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travel with me. More than enough.”
    Ari wasn’t convinced, especially since most of those people worked in the vineyards—they weren’t trained in security—but she’d learned to accept his decisions. Respect had to go both ways, and that was how they’d managed to merge their divergent lives. “How long will you be gone? A week? A month?”
    He reached a hand across the table and captured hers. “No longer than necessary, but it will be weeks. Perhaps four or five. There is always much to do on these infrequent trips.”
    Ari tried to ignore the empty feeling in her chest. It had been a bad day. The meeting with her boss had sucked, and now Andreas was going away. She remembered how it had been when she’d returned to Riverdale last year and he stayed in Canada. For two weeks she’d felt…incomplete.
    She rallied a lighter tone. “I think it’s great that you’ll see your family home again.”
    “Casa De Luca,” he murmured, as if he were seeing it in his mind.
    “Yes, the casa. I’ll miss you, but I can concentrate on my job and mend fences with the council reps. How soon do you plan to leave?”
    His soft voice told her he wasn’t fooled by her forced enthusiasm. “It is not decided yet, but if I go it will be by the end of the week. I want to meet with the family solicitors while I am there, and I should hear from them tomorrow. I will miss you too, cara mia . Very much.”
    With emotions threatening to spill over, she pulled her hand away and stood. “If you’re going to be gone so long, we better make good use of these last days.”
    “What did you have in mind?” His lips curved into a smile, and he leaned back, looking up at her. When his gaze darkened, she had no trouble interpreting what was on his mind. It was the way they often dealt with strong emotions.
    “I was referring to plans for the running of the club and how I can support Gabriel in his position as prince pro tem while you’re gone. But I can see your imagination has gone somewhere else.” Ari tapped her cheek with one finger. “Now I wonder where? How about a good movie in the rec room? I’ll go pick something.” She grinned and walked out the door.
    He caught her in the hallway and pinned her against the wall with an arm on either side. Andreas bent his head to nuzzle her neck. “We have not had dessert yet,” he whispered. “Perhaps the movie could wait.”
    His lips claimed hers. He deepened the kiss, tightening his hold, pressing her body against him. When Ari sighed against his mouth and wiggled her hips, he picked her up and carried her to the second floor. The only recreation room on that level was the master bedroom.
     
    * * *
     
     
    Ari was seated at her office in the cultural center by 7:30 the next morning. Although she was often there on Wednesdays, as one of the two days she tried to squeeze in appointments, she hadn’t made it on Monday, and she wanted to get an early start. It might help her prove to the council president that she could do things by the book.
    It was a busy morning. Besides three regularly scheduled appointments for clients to sign up for community services, she spent a long time with a family of weretigers. Mother, father and two young cubs arrived unannounced to complain about the stench from their next door neighbors’ garbage, which hadn’t been taken to the curb in three weeks.
    “It smells like road kill,” the father declared. “Very tempting to our children.”
    “Did you complain to city services?”
    “We’re telling you.”
    Ari refrained from rolling her eyes, made the call, and filed a complaint on the tigers’ behalf. Once that was done, the father left to get to his job, but the mother refused to take her children home until the problem was resolved. Since city services were notoriously slow, Ari pointed out the center’s formal waiting room and called in her next appointment. When her client departed a half hour later, Ari found the tiger family still sitting