Page 19 of Bombshell

When Alexander Finch had told Effie that her magic matured I’d watched her expression change, and how despite her reservationsabout her father and the coven he led, there would always be a part of her that wanted desperately to fit in with them.

“It’s not so bad,” Effie murmured, slanting her gaze away from mine as she spoke, doing little to assuage my paranoia. “It feels like my magic is finally going to work the way it’s supposed to, and hey, maybe it will be a good thing in the end. It means I won’t be so useless anymore. No more relying on enchanting items and making potions, I could actually castrealspells.”

She’d meant it as a joke, but I could see the same hurt that always entered her eyes whenever she talked about her complicated feelings around being a halfling.

“You arenotuseless, Euphemia Finch,” I insisted, pulling her into my arms and squeezing her tightly to me. Her palms flattened on my chest, and for a moment, I thought she was going to push me away. She had every right to after hearing me and Cash downstairs.

But instead her fingers curled on the collar of my open button down shirt and she melted in my arms.

And fuck if it didn’t feel amazing.

I wondered if she could feel the hammering of my two hearts as she pressed her ear to my chest, her sharp, minty scent filling my nose.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized as I leaned down to get a better purchase on her thin frame, nearly lifting her off of her feet as I tightened our embrace.

“For what?” she asked, her voice stifled by my shirt.

“For being an ass,” I supplied as I reached over and turned the burner off, my mood suddenly starting to shift as I felt the curve of her breasts pressing against me.

“And?”

“And for talking about you to Cash, I should have brought my worries to you first.”

“And?” Effie was clearly playing with me now, I could feel the curve of her lips pulling up into a smile against my chest.

“AndI’m sorry that you’re such a tease,” I said, leaning down to lift her fully up off of her feet, a grin on my face when she squealed and drew her legs up like she was afraid I was going to drop her.

Effie’s green eyes flashed up to meet mine before darting down to where my ink glands were hidden by my tentacles. “Do you need some relief, Dallan? I know it’s been a while…”

Irritation filled my chest and I quickly pushed it down. It was my fault Effie associated sex with ink collection in the first place. I’d let our little business-with-benefits agreement go on for longer than I ever should have.

Effie was my mate and over the past couple of days of watching her slip away from me I realized I was going to need to tell her sooner rather than later or risk potentially losing her forever.

Walking toward the beaded curtain that led into her bedroom I shook my head. “It doesn’t always have to be about ink collection, Lass,” I said before dropping my mouth to hers.

Chapter 6

“It doesn’t always have to be about ink collection.” Dallan’s words echoed through my mind as his tongue kept my mouth busy.

He paused in the doorway, holding my spine against it as every inch of his broad, muscled stomach pressed against mine, forcing my knees open and around his waist so that my core brushed against the button of his pants.

I really needed to stop wearing dresses that provided this man easy access because, despite still being angry with him, I found myself thawing under his touch.

We’d never, in the nearly forty years of our little deal, had sex without ink collection. Sometimes there would be a few more rounds after, but it always had to start with the collection itself.

And here Dallan was trying to throw all of it away with just a few words and a kiss so spine tinglingly good that I also wanted to throw caution into the wind.

But then there were all of the reasons why we shouldn’t cross this boundary line, the one that up until a few months ago, I’d been so damnedgood at keeping.

First and foremost, I was a halfling and Dallan was part of a basically extinct species. I wasn’t evensureif I could have children let alone if I wanted them. I didn’t have very good role models for it after all. Dallan deserved someone who had their shit figured out, and that definitely was not me.

At that thought, I started to pull away from Dallan’s seeking lips. “Dallan—”

“Effie, just shut up for tonight and I promise we can work through all of the reasons you’re about to tell me no in the morning,” the Cthulhu said, ignoring my interruption as our next kiss kept me from pushing him to stop, his sharp teeth nibbling on my bottom lip.

All of my burning questions seemed to fade away as my brain urged me to just let it happen and that I could deal with all of the complicated stuff later.

With a groan, I slipped my hands behind Dallan’s neck, accidentally knocking the backward baseball cap he was wearing away from his head as I finally leaned into the kiss and gave in.

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