Page 123 of Just One Little Bargain

I stroke my index finger over the ridged underside while I kiss him. His mouth opens on a broken breath. I tighten my grip. The texture changes nearer the base, smoother beneath my thumb and so much more sensitive that his knees spread to brace around me. When I repeat the stroke, his tongue loses the rhythm against mine.

“We have . . . cookies. We’re making cookies.”

“We are. Am I distracting you?”

“You’re dismantling me.” His hand catches my wrist, and he brings it to the other horn. This time he doesn’t guide me. He bends until both horns rest in my hands, trusting me with them without another word. “If you touch both at once, I can’t promise to remain interested in baking.”

“That sounds more like an incentive.” He makes a sound too deep to sound entirely human. I pull him down until his mouth hovers over mine. “I’m done waiting.”

He doesn’t make me repeat it. His hand closes around the back of my neck. “Thank Hell,” he breathes, and kisses me.

Chapter 36

Milo

Evie’s hands knot in the front of my shirt, but mine are already beneath her thighs. One clean lift brings her legs around my hips, and I set her on the butcher block before stepping into the space she’s opened for me.

My claw catches beneath her apron tie and severs it with a quiet snap. The fabric falls loose between us.

“I’m beginning to understand why these concern me.” I stare at what I’ve done.

She drags me back to her. “You can apologize after.”

I kiss her until neither of us is breathing properly. Every time I pull back for air, she follows, catching my lower lip between hers like she has no intention of letting me get far.

Evie reaches between us and attacks the buttons on my flannel. Her knuckles brush my chest through my undershirt. She gets stuck on the third, huffing against my mouth when it won’t give.

“I hate buttons.”

“They’ve been successfully fastening human clothing for centuries.”

“They’re in my way.”

She yanks the flannel off my shoulders with enough force that I have to help or risk losing a button to her determination. It drops to the kitchen floor, and her hands are already at the hem of my shirt, pulling upward. I raise my arms and let her strip it off me. The cool air hits my bare skin before her palms replace it.

My tongue slips back into her mouth, the kiss turning greedier as I try to give her everything she asks for without words. A black claw curves from each fingertip and catches in the denim beneath her thighs. I pull away at once.

Evie catches my wrist. “Don’t.”

“I could hurt you.”

“You won’t.” She turns my hand over before I can retract it and pushes the heel of my palm beneath her shirt. I hold perfectly still.

The tips hover just above her bare skin, close enough that her breath makes her soft belly swell against them.

Not a flicker of fear crosses her face. She guides my hand higher, until one claw slips beneath the trim of her bra, and keeps her eyes on mine while she does it.

“Evie.” I mean it as a warning, but it sounds closer to a plea.

“It’s okay.”

I barely touch her. The point traces the outer swell of her breast through the lace, light enough that the fabric doesn’t even pull. Her lips part, and I repeat the stroke just to watch it happen again.

The reaction cuts straight through me. No one’s ever taken the parts of me built to frighten them and asked for more. Evie peers down at my hand with the same hungry concentration she gives anything she has already decided she wants.

A treacherous part of me wishes I were easier to want. No horns or claws. Nothing that makes wanting me an act of courage.

Then she takes my wrist and drags the point over her nipple, hard enough that the lace scrapes with it, and the thought disappears entirely.