Something wicked lingered still in his half-hooded gaze as he drank in the sight of the woman in his arms. More so, there was a look of trepidation that lurked around the edges from the thoughts that whispered from the back of his mind, reminding him that he had no business being here in this bed. He had come to town with a singular purpose on his mind that had now fractured into several jagged pieces. One of them he shifted around in the curve of his arms as she situated herself and shoved her skirt off and away. Settling down again, he slid up under the sheet with her and opened his embrace once again for her. Once there, his fingers ran languidly from her collar, to the soft curve of her breast, and along her side before moving back up again to repeat the process. His other hand rested warmly on her hip, digits extended to stroke her inner thigh.<br/><i><br/>
Shouldn't, wouldn't, couldn't </i>started up a mantra in his head instead of whisperings that he could shove away and forget about. But like all things, the man had a habit of ignoring the impossible in order to make it a possibility. Chuckling under his breath, he moved his head enough so that he could rest his chin on top of her head.<br/><br/>“Don't look at me like I just kicked your cat. In case you haven't noticed, I don't have baby-soft skin and nubile curves like some of us in this bed,” he said in response to her wounded look when he mentioned his antics in how to get rid of unwanted demonic markings. To prove his point, calloused fingers cupped her breast and flicked at the rosy bud. “You don't get to look as good as I do by playing at it safely. Eventually, I'm going to have to admit that I tend to do more harm than good when I'm trying to get things done.”<br/><br/>James hesitated as he said the words and moved back enough so that he could meet her eyes. His other hand moved from her hip to stroke her cheek. The sardonic bite was gone from his voice with his next words. “I asked what<i>you</i>wanted, Lane, not the list of things that I decided to harass you for.”<br/><br/>He still conceded to her questions when they came. “I came here for the book because it has certain elements that I need in order to summon Anastasia. Regardless of whether or not she still thinks fondly of me or not--” He cut himself off and grinned cheekily. That alone should have dropped the hint that the two had not parted on good terms. “--I still owe her a favor as long as this little guy..” He trailed off and moved his hand from the soft skin of her face so he could lift the sheet. He twisted his thigh around so that she could get a better look at the firespawn curled up cozily just beneath the surface of his skin. “..is still sleeping like an angel in my leg. As much as I appreciate this keeping me warm at night, it's.. distracting.”<br/><br/>He wasn't going to go into the fact that up until a month or two ago, he had been in the habit of binging morphine every day once the alcohol no longer had the desired effect. And when that hadn't been readily available, other narcotics had come into play. It made him an ideal specimen to bring home to meet the parents.<i>Mom, Dad, this is my boyfriend the drug addict.</i><br/><br/>His arms moved to envelop her again, hugging her against him. “I need that grimoire to see if I can remove the mark without either completing her vile favor and, preferably, pissing her off to the point that she'd rather rip my heart out of my chest than keep me alive to suffer.”<br/><br/>As an afterthought, he added, “I am<i>not </i>going to involve you in any of this, so don't even worry or start to think that you'll be caught in this crossfire.”