Page 2 of Traps and Gretchen

“I’m just askin’,” she whispered.

“Perhaps wait until the answers are available for gifting to my soul of souls.”

“You bein’ a smartass.”

“I’m only ever being what your heart desires.”

Her frustrated growl had Traps grinning. “Stop makin’ it so bloody hard to stay mad at you!”

Remarkable. To have such a bond with a woman. To so easily escape the snares she’d set for him. “I need your help,” Traps hurried, sure now he’d called the perfect person. “It’s my wife.”

“Ah yes. The fated spouse of the fool.”

Traps swallowed his first spoonful of humbling elixir. “No better name exists.”

“He’s calling about his wife, is he?” the woman quietly asked, still close by.

“Yes,” Fetch said.

“I heard all about that one.”

“What did she hear?” Traps wondered.

“What did you hear, the man inquires.”

“Let me just talk to him.”

“No.”

“Why?” she demanded.

“Because he is a man. And you aremywoman.”

Damn, this dude hadthickrope. And the exact kind he needed.

“You just asked me if I wanted to talk to him,” she fussed quietly.

“What is the term my lovely human uses? Don’t bullshit me.”

She laughed, and the lover’s quarrel strummed something hungry in him. “We should help him,” she said.

“What a Fetching idea, wife.”

“Oh yer bein’ a dick now, aye? Ask him when we can come over. You told him you’s gotta see the thing yer fetchin’?”

Traps thought quickly for a reason. “My wife is utterly taken by the puzzle triplets,” he remembered.

“Oh, is she?” Fetch mused.

“Is she what?” the woman whispered.

“Utterly taken with the puzzle triplets.”

“I'll be utterly taken ye’ head off if ye’ be usin’ that tone with a female that ain’t bein’ me.”

“I believe our brother is Fetching a logical reason for having us over.”

She sucked in a breath. “Oh! Ain’t she the swampy librarian? I have a need for books for all me sisters here. The dirty romantic ones so they be learnin’ a thing or two about the ins and outs of the marital bed.”

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