"Thomas," Inez said in warning tones. "Don't even think about it. I want answers. What just happened? I could feel-Well, I think I might have been feeling what you were feeling. And I've never fainted in my life, but just now..." She made a face, showing her disgust for what she considered her weakness.

"I did too," he assured her, continuing on with his search.

"Hey!" Inez stiffened on top of him as his fingers slid between her legs.

"I have to be thorough in my examination," he said innocently, smiling as her eyes darkened and her breathing hitched and then settled into a fast, shallow pace.

"Thomas," she begged, squirming a little on top of him and making Little Thomas grow harder. Shaking her head, she tried to shift off of him, but couldn't, his wrists and lower arms were bands across the backs of her upper thighs. Giving up, Inez gasped, "Please. I want to understand what just happened."

Thomas stopped tormenting her and shifted his hands to her waist as he explained, "That is what it's like between lifemates. While they can't read each other or control each other's minds, they can share what they're experiencing while having sex and can eventually share thoughts and feelings without speaking."

Her eyebrows rose at this news, but then she frowned and said, "You said you were guarding me from it at first. What did you mean?"

Thomas hesitated, and then suddenly tightened his hold on her waist and rolled so that she was beneath him, his hips nestled between her legs. Leaning his weight on his elbows to keep the worst of it off of her, he concentrated on keeping up the walls in his mind and ground himself against her. Thomas clenched his hands as pleasure shot through him and Little Thomas grew a little harder even as Inez gasped and shuddered beneath him. He then let the walls drop and did it again, closing his eyes as both her pleasure and his own charged through him, filling every corner of his mind and body.

"Oh, Deus," Inez moaned.

Thomas opened his eyes as the last of it passed and said, "I love it when you talk dirty."

A breathy laugh burst from her lips, and she informed him dryly, "I said, Oh God."

Thomas grinned. "No. I'm not God, but I can understand how you'd mistake me for Him after the mind-blowing sex I just gave you."

Inez snorted.

Expression growing more serious, Thomas peered down at her and said solemnly, "I've never had a lifemate before. I've heard about the sex, though, and how overwhelming it can be. I was afraid it might scare you, so I tried to keep my guard up as long as possible. And then I realized how foolish I'd been starting it in the bathroom like that. I was afraid one or both of us would be hurt when we fainted so tried to move it to the bed, a nice soft, safe surface to faint on."

"But I was too heavy for you to carry me that far," she said with an unhappy nod.

Thomas stared at her incredulously. "What?"

"Well, that's what you meant when you said it was as far as you could get us...isn't it?" she asked uncertainly.

"Inez," he said patiently. "You saw me lift up that blond guy one-handed in Amsterdam. He had a good eighty pounds on you. You aren't too heavy for me. You aren't heavy at all."

"Oh...right," she murmured, obviously recalling the incident, but then she frowned and asked, "Then what did you mean by 'it was as far as you could get?'"

"I meant that I couldn't wait any longer," Thomas said dryly. "I was all out of self-control. I couldn't walk one more step with you rubbing against Little Thomas and driving him crazy. I-"

"Okay, okay, I get it," she interrupted with a laugh and then arched an eyebrow and said, "Little Thomas?"

"Hmm." He shifted, nudging Little Thomas against her. "He says hello, and wants you to know he's very enamored of you."

"He is, is he?" Inez asked with amusement and then said softly, "Well, I find him very interesting too, almost as interesting as Big Thomas."

"Do you?" he asked with a grin, and then said, "Well, that's a shame, because the smells coming from the food cart in the living room are driving me crazy."

"You can smell it from here?" Inez asked with surprise.

Thomas nodded. "Yes. And I fancy eating in the traditional immortal fashion."

"What is the-" Her question was interrupted by a gasp of surprise as Thomas launched himself to his feet, pulling her up with him. Once upright, she finished-"traditional immortal fashion?"

"Oh, that," Thomas said lightly, retrieving both of the fluffy white hotel robes supplied with the room. He slid into his own as he walked back to her, then helped her into hers before scooping her up in his arms and heading for the door.

