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Your mother.
Chapter 7
Merle sneaked down the hall of her family’s old Victorian house, peeking around corners, listening…anticipating. Silence greeted her. It seemed like no one else was around. She knew better.
They always lurked. Lay in wait for her, watching her, ready to pounce on her when she least expected it. And she always, always, squealed. Damn embarrassing, that.
Not this time, they won’t make me squeak this—
A clawed ball of fur attacked her legs out of nowhere right before strong arms swept her off her feet and hoisted her over a muscled shoulder—and of course she damn straight squealed at the top of her lungs.
“Rhun! Dammit!” She pummeled her demon husband’s back—to no visible effect whatsoever—while Sauron, the Kitten from Hell, dashed away with glee.
“You. Are. Impossible.” She underscored each word with a swat at Rhun’s shoulders, though the overall seriousness of the message kind of got lost in the fit of giggles she couldn’t suppress any longer.
“Hmm. Yes. Yes, I am.” Rhun patted her butt, and then languorously stroked down her thighs—and up again until his fingers rubbed against the pulse at her core, caressed her through the fabric of her jeans. “And you adore me exactly like this, little witch.”
She moaned and dug her fingers in his T-shirt. Exquisite pleasure rippled through her in waves, and she wiggled her hips, pressed against his hand, trying to increase the sensation. He made a low sound of approval and nipped at her butt.
“Rhun,” she managed to say after a moment—through the haze of desire clouding her brain—“put me down.” Her body wailed in protest at the idea, but—“I need to mix a decoction. Low energy. Need to—oh, gods, Rhun!”
Muscles spasming with a sudden explosion of pure pleasure, she let out a sound somewhere between a moan and a sigh, and then sagged on his shoulder, limp and sated.
She sort of came to her senses again when he put her down on a stool at the kitchen island and gave her a kiss of heartbreaking tenderness.
“Which ingredients do you need?” he asked her with a smirk.
“Damn sneaky demon,” she muttered, though her reprimand had no edge at all.
She told him which herbs to get from the pantry, instructed in him how to chop them and slowly simmer them in water until they were thoroughly decocted. As the tangy smell filled the kitchen, she scrunched up her nose, already dreading the taste of the muddy result.
“I just came from Hazel’s.” She sighed, rubbing her forehead with one hand. “It seems like Basil took off on his own. He didn’t even say good-bye, just…left. His gear and weapons are gone, like his car.”
Rhun turned from supervising the simmering decoction and met her eyes. “You think he went into Faerie?”
“It’s the most likely scenario, considering it’s what they were talking about. Hazel’s distraught. She blames herself—”
“How so?” Rhun interrupted her. “Didn’t you say she had a silence spell on her, so she couldn’t tell him anything before?” After Lily called Merle earlier tonight with the shell-shocking news about Basil’s real identity and her lost twin sister in Faerie, Merle brought Rhun into the loop as well.
“Yeah, but she feels like she could have handled the revelation better. She’s afraid it turned out to be more about Rose, and that maybe Basil felt rejected, and like she didn’t have the mind to reassure him…”
“She worries too much.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. She has a point. I mean, Basil ran off by himself right after he found out. And just put yourself in her shoes…what if something happens to Basil over there? What if he took off because he felt he needed to prove something, and he’ll…” Her breath hitched, and the lump in her throat choked the rest of her sentence.
Rhun crossed his arms, leaning against the kitchen island with his hips. “You really think he can’t take care of himself?”
“It’s not that,” Merle said on a heavy breath. “It’s just…there’s strength in numbers. He shouldn’t have gone alone.”
He tilted his head in a conceding gesture. “Now what?”
“Now we’re all scrambling to find a fae who can take us into Faerie so we can look for Baz and Rose.”
“We?” Her darling demon cocked a brow. “Please don’t tell me you’re part of a proposed rescue mission for Blondie and the Lost Twin.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “So what if I am? Are you going to bark at me and tell me to stay home like a good housewife?”
He pursed his lips. “Aside from the fact that you should know better, and not accuse me of chauvinism when I’m the first person to believe in your skills and your ability to fight…”
