His forehead furrowed, he explained. “We’d need a crane. I hired one to get it in situ in the first place. So it’s doable, but it won’t be cheap and to be honest, I don’t know how quickly we could get one. The other issue is the attention we’d attract by closing off the road behind for the crane to do the job. I’m not keen on advertising myself if I can avoid it and I’m going to assume you’d prefer to keep your presence low-key too. Where do you want it moved to, if possible?”
I cringed. I hadn’t considered the attention a crane would bring to Edwin’s home. I could empathise with him on this. I treasured the land I was being forced to vacate in part due to the lack of neighbours. A crow wasn’t a wildly unusual animal as pets went, but one of Terrance’s size was noticeable. Living here would mean extra caution not to be caught in conversation witha creature mundanes would assume to be dumb. Furthermore, if I had to live in a city, I wouldn’t have chosen London due to its sheer size. However, from what I’d seen of the area, and specifically the parcel of land Edwin had been canny enough to snap up when land prices had presumably been affordable, I wasn’t going to argue.
I had better give him an answer. “I totally understand about your not wanting to draw any attention to yourself, or us, and I don’t want to advertise my presence. But, if wecouldmove the carriage, then I was thinking of the opposite corner to where it is now, but at a slant cutting across the corner rather than tucked against the hedge.” He quirked his brows for me to explain. “It was James’ suggestion, actually. Unlike you, I’m a daytime person. I would like somewhere to sit out and chill that isn’t my work space. If I can move the carriage sideways on to the corner like that, I can have a little triangle of lawn with a chair and some flowers. It would also put the windows of the rooms, not the corridor, looking out over the remainder of the garden rather than the hedge blocking out the light, which is obviously how you’d placed it and how it would work best for a vampire. But, I can see it wouldn’t be the quickest solution to my imminent homelessness.” I sighed, feeling suddenly despondent about the whole thing. A curse on Filey’s shitty nephew and his shitty plans.
Edwin looked thoughtful. “Let me make a phone call,” he said. “There might be a way, but I don’t want to promise you anything without checking.” He squeezed James’ knee and shot him an affectionate smile, which James instantly returned. Were they fucking? It looked likely, but this was the same kid who’d been brutally drained and assaulted by that rogue vamp only a few weeks back, so if they were making the beast with two backs already, it seemed a bit soon. Perhaps Edwin was as persuasive as he was hot. Because, by the Goddess, he wasbloody good-looking. James was more cute than hot, his appeal more in his delicate features and the inner glow I’d picked up as soon as I’d walked through the door. The thought of the pair of them writhing naked sent blood rushing south and made concentrating more difficult than it should have been when we were discussing my future.
I excused myself back outside for Edwin to make a call in peace. James did not follow, so I wondered again how close the pair of them were. At first glance there was a world of difference between them, but I had learned a long time ago not to judge by looks. They could so often be deceptive. Edwin was my height and build, but with his pale skin, golden waves of thick glossy hair, and startlingly blue eyes, we couldn’t have been any more unalike if we tried. I subconsciously ran my hand through my own messy hair and began disentangling the strands from the band holding it off my face. Terrance flew to a nearby fence post and perched in silence while I finger-combed the tangles into an approximation of neatness, then retied it. I missed the hair I used to have, among so much more, but regrets wouldn’t change a damn thing — it was a wasted effort to let my mind dwell on them. I’d made my mistakes and now I was paying for them.
“You like him.”
I eyed my familiar. “Which one?”
His laughter wasn’t a human sound, but it wasn’t bird-like either. “Either. Both. Both, I suspect.” When I didn’t answer him, Terrance chuckled again. “I thought so. Be careful, my friend.”
“Not like I’d make a move on James,” I retorted swiftly, mostly because guilt had me in its grasp; I had already entertained a quick daydream of holding him and making him swoon. Stupid stuff, but it had been too long since I’d got off to anything but my own hands.
Terrance flew to my shoulder. “You would, with the slightest encouragement.”
“Shut up, or I’ll tell Edwin you’re incontinent and need a cage if you’re to be allowed indoors.”
He pecked my ear until it bled. I deserved it.
9
JAMES
“First impressions of Trace?”Edwin hauled me along to his bedroom and closed the door before he spoke. I guess he didn’t want our visitor overhearing us discuss him.
