Page 17 of Snowed In with an Incubus

There was another long pause. Jaz panicked. Did that sound suggestive? She didn’t mean it to be. But Auntie Deb liked to latchonto things, and it wasn’t like she’d be wrong.

“I need to go,” she said as she listened to Auntie Deb taking a huge breath. “See you in four hours. Or whenever they clearthe roads. Love you, bye!”

She hung up before Auntie Deb could reply. Maybe when she arrived, Auntie Deb would’ve forgotten about it. She got sidetrackedeasily. Jaz just had to hope that something really interesting happened on her TV shows, or one of her friends had somethingeven more scandalous happen than a cheating boyfriend and maybe hooking up with a tattoo artist while they were stuck in theirstudio.

Daisy sidled up to her table. “Hi! Did I hear you say you were getting out of town?”

“Yes,” Jaz said, dread slamming into her at Daisy’s apologetic expression. “Why?”

Daisy winced. “The road is actually closed. There was a teeny avalanche.”

“Seriously?” Jaz craned her neck, trying to see the dragon baker through the window. “Can’t you get dragons to go breathefire on it?”

Daisy chuckled. “If they had a lot of time, sure, that’d work! It’ll probs be clear tomorrow. We have an inn on Cliff Streetif you need a place to stay.”

Someone called across the café for more coffee.

“One second, sir,” Daisy called back. She shot Jaz another sunny smile. “Happy New Year’s Eve!”

“Happy New Year’s Eve,” Jaz replied. She waited for Daisy to turn around, then slumped against the table. She got out herphone and started googling. The inn had a decent rating and was run by a family of werewolves who had really done it up. Butshe didn’t want to spend New Year’s by herself in some random inn. Her friends’ comforting messages were pouring in now thatshe finally had a signal, but they couldn’t do much from Chicago except FaceTime her, which, judging by how spotty the signalwas here, wouldn’t go down well.

She went into her contacts. Sam Tattoo. Admittedly, she did have another Sam in here—an old coworker who she’d been meaningto delete—so it was probably good that he added the identifier. Still, she wished he’d added something more … personal.Like a sun emoji. Or a fire emoji. Or even an eggplant emoji if he wanted to get specific about it. Then again, he had seemedpretty bitter at being perceived as … how had he put it? A seductive, manipulative demon who only has one thing on his mind and doesn’t care who he hurts to get it.

He was in no danger from that. She had full confidence that if she hadn’t propositioned him, he would’ve spent the night writhing in agony in the backroom. There was that brief moment when she’d been afraid he had taken too much, but he’d stopped as soon as she noticed it.

Jaz’s thumb hovered over his number. It didn’t mean they’d sleep together again. She couldn’t tell if he would want a repeat.He’d been so into it, but he obviously had some … issues when it came to the whole incubus thing. She didn’t want to make that worse.

She gave her hands an anxious shake and then stabbed Call. The worst that could happen was him saying no, and then she’d juststay at the inn. No big deal.

He answered after two rings. “Hello?”

“Hi,” Jaz chirped. “It’s Jaz.”

“Okay,” Sam said. Then, like an afterthought: “I mean, hi! Hello. Is everything okay?”

Not a great start, Jaz thought, wincing. “Everything’s fine! I mean, it could be better. The road out of town is closed—”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah! Tiny avalanche. What are the chances?” Jaz laughed nervously. “Anyway, um. They said it’d be clear tomorrow, but Iwas wondering—and you don’t have to say yes, I can totally stay at the inn, it’s just New Year’s and—”

“You can stay with me.”

Jaz stopped. She’d been expecting to talk herself out of an awkward phone call and then slink back to her car to find theinn.

“If that’s what you meant,” Sam said. He sounded surprised, like even he hadn’t expected to say that. “You can stay. For NewYear’s.”

“Oh,” Jaz said faintly. “Okay.”

She flushed. The marks he’d left on her throbbed like the blood rushing to her cheeks had activated a flood everywhere else:the bruises he’d sucked into her neck and thighs; the finger marks on her hips; the bright swirling tattoo sweating underthe plastic.

Sam cleared his throat. “Where are you?”

Chapter 7

It’s not a big deal, Sam assured himself as he led her down his driveway. Those words had been on a loop in his head since he picked her up outsidethe café: not a big deal, not a big deal, not a big deal …

Because if it was a big deal, he’d freak out. And he didn’t want to freak out around Jaz, not after the drama he’d already put her throughlast night. Never mind that she’d turned it into one of the best nights of his life—he was still embarrassed that she’d seenhim like that. In his incubus form, sure. But also hungry and sweaty and shaking. He’d never let it get that bad, and it mortifiedhim that when it finally happened, it was around a gorgeous woman who was locked in the studio with him.