“All done?” Considine pulled back just enough to make me look up at him. “Dessert, I said your seduction was successful. I never said it was complete.” He leaned in, angling his mouth toward mine.
“What would make it complete?” I whispered, my eyes closing without my permission.
“Nothing.” I could feel his smile as his lips brushed mine and his perpetual scruff grazed my skin. “I’m going to keep on seducing you as long as we live.”
We kissed, a scorching sensation that Considine leaned into as if he was trying to brand the feeling into our memories.
My mind cleared of my usual anxieties and worries, filling instead with the sensations of the kiss—my arms still around his neck, his hands sliding around my waist, the pressure of his lips drawing me in.
I wanted the moment to last forever—us, in the golden sunshine of the afternoon.
The best part, though, was that I knew it didn’t need to last—because Considine was my future, and I was never going to let him go.
EPILOGUE- JADE
Jade
“Do you have any werewolves?” I asked, keeping my eyes at half-mast as I studied Clarence.
The vampire—who wasn’t even wearing his trademarked cravat today—smiled. “Go fish, Blood.”
Don’t react. Don’t give anything away.
I reached out and chose one of the few remaining cards in the draw pile.
Clarence smirked when I studied the card, until I plucked a second card from my hand and displayed the pair. Then his smile disappeared.
“I took the Old Maid from the draw pile and had the Slayer in my hand.” I set the pair down on the table in front of me, joining the stack I’d collected over the course of this round, and tried not to grimace. (Considine had insisted the slayer card bear my picture, and then used his own photograph with a badly photoshopped wig on his head for the old maid card.)
“They are a pair.” I revealed the rest of my hand—two pairs I’d been holding on to disguise the slayer card that I held—and arranged them on the table, ending the game.
“Ooooh!” Brody practically howled as he stood up so fast he made his chair tip over. “She got you! Shegotyou, Clarence!”
Juggernaut flung a report he’d been pretending to reorganize for the past five minutes into the air, throwing paper everywhere. “The reign of terror is over! Clarence will cheat at go fish no more!”
Binx, looking quite satisfied, leaned back in her chair. “Nicely handled, Blood.”
“Yes, well done,” Clarence said, a good-natured smile settling on his face. “You make a worthy adversary,”
Grove grunted as he violently shook a potion that was an alarmingly unnatural shade of neon blue. “You mean you can’t cheat her like you do everyone else.”
I ducked my head, still too shy to accept their praise to my face.
Considine, sitting next to me, tucked a lock of my red hair behind my ear. “Jade is amazing at everything she tries,” he declared.
“Yes.” April—the third member of our round—collected the cards and started shuffling. “Though I must admit, I thought you’d be quite the card shark, Maledictus. But you lose just as often as you win.”
“It’s because he gets obsessed with collecting the slayer and old maid card,” Orrin said. He was sitting with Medium-Sized Robert, sharing a pot of green tea with the much larger troll. “He doesn’t bother to get any other pairs unless by accident.”
“That’s because I am the ultimate romantic and want the slayer and the undercover vampire to have a happy ending. Isn’t that right, Appetizer?” Considine purred as he leaned into me.
I rested my hands on the edge of the table. “Right.”
“You admit it? I’msodelighted!” Considine practically scooped me into his lap.
I let myself be manhandled—I knew it made Considine happy, but I was self-motivated as there was something fun about being proverbially swept off my feet that made butterflies flutter in my stomach.
Besides, our shift hadn’t officially started yet. We were still waiting for Sarge to arrive for muster.
