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“I saw her go in. She won’t take them tomorrow, he’ll talk her out of it, I know he will. I’m losing her, Gerry, I’m losing my baby, and I don’t know what to do.”
Gerry Pringle ran his fingers through her dark hair. Her arm lay over his stomach, her head on his chest. He loved these moments. He loved her. But he hated seeing her upset and lost. She still held a lot of tension, despite the way they’d spent the last two hours in bed.
“Has he done anything you can report?” he asked.
“Not that I know of. I don’t think they’d accept breathing, would they?”
He chuckled despite himself and kissed the top of her head. “No, probably not, darling. The binding was lifted when she turned eighteen, so he shouldn’t even register on the lists anymore. You may have to speak to Hestia.”
She shuddered, cuddling closer to him. “I hate her.”
“I hate them all,” he said. Hestia was someone he didn’t want to face ever again, but for Lynda, for Lily, he’d do it. “I’ll be beside you every step of the way. I promise.”
“Oh, Gerry.”
Tears dripped onto his bare chest and he rolled them until she was beneath him. “I’ve always loved you. I will always love you.” He brushed the hair away from her face. “Marry me, Lynda, please?”
Her eyes closed, and he dipped his forehead to hers. He knew her answer; it would be the same as it had been every time he’d asked her before. And he’d been asking her for years.
“She’s eighteen now. She won’t stay with you forever, no matter how this turns out. You’ve waited, we’ve waited for so long. You’ve been moving for so long. It’s time to stop.”
“Just a little longer, Gerry, please.”
“You say that every time. I’ve had your ring for ten years, Lynda. Ten years I’ve waited for you. I will wait for however long it takes, but I want more than a few stolen moments with you. I want to go to sleep next to you every night and wake up next to you every morning. I want to sit at the breakfast table with you, I want to go shopping for groceries with you, I want to argue over things with you. I want it all, Lynda. I want all of you.”
“I want that too.” Tears coursed down her face.
His heart broke as her eyes opened, revealing the depth of sadness in them.
“We’ll go and see them. Tonight. Both of us.” He took a tissue from the box on the side.
“No. We can’t expose Lily.” She took it from him and blew her nose. “The tablets will be out of her system by now.”
“As far as they know, she has no powers. Find a way to get her on the tablets. They cover it enough that they wouldn’t suspect a thing even if she stood right in front of them.”
“They’ll need a reason to hold him.”
“They won’t need a reason. He’s a liability to them, always has been. I don’t know why they didn’t have him executed at the time.”
“I think they expected him to try and break the binding, try and snatch her. I’ve tried to push him to that point, constantly moving us, but he’s never bitten.”
“We need him to make a mistake that’ll catch their attention, maybe threaten someone with magic that doesn’t know of its existence. That’s punishable by death. He’s a young, handsome professor amongst a college full of hormonal teenage girls. A whisper of improper conduct, either with Lily or another girl, is enough to have him at least put on probation while it’s investigated.”
“They don’t get involved with non-magical issues.”
“They will if he uses magic to help his case. If he’s accused of interfering with a student, he won’t stand there and take it. He’ll use his magic, and we’ll have him.”
“Do you think it’ll work?”
“I think if it’s set up very carefully it will. We’re going to need a few months to get the levels back into her body though. It needs to blanket it completely.” He searched her eyes, aware she was mulling it over in her mind. “Get those tablets into her, Lynda.”
Her eyes focused on his. “Yes, I will.”
“You’ll be able to do it? Get them in her food or something?”
“Yes, I’ll get them into her, and yes, I’ll marry you, Gerry Pringle. I love you so much. I wouldn’t have coped all these years without knowing you were with me.”
“I’ll always be with you.” He lowered his head, his lips meeting hers. His heart was so full of love for her that it spilled over into passion. He gave free reign to the desire coursing through him. The flames lit higher as she matched him—kiss for kiss, touch for touch.
This was going to work, because he couldn’t let her go anymore. He was over watching her walk away every time. This time she was staying.
