that morning, the same thing smelled damned good now and she actually was feeling a bit hungry, she acknowledged, eyeing the forkful of food. When he began to move the fork from side to side as if trying to tempt or amuse a child, she turned narrowed eyes his way. “If you start making airplane sounds I’m not eating for sure.”
A startled chuckle slipped from his lips and he grinned. But the fork steadied. “Sorry.”
“Hmm,” she muttered and accepted the food. It was as good as it smelled, and after chewing and swallowing she asked reluctantly, “How did you know it was my favorite?”
“I’ve had breakfast the same time as you in the mornings for years. Well, I did until a month ago,” he added and then shrugged. “It’s what you always get.”
Jeanne Louise peered more closely at him now, noting the buzz cut hair, dark brown eyebrows, green eyes and pleasant smile. He was a good-looking man. It was hard to imagine she hadn’t noticed him in the cafeteria at some point over these supposed years they’d had breaks together. But then she did tend to get into her work and walk around a little oblivious a lot of the time, she supposed. Jeanne Louise wanted desperately to find the cure for her uncle and cousin and even took her notes with her when she went for her breaks so that she could glance over them while she ate. As focused as she was on her obsession, Jeanne Louise supposed Uncle Lucian himself could have been in the seat next to her and unless he said or did something to catch her attention, she probably wouldn’t notice.
Her eyes shot back to his as something he’d said caught her attention. Eyes narrowing, she asked, “Until a month ago? Don’t you work for Argeneau Enterprises anymore?”
“Yes, I do,” he said quietly. “I took a couple months off.”
Jeanne Louise stared at him silently, processing this information. If this plan, whatever it was, hadn’t been in his mind before he’d taken the break . . . well, it may be that no one had messed up after all. There wouldn’t have been anything for one of the team who kept tabs on mortals to find.
“Eat?” he asked quietly, urging the forkful of food closer to her lips.
Jeanne Louise’s eyes dropped to the fork and she almost shook her head in refusal on principle alone, but it seemed like cutting off her nose to spite her face when her stomach was rumbling eagerly and her mouth filling with saliva at just the prospect of the food he offered. Sighing, she opened her mouth somewhat resentfully, closed it around the fork when he slid it carefully inside, and then drew the food off with compressed lips as he removed it. They were silent, eyeing each other as she chewed and swallowed and then he scooped up another forkful for her.
“It would be easier if I could just feed myself,” she pointed out dryly when he raised the next forkful.
“Yes, it would,” he agreed mildly and when she opened her mouth to snap a bit impatiently that she’d prefer that, he slid the fork in, silencing her before the first word could leave her lips. As she chewed, he added, “But I know your kind are very strong and I don’t want to risk you trying to escape. I’m sure once you understand the situation, there won’t need to be such caution. But until then . . . this is just the better way to handle things.”
“My kind,” Jeanne Louise muttered the moment she’d swallowed. “We are human, you know.”
“But not mortal,” he said quietly.
“The heck we aren’t. We can die just like you can. We’re just harder to kill. And live longer,” she added reluctantly.
“And stay young, and resist disease, and can self-heal,” he said quietly, slipping another forkful of food into her mouth.
Jeanne Louise eyed him as she chewed and swallowed and then said, “So let me guess, you want that. To be young, to live longer, be stronger, be—”
He shook his head and silenced her by slipping another forkful of food past her lips even as he assured her, “I don’t.”
“Then what do you want?” Jeanne Louise asked with frustration when she could speak again. “What is this proposition?”
He hesitated and she could see the debate going on behind his eyes, but in the end he shook his head again. “Not yet.”
This time when he raised the fork to her lips, she turned