Page 211 of Nobody Told Me Thrift Shops Sell Stolen Dragon Heirlooms

“Very.”

I smiled, but my throat had gone tight.

Rafe lifted one hand to my face, his fingertips touching my cheek with a tenderness that made all my jokes crowd near the exit. “I would like to take you out. Properly. On a date that doesn’t involve legal strategy or armed thieves. No phoenixes unless one happens to be at the next table and behaves himself.”

“That’s a lot of restrictions for New York.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

I traced the edge of his jaw, feeling the faint roughness there, the living warmth of him beneath my hand. “Are you asking me on a date, Rafe Virelli?”

“Yes.” His gaze held mine, composed and impossibly serious. “I am asking you on a date. And then, if it goes well, I intend to ask for another.”

My heart did something soft and reckless. “What if it goes terribly?”

“It won’t.”

“So confident.”

“No,” he said, and kissed the inside of my wrist. “Hopeful.”

I leaned in and kissed him, slow and smiling. “Then yes. I’d love to go on a proper date with you.”

His relief was quiet, but I felt it in the way his body settled around mine.

“Good,” he said.

“Good?”

“Excellent.”

“That’s better.”

29

RAFE

THE INCENSE REMEMBERS

A week after the last relic came home, and three days after the sword’s thirty-day transitional loan finally ended, I stood in Quinn Bradley’s apartment with my coat over one arm, trying to convince myself to leave.

This had become more difficult than it should have been.

Her place was small, warm, and slightly chaotic, but I had begun to recognize the chaos as evidence of life lived up close. One of my shirts, which I hadn’t formally surrendered but had clearly lost, was draped over the back of her blue chair.

Quinn stood barefoot near the door, wearing an old law-school sweatshirt and a look that said she had already decided not to argue with me and hated the maturity of that choice.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come?” she asked.

I adjusted my grip on the coat. “Yes.”

“I can be respectful and quiet.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“Fine,” she said. “I can be respectful and quiet-adjacent.”

“I know you would come if I asked.”