"Thomas?" Inez prompted as he carried her into the living room where the food cart with their meals waited. "What is the traditional immortal fashion?"

"Eating it off your naked body," he answered.

"It is not!" she protested with disbelief, and then asked uncertainly, "Is it?"

"No," Thomas admitted with a grin. "But we can always start a new tradition."

He wiggled his eyebrows and leered.

Inez laughed and said, "I love-"

Thomas felt his heart stutter as she suddenly hesitated. A full minute passed before she finished in more solemn tones.

"Being with you."

That's a start, Thomas told himself, and hoped his disappointment wasn't showing. For one moment he'd hoped...But it was early days yet, everything would work out. She was his lifemate, after all, he reassured himself, and tried not to think about the fact that he'd known times when it hadn't worked out. When the mortal lifemate refused to be turned and become immortal as well.

Chapter Twelve

"This is it."

"A terraced house?" Inez asked with surprise as Thomas urged her up a short walk to one of many such houses on a residential street in York. Her gaze slid over the stone façade and she wondered if it looked less grim in daylight. They'd caught the seven P.M. train from London, arriving in York just after nine.

"Terraced house?" Thomas asked with surprise as he looked it over. "We call them townhouses in Canada."

"But why a whole townhouse for just the two of us?" Inez asked.

"Bastien said all the hotels inside the walls of the city center were booked," Thomas said with a shrug as he removed the arm around her shoulders to take the paper out of his right hand and leave it free to knock on the door. "He thinks Aunt Marguerite, Tiny, and the Nottes will be staying inside the walls and wanted us to as well. He figures they probably had to rent a townhouse too on such short notice. That would explain why there's no hotel charge on the credit cards. Some of these places aren't set up to accept credit cards. They might have paid by check."

"Are we paying by check?" Inez asked, glancing curiously around the quiet street and wondering if one of the other townhouses on the street held Marguerite Argeneau.

"No. Bastien wired the money into the owner's account this morning."

"Oh." Inez smiled faintly as she watched Thomas knock again, wanting to brush aside the bit of dark hair that had fallen over his forehead, but not comfortable enough to do so.

She supposed that was ridiculous after the night they'd spent together. They hadn't gone to sleep until dawn, but had spent the night starting their meal, interrupting it to make love because Thomas insisted on eating portions of his off of her, and then making love again and so on. This had been interspersed with quiet moments of conversation, and Inez had learned that while Thomas had a light and carefree outer shell, there was a very serious and deep thinker under it all.

Her thoughts were disturbed by the sound of a door opening and Inez glanced to the entrance of the adjoining townhouse as it opened and a gentleman leaned out to peer at them. He was old with grizzled hair sticking out from his head, gray stubble shadowing his wrinkled face, and half his white shirt untucked from dark trousers. He also clutched a steaming teacup in one hand.

"Tom?" the man asked, eyes slightly narrowed.

"Thomas Argeneau, yes," Thomas said, turning now to peer at the man as well.

Nodding the fellow turned back into the townhouse and slammed the door.

When Thomas turned surprised eyes her way, Inez shrugged and murmured, "Northerners."

"Oh," he said blankly and she chuckled softly.

"Southerners say that whenever someone from the north does something inconceivable or odd," she explained with a grin. "I haven't figured out what it's supposed to mean yet, but give me another eight years here and I'm sure I will."

Thomas smiled faintly and then glanced to the adjoining townhouse again as they heard the door open once more. Both of them watched as the man hurried out, rushing from the step in his stocking feet, clutching a piece of paper in his hand...and a key, Inez saw, as the man opened his hand to offer both to Thomas.

"There's the key, son. My number's on the paper if you need aught. Show yourselves in and enjoy. I'm missing my Baywatch." On that note, he whirled away and rushed back inside his townhouse, slamming the door closed again. This time the sound of a lock clicking into place followed.

Thomas turned disbelieving eyes to her. "Baywatch?"

"We get reruns of all your best shows," she said dryly.

Thomas shook his head as he turned to unlock the door. "I am Canadian. We're not responsible for Baywatch. You can not blame that on us."

