My last, trembling pulse of pleasure leaves me and I sag in his arms. Bastian pulls back, only to press his lips against my ear.
“You’re mine, Caitlin,” he says, his voice rough with desire. “I claimed you once and I’ll do it again, every day, for the rest of your life until you understand.”
“I understand,” I whisper, my head a daze.
He kisses below my ear to my chin, then my lips. The kiss is hard, full of hunger and need.
“You don’t,” he says as he sets me down. “But you will…”
He pulls up my stockings and disappears the new rose with a snap of his magic.
“Try to walk straight,” he says with a smirk as he departs in a swirl of ink.
I pull down a breath to curse his departure when Renee peeks around the corner.
“Whatcha doin’?” she asks, a knowing grin on her face.
Ihopeit’s not a knowing grin. I’d prefer she didn’t know I just came back here.
“Nothing. Just Bastian, being…him,” I say, trying to collect myself.
“Uh huh.” She leers. “Well, we’re going to get going. Stuff and things to do at home.”
Suddenly I feel a little bad. They came all the way out here to see my magic and I slunk off to the shadows with Bastian to have an orgasm…
Her expression turns softer as she takes a step into the smut section. “Hey, whatever you’re thinking right now, stop.”
I shrug, feigning innocence. “I’m not thinking.”
“You literally projected, ‘I’m a bad friend’ behind your head.”
I whirl around and sure as shit, there’s orange mist drifting away. “What the…”
Renee laughs. “That’s fucking great. You’re your own lie detector.”
“Not great. Opposite of great. What if I do this in front of customers?” I say, a new wave of anxiety coming over me.
“Seems like you just need to practice,” she says.
And I know she’s right. Bastian said so too. I was over-full this morning, my magic just oozing out everywhere, and now I can’t even control my thoughts.
Renee grabs my arms and shakes me. “Hey, you’re good. Okay?”
I bob my head.
“We loved seeing your new hologram thing, but I know you still have a lot of work to do before tomorrow, so we’re gonna go.”
I nod again, but this time I feel more sure. She’s not angry. I didn’t upset her. I’m not a bad friend.
“We’ll be here tomorrow afternoon for your grand opening,” she says with a black-lipped smile.
“Probably a mediocre opening,” I say.
“You hush up right now. It’s going to be grand whether there’s two hundred customers or two. I promise.”
“All right, fine. Grand,” I concede and another weight is lifted.
It doesn’t matter how many people show up. This is a small town, and there aren’t a lot of people here who even care about books. What’s most important is that I’m happy with what I’ve created, and that my online store is selling copies like wildfire.
