His gaze slid to her again and his mouth twisted with displeasure. At this point, he was really hoping she wasn’t Basha. He liked Divine. He also found he wanted Divine. And he couldn’t read or control her, but had started eating. He’d eaten that cotton candy the other day while distracted, and then a candy apple the afternoon of the fire when one of the girls, a greenie like himself, had stopped by the Tilt-A-Whirl to flirt and had offered it to him. The damned thing had looked delicious and his stomach had growled at the very sight, and before he’d known what he was doing Marcus had taken the apple with a muttered thank-you and bit into it.
That apple had been the most delicious damned thing he’d tasted in centuries. Juicy, sweet and tart all at once . . . Damn, he’d eaten it down to the core.
It was looking pretty certain that Divine was his life mate.
If she was Basha too . . . well, that was just a complication he didn’t need.
Sighing, Marcus turned into Vincent Argeneau’s driveway, stopped at the gate, and hit the switch to unroll his window. Rather than press the button announcing their arrival, however, Marcus reached over to gently nudge Divine.
“We’re here,” he announced quietly when she blinked her eyes open with confusion.
“I fell asleep.” She sounded surprised, and Marcus smiled.
“You’re exhausted. I could see that when I woke up. You need sleep.”
“Thanks,” she said dryly. “You really know how to charm a girl.”
“Sorry,” he muttered, realizing just how unflattering his words must have sounded. He hadn’t meant them that way. The woman was beautiful to him, even with her hair a mess, her face pale, and huge black bags under her eyes. He suspected she could stand in front of him wearing a potato sack and covered in mud and he’d still think she was beautiful . . . and that was a bit alarming.
Turning, Marcus pushed the button on the intercom on a post several feet from the closed gate to the driveway and then waited.
“Yes?” It was a woman’s voice. Probably Jackie, Vincent’s wife and life mate, Marcus thought as he gave his name.
“Come on up! We’re ready,” Jackie said, sounding almost painfully cheerful. It seemed obvious that Bastien had warned them about his traveling companion. Jackie was a private investigator before she married Vincent Argeneau and still was as far as he knew. She would be all over this like white on rice, doing everything she could to sort out if Divine was this Basha that Lucian was looking for . . . and that thought worried Marcus.
Pushing the worry aside for now, he slid his foot from the brake to the gas as the gate began to slide open.
Ten
Divine peered curiously around as they headed up the driveway, her eyebrows rising as they got past the gate and she could actually see the house bathed in early morning sunlight. Two stories and huge, it was much more than she’d expected. This “family friend” was obviously the successful type. But then he hadn’t been hampered by having to slide by under the radar, Divine told herself. Besides, she might not have a big house and such, but she had saved up quite a bit of money over the years. She wasn’t exactly poor. She just couldn’t afford to draw attention to herself by throwing money around, so lived conservatively.
It would have been nice to have a real home though, Divine acknowledged sadly as she peered over the curtained windows and well-tended gardens. The kind of home that had a plot of land rather than an RV that moved every couple days, always sitting on rented land. But Divine had given up that dream long ago. Staying in one place was dangerous. Constant movement helped prevent capture.
Marcus pulled to a halt in front of the house, and turned off the engine. Glancing to her as he opened his door, he said, “Shall we?”