“Only if you mean it,” he countered. He understood the bias that made him more attractive to her than those Sidhe were. It was hard, even for Andrew, not to be at least a little threatened from time to time, but he did know that so long as they were both enamored, there was nothing to worry about. But then, he had been through that before. Olivia hadn’t just left because she was turned. It had been the catalyst, pushing her towards the more “exciting” life she had wanted and the sort of variety that Andrew just couldn’t have satisfied. He hadn’t been looking for an open marriage, but she had wanted her freedom. So she had taken it. He was more conscious of Mel’s intricacies though, of her wants and her needs. He had to be, after Gabriel complicated things the way he had.
Not that he was still capable of much complex thought once she rearranged herself. The beginnings of it were there. He would start to come up with something clever to say, but then he caught sight of how close those lips where while she spoke. Or her hands in his hair would derail him entirely. It didn’t make much sense to him. He should have been more accustomed to this than ever, but he just seemed to be falling harder. He wasn’t sure it was natural, or if it had somewhat to do with what she was, but he didn’t especially care. “When Shayleiah goes asking her Lord Regent father why Melisande was sitting on Mr. Andrew’s lap, it’s 100% your problem.”
It probably would have been fair if he took some of the blame, since his mouth grazed her jaw as he said it. He would happily blame that one on her as well, of course. She was the one who had decided to get so close. “Just when I go thinking how nice it is to have kids around, you remind me why it’s nice not to.”