Page 15 of Raising Hell

What have we done, indeed.

Chapter 7

Casimir

“Rory!” My head is dramatically draped back over the edge of the bathtub as I stretch out his name.

“What?” he shouts, voice far away. There’s a tinge of irritation in his tone, although I find it hard to believe. I’m delightful.

“Can we please go do something? I’m so… bored!”

Several days have passed since our escapade in the bedroom, and he’s committed to pretending it never took place, while I pretend something inside me didn’t irrevocably shift. It’s been business as usual as I taunt and tease, keeping up the aloof air he expects from me. Flirting and offering my services whenever an opportunity arises to no avail. Twice now he has banished me to the bathing room to do my business instead of offering a helping hand.

Rude, honestly.

“You can’t be trusted to leave the house,” he says, his voice growing nearer.

“Can’t be trusted to leave the house,” I mimic under my breath, rolling my eyes. “Of course I can,” I say louder, my tone taking on a touch of indignation.

A shadow falls under the gap at the bottom of the door, and I grin as I sense his hesitation. He finally walks in and lets out a very loud,verydramatic gasp. “Cas!” He sounds so panicked, it startles me.

“What is wrong?” I ask, jumping to my feet as water sloshes over the edges of the bathtub.

His eyes are enormous as he scans the bathroom, then turns his gaze at me. The intensity of his glare makes me feel like I’m in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle, my defenses rising. “What… what did youdo?”

I frown, glancing at the tub, wondering if maybe his eyesight isn’t great. “I ran a bubble bath.”

“Why…” His hand hits his forehead and drags all the way down his face. Slowly. Like, really,reallyslowly. “Why are there bubbles all over the floor, Cas?”

I shrug, scanning the frothy bathroom. “It said to add a cap full, but I couldn’t find a hat, so I guessed.”

He mutters a string of angry words that might be curses, causing me to furrow my brow and step out of the bath. An angry warlock is a dangerous one, no matter how adorable. The soapy tile makes me frantically windmill my arms as I try to regain stability, my feet sliding on the slippery bubbles until I catch myself.

Somehow, he looks even more annoyed. I heave a sigh, my shoulders slouching. “What have I done now?”

It seems I’m not very good at being a human.

“A cap means… the lid, Cas. The tiny, itty-bitty little white lid that screws onto the bottle. Not ahat.” My lips purse, andI pull one side between my teeth, staying silent. I have my suspicions about which one of us is right, but I don’t want to argue with him in his own home.

I scoop a handful of bubbles from the countertop and hold them in my cupped hands. “Would a bubble bath make it better?” When I raise my arms, his eyes narrow into tiny slits, mean little shards of glass.

“If you put that on my head, I willend you,” he growls, sounding more like a demon than any actual demon I’ve ever met.

The bubbles float to the ground as I nod innocently. “Right, I wasn’t going to… do that…”

That’s a lie.

I was.

“You seem upset and kind of stressed,” I point out, and his eyes somehow narrow even further as they meet mine. “Do you need another orgasm?”

“No!” he snaps, and I take a protective step back from his wrath. “No, Cas, I don’t need an orgasm. What I need is for the troublesome demon that showed up at my house…”

“You summoned me,” I interrupt, but he ignores me.

“… to leave so I can get back to having a real life!” Now, I like Rory. Care about him a great deal, even, and definitely want to have sex with him. His stress and anger are not something I enjoy witnessing.

But—and this is a big, italicized but—I’m not ready to return to Hell when I haven’t had a chance to experience the world beyond these four walls yet.

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