eyes slid up from the paper to her, and Atta felt her cheeks heat, remembering all the ways he’d explored her last night and locked eyes with her in the shower again this morning as she came.

“Ah. She lives,” he said with a smirk.

Gibbs looked at him, crumbs falling onto his chin as he said, “You realise you feed into the Dr Frankenstein rumours on a regular basis, right?”

Sonder chuckled, and judging by Gibbs’s brows rising to his hairline, he’d never heard Sonder laugh before. “It’s amusing you think it isn’t on purpose, Gibbs.”

“Fair.” He shrugged. “When you climbed in my window to force me into making sure Atta was okay, I decided you couldn’t be all bad.” He slid a glance in her direction.