"Just the Pamela Anderson part," Inez suggested with amusement.

"Only partially, I'm sure her implants are American," Thomas assured her as he opened the door and stepped back for her to enter.

Inez grinned and shook her head as she passed into the townhouse, flipping the switch to turn the lights on as she went. "I suppose we shouldn't make fun. Baywatch is probably the only excitement the old guy gets on a night."

"Old?" Thomas echoed with a wry laugh as he set her suitcase inside the door and followed her in. "He's a baby compared to me."

She must have had a stunned expression on her face because he frowned. "You knew that Inez. I told you I was born in 1794."

"Yes," she breathed and nodded her head. "I guess I just-It's so easy to forget. You don't seem old."

"Because I don't look old," Thomas said with a shrug and moved forward to rub his hands up and down her arms. "Are you all right? You aren't regretting-?"

"No," Inez interrupted quickly and gave her head a shake, not even really sure herself why the realization that he was older than the man next door had startled her so. She supposed 1794 had just been a number to her until now. Forcing herself to relax, she managed a stiff smile and teased, "I'm sure I'll adjust to dating an old fart."

"Oh!" Thomas groaned and clutched his chest. "That one went straight to the heart. You're a cruel woman, Inez Urso."

"And don't you forget it," she said, her smile becoming more natural.

"I won't," he assured her.

"And I have a temper too," Inez announced, turning away to peer into the living room beside them. It was a very neutral room; carpeted and painted in beige, the furniture all gray, and not a lick of decoration in it unless you counted a television as a work of art.

"A fine temper," Thomas agreed, glancing over her shoulder into the room. His hand curved over her bottom and he added, "And a fine behind too."

Inez slapped his hand away with a chuckle. "Behave, we have work to do."

"Yes, ma'am," he said agreeably, following as she walked up the hall to the kitchen. They both stood in the kitchen doorway, peering over the cream and brown room with a distinct lack of excitement.

"It looks clean," Inez said, trying not to be too critical.

"Yes, it does," Thomas agreed with amusement, turning his back to the hall wall so that she could precede him back up the hall and to the staircase. She understood why he wanted her to lead the way when she felt his fingers brushing down the backs of her ankles, tickling the spot he knew was sensitive as he followed her upstairs. Pausing, she turned a scowl over her shoulder. "I'm mortal. You really don't want me falling down these stairs and breaking my neck."

"I'd catch you," he assured her solemnly. "I'll always be there to catch you, Inez."

Swallowing, Inez turned forward again and continued upstairs.

There were two small bedrooms on this floor; one with twin beds and one with a double bed. There was also a rather large bathroom. Inez suspected the bathroom had been another bedroom before indoor plumbing became popular.

After testing the mattresses, she and Thomas settled on the room with the twin beds and retrieved their luggage to stow it there, then went down to check the kitchen for tea. Bastien had promised to have groceries delivered and apparently the old man had let the delivery guy in and put everything away. She supposed he'd forgotten to mention that in his eagerness to get to his Baywatch babes.

"Do you want tea in, or shall we go out and have a drink while everything is still open?" Thomas asked as they finished checking the cupboards.

"Let's go out. Maybe we'll get lucky and run into Marguerite while we're out."

Nodding, Thomas waited for her to grab her purse and ushered her out of the townhouse.

"I know you've never been to London before this trip," Inez said quietly as they walked. "But have you ever been to York?"

"Actually, I have been to London before," he informed her and then added, "But that was back in..." Thomas glanced skyward as he tried to remember. Finally he shrugged and said, "It was early eighteen something. I was in my twenties."

Inez glanced at him curiously. "And you never returned?"

Thomas shook his head solemnly. "My uncle, Jean Claude, pitched such a fit I didn't dare. He freaked if any of us even talked about going to England. He hated the place. I never figured out why," he added with a frown, and then went on. "Marguerite was born here and it's where they met. They spent a lot of time in England for the first couple of centuries. But..." He shrugged. "I don't know what happened, just that some time before I was born he got a hate-on for the country, wouldn't go near it himself, and tried to dissuade everyone else from going too."