“Why not? Sell the shop. Buy a cottage in the middle of nowhere. You’d never have to see a customer again—”
“Don’t say such things, Mina,” Heathcliff growled. His plastic cup crinkled as he took a long sip of Champagne. “Don’t think I haven’t considered it.”
“Then why do you stay? Surely one of the other fictional characters could run the shop, someone who’s better with people. There’s nothing to keep you here—”
“You’re here.”
Heat crept into my cheeks. “But I’ve only been here a few weeks. You could have gone before that.”
“I have a duty,” he said, stiffening.
“To Mr. Simson? Butwhy?”
“Because of you!” he yelled, standing up and scattering food across the rocks. “Why must you ask so many bloody questions?”
“I don’t know, why do you never give me a straight bloody answer? You can’t just drop a bombshell like that and expect me not to ask more. Why because of me?”
Heathcliff breathed heavily. Tension rippled between us as the river roared in my ears. “Mr. Simson told me to wait for a girl to return to the shop. He said this girl was extremely important to all of us, and that she was in great danger, and we were to keep her safe. He described you. Or at least, we’re pretty sure it was you. That blind codger’s description wasn’t exactly resplendent with visual detail. But when you walked into the shop and told that story about how you used to spend all your time there as a child, and Quoth realized you could hear his thoughts, we guessed he meant you.”
I remembered something I’d overheard Quoth saying in his raven form, on the very first day I walked into the shop.She’s the one…I’d assumed he meant, “she’s the only one who’ll put up with your bollocks,” but this… I couldn’t believe it.
“And that’s why you gave me the job. Because Mr. Simson told you to. This is insane. Why would Mr. Simson ask you to wait for me?”
“I know as much as you do, which is nothing. Morrie’s current assumption is that Mr. Simson used the master bedroom to travel into the bookshop’s future and see that you were in danger. He’s desperate to try it himself.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is this why Quoth is following me home every night and sitting on the end of my bed? Because you all think I’m indanger?What kind of peril am I in that I can’t handle myself?”
“He didn’t elaborate.”
“Well, you can stop bloody protecting me. I don’t need it.”
“Not going to happen,” Heathcliff growled. “Danger follows you around like a curse. Not a single person died in Nevermore Bookshop until you showed up. We’re not taking chances. One of us has been near you every moment from the time you walked into the shop. We take turns, making sure you’re always safe.”
They’ve been shadowing me, spying on me?I balled my hands into fists and shot to my feet. “You can’t just spy on me without telling me!”
“I’m telling you now.”
“You should have told me thefirst day. This is my life. I had a right to know.”
“Not just your life,” he snapped. “This danger will come down on all our heads.”
“If I’m such a bloody danger to you all,” I screamed into Heathcliff’s face, “then why bother keeping me around?”
“Mina.”My name rumbled from Heathcliff’s lips.
“Just fire me, Heathcliff. Rip off the Band-Aid. You don’t even like me, anyway. You’re just doing this out of some misguided sense of duty to Mr. Simson. Well, I’m not anyone’s pity project. You’d be better off if I never came into your life. You’d be—”
“Oh, fuck it,” Heathcliff growled. Something warm pressed against my lips.
Heathcliff.
All my protests flew from my head as Heathcliff devoured me, his tongue hot and demanding. He took no prisoners, wasted no time, not now that he’d declared what he wanted.
He wants me. Heathcliff wantsme.
The rage inside me burned into hot passion, and I returned the kiss with everything I had. Heathcliff moaned as I sucked on his lower lip and met his ferocity with my own. Weeks of pent-up frustration flowed between us, as with hands and mouth and tongues we said all those things we’d tiptoed around for too long.
In the darkness, every sensation heightened. His kisses lit a line of fire straight through my body. Heathcliff’s arms went around me, clutching me against him as he poured his passion and his rage into me, and I drank it up and threw it back.
