“While on the topic of the ritual,” Dolores said, “I suppose I should tell you about the other condition.”
“There’s another?” Shanna glanced at Simon; he shrugged.
“I did say there were a couple. Just didn’t want to lay them onto you all at once.”
“Oh, no.” Shanna huffed. “Who do I have to date now?”
“Well,” Dolores drawled.
“Gran!”
“It’s not exactly a date. You know how, in some spells and rituals, you have to do what feels like the opposite of what you should be doing?”
“Like the spell for cleanliness, where you have to blow dust from a jar?”
“Yes. For Hel’s bond to break, before the ritual with the Mercurial Crystal, the pair wishing to break the bond must first unite by giving in to their basic instinct.”
“Their what?” Shanna spit out.
“Oh, dear. One would think you’re eight, not twenty-eight,” Dolores said. “The hanky-panky!”
“Please never say that word out loud again,” Shanna murmured, coloring to the tips of her ears.
“You and Simon have to—”
“Gran.” Shanna picked up the phone. “He’s here. He can hear everything.”
“Oh, hi, dear!” Dolores said. “Take good care of my granddaughter, if you know what I mean.”
Simon wasn’t sure if he was blushing as much as Shanna, but he definitely wanted to be a few feet underground right now.
Or maybe a ghost again.
“Y-yes, Dolores,” he stammered. “I will.”
Shanna canceled the call. “This is ridiculous! We’re not going to …” She got up and paced the room. “I’m so sorry for Gran.”
He stared at the rumpled sheet left behind in Shanna’s wake, half lost in thought. “Choice of words aside, she says it must be done for the ritual to succeed.”
“Maybe there’s a loophole. Or maybe basic instinct means something else in our case.”
“Do you think it means something else?”
She stopped, slumping her shoulders. “No.”
If the situation were different, Simon would laugh. He rarely had women trying their best to getoutof sleeping with him. Unless Shanna was so against it because—
“In Vegas …” He gulped, trying to get the words out. “That night, did we …?”
She vigorously shook her head. “No. The only thing we did was kiss, and even that only as a part of the wedding vows.” Her previously subsiding blush returned, and she lowered her eyes.
So he’d kissed her before … and had forgotten it. He couldn’t ask her how the kiss had been. Had she liked it, or had they both been so drunk it was one of those slobbery abominations?
Was that why Shanna was so resistant to the notion of them sleeping together?
And why was he …
Why was he not resistant at all?
