Page 59 of When I Accidentally Summoned a Demon

Her mouth twitches. “What look?” She tries to play innocent, but the blush in her cheeks testifies to my suspicions.

I take her hips solidly in my grip before fondling the luscious curves of her ass. “Tell your demon now, Vesper,” I growl. When her lips part in a silent moan, but her thighs clench, I grin, showing my full teeth.

She lasts approximately two seconds. “Okay, okay!” she says, flustered before leaning over to skate her fingertips along my chest. “I’ve always wanted to have sex in a cemetery. And the underground crypt is just a bonus.”

I study her face. Vesper is lying against my chest in a subterranean chamber beneath a Catholic cemetery on the Oregon coast with the remnants of an ancient guardian all around us—and the sound of her “I love you” lingering like a sacred prayer.

“Well, then,” I declare, combing my hand through her hair. “I will be honored to help you check such a venture off your bucket list, so to speak.”

“If you feel up to the task.” The tone is specifically, calculatedly cheeky. She smirks at me.

“Oh, you naughty beastie.” I sit up, and she sits with me. I narrow my eyes, piercing her with the full weight of my intention. “For that, you are going to stand before me, remove every item of clothing you are wearing, bend over that coffin, ” I gesture to it, “and take your spanking like a good girl.”

Her grin is, without qualification, the most radiant thing I have encountered in seventeen centuries.

“Yes, Sir,” she says.

21

Vesper

The stone has done its work.

One week of nothing. No shadows other than furniture. No creepy hounds at the park. No drops in temperature. The ward stone sits on the cabinet above the threshold, and the house feels safe. Like something with its arms around it.

It didn’t hurt Valefar. It protects us. That’s all that matters.

I have been standing at the kitchen sink for four minutes, not doing the dishes, just watching them from the counter.

Valefar is on the couch with Bethie in his lap. He is holding a picture board book with bright, simple images.

“Where’s the truck, Bethie?”

She locates it immediately with one chubby finger, pressing it into the page with great authority.

His hand squeezes hers in encouragement. “Excellent. Now, where is the train?”

She finds it. “Twain.”

He produces a chocolate chip from the reward tupperware and holds it out. Bethie takes it, considers it, and then holds her open palm up to his mouth. Aww!

He bends his head and accepts it with complete seriousness. “Thank you kindly, little beastie.”

A slow warmth blooms through my chest and radiates outward like light rippling through water. I turn back to the sink before I do something embarrassing like tear up over a demon accepting a chocolate chip from a toddler.

As far as Valefar is concerned, everything my daughter does is magic. He is more patient with her than I am, and I am a pretty patient person. I’m absolutely, honestly, perfectly gone for this big guy. And I’ll just say our time in the crypt was earth-shattering. Well…an angel statue actually did shatter, but that’s a whole other point.

From the other room: “Where is the family?”

Bethie slaps the page twice. “There. Famiwy.”

“Indeed they are. Clever girl.” A beat. “One more. Where is the dog?” A pause. “Perfect,” he says, without hesitation. “That is a confident answer.”

I press my lips together hard and rinse the last bowl.

By the time the book is finished, I’ve finished the dishes and am wiping down the counter, trying to seem less besotted than I really am.

“Go pick out another book, Bethie,” I hear him say quietly. “I’m going to talk to your momma.”