Sadly true. “I’ll see you at dinner?”

“Hopefully beforehand,” he murmured, gaze still warm. He’d begun a habit of lounging on the bathing chamber chaise to watch her bathe and change for dinner, which pleased her no end. As their increasingly busy days took them in different directions, that time had become a quiet moment to catch up with each other. “I may have need of you in the arcanium tonight as well, familiar,” he added, black eyes hooded.

That did it. She flushed hot with new and returning desire, so much so that she couldn’t continue to meet his gaze and keep herself together—and restrain herself from kneeling at his feet right then and there. Not something they needed an audience for. “Of course, wizard,” she murmured in reply, savoring the answering leap of desire from him.

He lifted their joined hands and kissed the back of hers, his lips cool, the covert flick of his tongue hot. “I’ll check in with Asa, see how his patients are,” she said, instead of the several other ardent phrases crowding her lips.

“Thank you,” he said—and she understood it was the same for him.

With a sigh, he released her, turning resolutely toward Jadren.

“May I stay, Lord Phel?” Han asked. “It might be helpful for me to know what went wrong.”

Gabriel considered him, then rested a hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “I could use your insight, yes.”

Iliana and Alise flanked Nic as she left the workshop, though neither of them said anything until the door had closed, and locked, behind them. Then both spoke at once, gushingly.

“Nic,” Iliana nearly squealed, “he is so dreamy!”

“He is so in love with you!” Alise exclaimed at the same time.

They leaned around Nic, exchanging grins, complete with waggling brows. Nic actually felt herself blushing. “Not so loud,” she hissed at them.

“That is,” Alise continued cheerfully, not the least bit more quietly, “you told me that you were in love with him, and that it might be the Fascination, but you did not mention that Lord Phel is head over heels in love with you and that he looks at you like you’re a big creamy dessert he’d like to lap up in a thousand tiny licks.”

“Alise,” Nic moaned, tempted to clap her hands over her ears in mortification. It did not help that Gabriel had licked her all over, in exactly that meticulous fashion, as if he savored every taste.

“You are so lucky, Nic,” Iliana said fervently. “I don’t mean to embarrass you. I just want you to know that, well—it isn’t luck. Having all of this, with a wizard like that…” She sighed wistfully. “It’s exactly what you deserve. I’m not at all surprised that you, of all people, landed on your feet. You and Lord Phel are a modern-day Lyndella and Sylus. It’s so romantic.”

“Except their story ended tragically,” Nic pointed out, feeling very like Gabriel in that moment with his sour take on that epic tale.