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The neighbors had not really left. They milled about in her yard and on the street. They all watched as Zane carried her to his house, and no one said a word, not even Hester Livingston. There were still police questions to handle, and Ruby had no desire to ever again set foot in that house—even though she knew the demon was gone. She didn't have any idea when she'd reopen her shop, and even though Marielle had turned out to be a fraud, Ruby had lost a friend today. And still, at this moment she was content.
CHRISTMAS EVE
Tomorrow there would be a big family Christmas celebration at the Benedict home place, a rambling farm-style house on a horse ranch in Tennessee, just past the Alabama-state line. Zane was looking forward to seeing his parents and his brothers, to introducing Ruby to them and celebrating the fact that II Colletore was no more. Since she'd moved in two weeks ago, he had not doubted for a moment that Ruby would celebrate the holiday with him. She was a part of the family, now. She was a part of him.
Ruby had already made four desserts to take with them, as she was horrified at the very thought of generic lemon cookies or Twinkies for the holiday meal. He didn't think she was trying to bribe her way into his family's heart, but if anything would do the trick, it would be the English toffee cheesecake, or the Death by Chocolate Cake, or the Mile-High Lemon Pie, or the huge box of homemade cookies that would feed his brothers for a week.
But tonight was for them alone, and he liked it. He liked it very much. With the demon destroyed and Marielle's assumption about the status of her safety having been proved correct—she'd been found hanging in the Minville jail two days after her arrest, dead from an apparent suicide—life was normal. For the first time since Zane had turned fifteen, he didn't have to worry about saving the world.
He just had to take care of Ruby.
That actually meant that for him life was no longer normal at all. He was going to have to get used to a different kind of normal. So far, that experiment was going very well.
Ruby put a few finishing touches on the small Christmas tree they'd put up earlier in the day, then they settled together on the floor by the tree, entwined and comfortable. Dressed in a wonderfully skimpy Christmasy red nightgown, she fed him cookies and the most decadent apple pie he had ever imagined. If this was what most people considered normal, he would very quickly get accustomed to normalcy in his life.
While a piece of a ric
h sugar cookie melted on his tongue, Ruby moved onto his lap and draped her arms around his neck. "Do you think it's possible I only love you because you saved my life? And my soul," she added, making a face and shuddering a little. "And the world, of course. For the purposes of this discussion, let's just stick with my life."
"I don't know. Do I only love you because you feed me increasingly decadent sweets?"
"Don't forget the sex," she said with a smile.
"As if I could."
She rested her head on his shoulder. "The sex is very nice, but I thought you loved me because I'm symmetrical."
"There is that."
It was too soon for love, perhaps, but they both felt it, and neither of them had been shy about saying the words. Almost losing everything would do that to a person, he supposed.
For a few precious moments he tested Ruby's symmetry with his hands. Face. Shoulders. Breasts. Hips. Thighs. Lovely.
"What am I thinking?" he whispered.
For someone who had so firmly denounced "woowoo" a couple of weeks ago, Ruby accepted her own clairvoyance very easily. That talent had saved her; it had allowed her to communicate with the women who had been sacrificed to the demon in years past. She was no psychic, but she did have telling dreams, and more often than not she knew what was on his mind. They'd been "dating" for two weeks, if you could call spending every moment together "dating," and already she was finishing his sentences for him. After the first of the year, when she reopened her shop and he went back to teaching classes, they would have less time to study her abilities, so they had been doing all they could to test and refine it. What am I thinking? had become a game of sorts. She was quite good.
It was too easy, of course, since lately his mind had been quite one-track, and still Ruby played along. Sitting in his lap, leaning toward him possessively, she closed he* eyes.
She did best with visual images, they had discovered. It was very easy for Zane to vividly imagine what he wanted from Ruby. He didn't want to make it too easy for her this time, so he didn't picture her naked on his bed. Instead, he imagined her naked here, lying beside the Christmas tree, red and green satin ribbon wrapped around her torso, her hips, her thighs. She was the best Christmas present he had ever imagined, so it was fitting enough to see her this way.
"This is no longer much of a challenge," she said softly. "Must I always be naked?"
Practice was making her ability stronger. Day by day, she saw more, she saw more clearly. Though she could guess "naked" and be right more often than not.
"All right," he said, "Let's try something else."
He pictured another Christmas in another year, perhaps five years or so down the road. They were still in this house, and someone else, someone who had no idea what had happened there in the past, lived in the yellow house across the road. He was still teaching; Ruby still had her shop though she no longer worked there every day. She had her hands full with the kids. Two, he thought, maybe a boy and a girl. The Christmas tree was larger than the one they'd bought on clearance this year, and it was heavy with decorations, some purchased but many made by the kids.
And they were happy and still in love. Whatever the reasons they had fallen in love so quickly, it was going to last. They were going to enjoy the only real forever that existed in this crazy world.
Ruby's smile faded a little, and she placed her head on his shoulder and shifted closer. "Is that what you want or are you teasing me? Don't tease me," she added quickly. "Not like this."
"It's what I want," he said honestly.
She shifted, moving her body closer to his. "Me, too."
He took her face in his hand and tilted it toward his so he could kiss her. "Merry Christmas, baby," he whispered with his mouth against hers.
