Phaedra stared at the scar on his arm as he explained about it, then up at him, and this time she opened her empath just a tiny bit more.<br/><br/>Her eyes widened, lips parting in surprise. He really did believe what he was saying…<br/><br/>A shiver of awareness prickled up her arm from his kiss on her hand.  “I---“ She wanted to say that she could help him, if he let her… but then he was gone again just as abruptly as his two previous exits.<br/><br/>“He really must stop doing that,” she said in exasperation to Sophie.  “Have you got any rope? Next time he comes back in, we’re tying him down to his chair.”   Somehow, she knew with a startling certainty that they would be seeing him again…  “Nice?”<em>Nicely disturbed perhaps</em>, Phaedra wanted to say.  “Oh yes, he does seem… nice.”<br/><br/>Apart from his strange illusions, she had to admit he was rather good-looking, and she couldn’t deny his innocent little kiss on her hand had left a hot imprint on her skin.  She touched her hand there now under the table with the fingers of the other.<br/><br/>Then she tried to push away all thoughts of Rex as she concentrated on her current companion with a smile.  “How are you?  Do you visit this shop often?”  She wished she could.  She was overstaying her visit and she knew it, but it was as if she had been snared in some sweet, sticky, invisible web inside that magical bakery.<br/>