His arm comes around me, and he pulls me tight against his chest.
“Thank you.”
I lay my face against his warm skin and sigh as he presses his lips to the crown of my head. Finally, it feels like the fight is over and I can breathe.
“Let’s not do that non-communication thing again, okay?” I say, looking up at him. “If something is going on, please talk to me.”
He tucks an errant hair behind my ear. The graze of his claw against my cheek makes me shiver.
“I’ll try my best,” he concedes.
“That’s all I ask.”
He smirks. “I’m grateful for your low standards.”
My eyes narrow. “Want me to make it a requirement, then?” I ask, putting my hand against the brand on my chest. “I’ll just keep bringing you back to me until you pipe up.”
He smiles, sweet and genuine. It makes my heart yearn forward, like it might become part of him. My palms are tingling again and I feel my magic slipping out.
He chuckles. “We better get you doing something productive, Kitty, before you leak all over the house.”
thirty-one
AnotherRose
Renee stares up at the glittering light show with mouth agape. “How in the fuck…?”
The woman in a pink dress twirls around the dancefloor with a beastly, seven-foot-tall orc who’s absolutely enamored with her. The dress shimmers just like it says in the text, despite me not having read it before Renee had.
The magicworks.
Bastian leans against the bookshelf with a self-satisfied grin. “There’s a sphere of influence here that will pick up on the thoughts of anyone with an open book in their hands. While it’s not a foolproof plan, it will work with great efficacy, and few mishaps.”
“That’s just…” Drew shakes his head like a wet dog. “AWESOME!”
“Hopefully, it’ll wow people but not besoout there that they’ll accuse me of witchcraft,” I say, pulling the book out of Renee’s hands and putting it in Drew’s.
I flip to a different page and point randomly without looking. “Read.”
Drew’s eyes dart back and forth, and then his cheeks turn pink. The lights projected in the corner of the bookstore shift and come to life, showing the woman from the dancefloor lying on a bed, fully nude, with the orc kneeling between her legs. Drew snaps the book shut and the image cuts off.
I clear my throat. “All the eighteen plus books will be kept behind that wall so that shouldn’t happen out here.”
I take the novel from him and return it to the “Smut” section behind the accessible ramp. The lighting behind the wall is dim and intimate, with a small table beside the chaise in the corner of the windowless hall.
“You better make sure you’re keeping an ear out for buzzing noises in this section,” Renee says. “It’s all dark and secluded.”
I scoff and roll my eyes. “Like anyone would be doingthatin a bookshop.”
“Doing what?” Bastian asks, but I can tell by the tiny smirk that he knows what we’re talking about. He’s heard my vibrator. Hell, hesimulatedit with his tail for me weeks ago.
Great, now I’m thinking about his tail.
Renee coughs into her hand and blushes. “Nothing, just, girl stuff.”
She hurries out of the section and Bastian catches my arm. “I have a gift for you.”
“Oh?” I ask, doing my best to hide my face.