“I like his familiar.” Edwin grinned. “All right, I know that’s not what you meant.” I ran my mind over my conversations with Trace. “I think he’s honest. I mean, I can’t be sure of anything,” my brain stuttered as an involuntary memory of the way I’d initially considered the FWNN trustworthy flashed up, “but he seems excited about the possibility of turning your garden into a working space. He likes plants and animals. How bad can he be?”
“I agree. He’s got a pristine rep with the Council too. Known to be easygoing but nobody’s fool. A hard worker. Good with magic as well, it seems, although I’ve not seen any first hand, but he’s Dalziel’s top pick for anything they need a witch for.”
I worried my bottom lip. “The other carriage isn’t liveable in. From what he said, I don’t know if he’d have time to make it habitable and to move all his plants before he’s evicted. Would he expect to stay here? With us?” I could feel a flush riding up the back of my neck as I spoke and clamped a hand over it, hoping to avoid Edwin’s attention.
No such bloody luck. Nothing got past his vampire eyesight. Unable to entirely stop a smirk, he removed my hand like it was a speck of dust and settled it on his hip, drawing me towards his chest. He nuzzled into my neck, one large hand rubbing soothing circles up and down my spine until I felt like purring. It was fucking embarrassing how I melted every time he touched me, like he’d been given a secret code to unlock parts of me I wasn’t even sureIknew existed.
“So, if he did happen to end up using our home as his for a while, what part of it would concern you the most?” he said into my ear, his voice silky. “That he’d hear you moan when I feed from you, or that he might be able to smell when you’re aroused, like you are now, when you’re near him.”
“I am not!” I denied hotly, even as I could feel my cheeks burn with the outright lie. It didn’t help that once again I was pressed into Edwin’s chest, his sweet scent flooding my nostrils and making me yearn for things I knew I wasn’t ready for.
Edwin laughed gently. “Oh love, you’re a lot of things I admire, but you’re a terrible liar. You might not want to act on it, or even be able to explain why you feel the way you do, but something about Trace Dempsey has you seriously hot and bothered.” His tone changed to one of seduction. “D’you think he’s vers? Would he be willing to bend over for you, but also be keen to fuck me until I’m a puddle of cum and wrung-out muscles on our sheets?”
God, how did he do it? Tap into the fantasies I could barely acknowledge, as if he had a direct view into my head. That was disconcerting, and, I had to admit, hot as fuck. But it was the fact he saidoursheets that did it. I moaned, then shuddered, my hard-on twitching, trapped in denim as I ground against Edwin’s thigh. “Fuuuck.”
“That’s what I thought.” I could feel him smile, even with my burning face buried in his shirt. “You’d have to sleep in my roomif he had to move in. We couldn’t let his long legs suffer on the sofa. But then, it’s not like you use your room at all right now, is it?” He continued with the back rubbing. “I might need to think about how to get you that private space I promised you. I love this place, but it’s seriously lacking in hidey holes.”
“I don’t need anywhere else. I like being with you.” It was true. I had always valued my alone time, but although I loved my strolls in the early evening, I didn’t crave solitude, and if Edwin made even the slightest suggestion of wanting my company, I knew I wouldn’t hesitate to choose to stay inside with him.
“I can tell exactly how much you like being with me.” Now he was the one purring, wriggling his thigh a little higher between my open legs. “You know, you can just let go and bring yourself off against me. I’m hardly going to complain.” He swiped his tongue leisurely up from my collarbone to the soft patch at the base of my ear, sending electric signals to all my nerve endings and forcing a groan out of me.
“I know, love, I know. I’m trying so damn hard to keep my hands off you.” His broad fingers danced patterns over my ribcage as he whispered to me. “But you make it so hard, all puns intended, to resist when you come to me this way.” He licked me again. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m much too well brought-up to tell lies.”
“Not a guttersnipe then?” I was amazed I could still form words, I wanted him so badly. And yet I couldn’t quite believe that sex with Edwin would overwrite the ever-present nightmares the FWNN had triggered.
Edwin’s chuckle was a blast of more sweet air against my neck. “You got me,” he murmured. “All guttersnipe. If I’d’ve got caught, that would have been a different matter, but,” he paused for dramatic effect, and God help me, I leaned even closer, “they never did catch me.”
I snorted into smooth cotton. “Stop trying to make me want you more. It’s not humanly possible.” He sucked in what sounded like a surprised breath. Before I could change my mind, I begged him, “Bite me, please?” I was so near the edge, I knew it would likely tip me over, but that was a problem for future James to deal with.
