I haul him up only to crash down to the floor. He lands partially on top of me, and I have to pull my legs out from under his heavy torso.
“Oww,” he moans.
“Shut up,” I groan, repositioning and trying again at a different angle, using the balls of my heels for momentum. Bent over like a one-hundred-year-old crone, I’m able to drag him one step at a time to the right, turning him around. His tail strains with muscle as he shifts it with my movements. By the time he’s facing the direction that will allow me to drag him to the bathroom, I’m panting, out of breath. “Fuck this. Just go back to where you came from.” I drop him and place my hands on my knees. “You’re out of the damn circle!”
He coughs. “I can’t. Too weak. I need water.”
This time, when I rise to go and collect that cup, he grabs my skirt to stop me. Looking down at him, I realize his eyes are open and on my face. “Kiss me and I will leave. It will be enough.”
I start to say no, then hesitate.
My gaze drops to his lips, which are parted enough to see his fangs between them. I recall his mouth, his demanding tongue, taking every ounce of moisture from me. Trying to stay cognizant enough to stop my body from reacting, I whisper, “Can’t you just go? Now that the circle is gone?”
He gives me a slight smile and although it’s feeble, it charms me with its wicked edge, and my body reacts despite my determination to remain unaffected. He’s just too handsome.
“What would be the fun in that?” he asks gleefully.
My mouth opens and closes as I yank my dress from his hand. “That wasn’t the deal.” I turn to leave.
“Wait!”
There’s a hint of desperation in his voice I didn’t expect; I pause. “What now?”
“I really do need water to leave,” he says, letting his head drop back and his eyes sink closed. “I’ve never lied about that.”
I sigh. “But then you’ll leave?”
One eye squints open to glare at me. “Yes,” he says with all seriousness. “If you get me to… to where you’re taking me, to the water—” his eyes drift to the bathroom “—I promise I will leave.”
I choose to believe him. I have no other choice, honestly. And we’re close enough already that he could potentially be gone in the next couple of minutes.
Bending down, I pick him back up, hauling him one inch at a time the rest of the way to the tub.
Chapter 9
Bathing Desires
Grace
Getting Sepher into the bathroom is harder than turning him around to begin with. I fall backward half a dozen times and nearly stab myself on his horns every time I bend down to retrieve him. Once inside the much smaller room, I need his help to move his tail inside and cram it into the smaller space.
What a complete nightmare this has been.
Flinging back my hair and then pulling it out of its tail to retie, I take a deep breath as I watch him torque in bewilderment.
His fins fly by me, knocking over the standing mirror on the counter and making me take a step back to dodge. They spread across the wall as he squeezes deeper into the room, shifting all the hanging towels in the process and knocking pictures from their hooks.
Watching the towels fall from their rack, I catch a glint of a smirk on his lips and a gleam of mischief in his eyes.
Clenching my teeth, I re-hook my arms under his and haul him next to the tub, dropping him unceremoniously once we’re there. “You can do the rest yourself, you big, awful lug.”
He grunts as he smacks the floor, and the smirk falls from his face. Reaching out to grab the edge of the tub with his hand, he eyes me and the smile returns. “You are resourcefulandstrong. I am in awe of you, little witch.”
“And you are getting on my last nerve,merdemon,” I huff, leaning against the wall next to the toilet and running my hands through my hair. “I’m not a little witch. I’m Grace,justGrace.”
“Yes, but you are also so much more than that.”
I blink as he heaves his body over the tub’s side. His biceps bulge, muscles straining under his velvety skin and black tail, showing off their strength. When he’s over the side and lowering his upper body down and into the water, I try to avert my eyes and give him privacy, though it’s hard when I catch sight of the water lapping around his cock.
