“Why? I’m not in the wrong,” Mike said stubbornly, but his eyes had widened at the sudden plethora of monsters stepping in the room. As much as he hated them, it all stemmed from a deep-seated fear.
“You need to get the fuck out of our shop before I hex your ass until your dick falls off and runs away,” Effie shot from behind Dallan’s arm.
Arsenio glanced over at her. “Always good to see you, Euphemia, you should give your father a call. I know he misses you dearly.”
Effie scoffed. “I’d rather pull my teeth out one by one than have anything to do with that man.”
“Pity,” Arsenio replied loftily before snapping his fingers at Mike. “Michael, let’s go.”
Mike looked as if he wanted to argue and he even turned to do just that, but whatever he saw in Arsenio’s eyes made him change his mind.
“This isn’t over,” he told me as he followed Arsenio out of the shop.
“Just sign the papers, Mike, and go find someone else to terrorize,” I called as the door slammed behind them.
As the echoes of the bell faded, the room became quiet.
With a heavy sigh, I was the first to break the silence. “He’s not just going to give up.”
“Neither will Arsenio, in my six hundred years I’ve never met another being as slimy as him,” Dallan said, shaking his head as his tentacles curled with displeasure.
Cash tugged me into his chest and banded a protective arm around my back. “The same rules apply as before, she doesn’t go anywhere on her own.”
Heath held his hand up in salute. “Aye, aye, Captain, Operation Scooby Gang is well underway. She won’t leave our sight.”
I grimaced. “Please don’t call it that.”
“Why not?” Effie asked and whipped her cell phone out of her pocket. “I’m the one who came up with the name. Look, I’ve even renamed the group chat to match.”
“It does have a ring to it,” Dallan commented thoughtfully.
I shot him a glare before looking at Cash, hoping he would back me up.
The storm cloud expression that he’d been wearing ever since Mike and Arsenio walked into the shop was gone now, and his silver eyes sparkled with mischief.
“As long as they protect you, they can call it whatever they want, dragonfly,” he said.
“Traitor,” I muttered, mostly to myself as the rest continued to chatter back and forth until the bell over the door signaled the arrival of a customer.
As Effie greeted what looked to be a fish man, Cash tugged me back down the hallway and into his tattooing suite.
“You were very brave back there,” he murmured into my ear as he pressed my back to the wall.
“It helps to have a gargoyle boyfriend backing me up,” I said, my lips tilting up into a grin.
“It was attractive as hell,” Cash growled, one of his big hands cupping my jaw. He then began to rain kisses on the tender skin on my neck, over the tattoo that I’d finally decided to stop covering up this morning.
It had only been a little over twenty-four hours since our first kiss, but it felt like ages had passed since that moment in his truck.
Cash mentioned last night that he was already feeling the urge to mate, and judging by the nip of his teeth, he was feeling frisky.
Without thinking, I lifted my hands to his curved horns and gripped them tightly, holding his mouth to my neck. Cash made a noise that I’d never heard before and it took me a second to realize that it was one of pleasure.
“Are your horns sensitive?” I asked, my voice husky.
Cash nodded wordlessly, his teeth grazing my pulse.
I was just about to start stripping his clothing off, fully intending to go further than we ever had before, but then a knock on the door interrupted us.
