Page 69 of Seph

Too jelly-legged to push him away for the moment, Emily just laughed and nodded ruefully into his shoulder. “Yes.”

“Is that yes, we buy this sexy little black number, or yes, you know I’ll prove that I can love you?”

“Both. Maybe. The second part only if we get her back. Seph has to come home for you to come home,” she whispered, daring to dig her hands into his shoulders and let the old fears melt for a minute.

“I figure if Zeus can’t touch Seph without her say so, he’s holding her in some kind of amnesiac limbo where she doesn’t remember Hades and her kids. But she knows that she doesn’t like him. And that...” Simeon frowned. “That’s odd, that is. Because after a thousand years with one man around you day and night, you’d think he could charm his way to the goal, if you get my meaning.”

Emily rolled her eyes. “Disgusting innuendos haven’t changed a lot since the 1800s. Go on.”

“I wonder if the clock ‘resets’ after a bit. LikeGroundhog Day.”

Emily cocked her head and stepped back as her legs firmed up. “That holiday in February?”

“God, I’m old. No, it’s a movie! A comedy, a rom-com, even, where this bloke—never mind. Date night some night. We’ll watch it, and you’ll get it.”

Emily blinked, startled.Date night? Us? Movies?

Her heart sped up again, in a different way this time, savoring the forbidden idea of being in love and “normal” for a hidden second.

Simeon continued, now pacing around the spacious dressing room, collecting up short, sexy dresses on hangers from their places on wall hooks and racks. “In the movie, this bloke is after this girl—decent girl, way out of his league—but every night at midnight—I think it was at midnight—the day resets, and he has to start all over trying to win her. Since Mnemosyne manipulates time to make Seph think she hasn’t been missing a thousand years, maybe that messes up whatever time she thinks she’s spent with Zeus.”

“That’s right! She must not think she’s been gone long, even if she can’t remember Hades and her children, because no one would just sit around one place for a thousand years. And she would go to see her mom every six months, too!” Emily nodded eagerly.

“So that’s one way things could be played.” Simeon draped the dresses over his arm.

Emily followed, picking up the boxes of matching shoes. “Also, Zeus can’t be with Seph every moment. And whatever keeps Seph from remembering her husband and kids has to be pretty strong. It has to keep her from remembering her old encounters with Zeus, too, or she wouldn’t want anything to do with him, no matter how many hours he spends with her.”

“And it keeps him from making too much headway at a time. He might woo her for a bit but then pop off to tend to an angrywife, and bam! She’s forgotten him. Or maybe he’s just such a bloody awful git that she can’t stand him even if she remembers everything with perfect clarity. Either way, we need to break Mem’s spell, and you need to distract Zeus if he’s there. I think that little red number would do it, Em.” Simeon pointed to a red dress with an asymmetrical hem.

“That was so tight that it looked painted on.”

Simeon stared at her with raw lust in his eyes.

“Right. That’ll do the trick.” She gently took the dress from him and picked two others.

“What are you doing? Give those back,” Simeon snatched them away. “We’re buying the lot. On Hades’ dime.”

“We shouldn’t do that!”

“I’m spoiling you, Emily Van Helsing. I want to. I want to do it with my own money, but I’m also one of those poor boys you read about in Dickens. I still can’t get over this bunch of handkerchiefs costing eight hundred dollars.” He shook a filmy white and black dress. “You want me to pay, I will. I’m more inclined to make Hades pay for holding me to this bargain that I didn’t even bloody make.”

Emily relented and stacked the fourth and final shoebox in her arms. “All right. All of these are courtesy of Mr. Underworld. After we get these in the car, do we go straight to Vegas, or should we spend a couple of minutes trying to figure out where she is in the city?”

“After we pay, we’ve got to hop home to Pine Ridge.”

“What?” Emily stopped in the entrance of the dressing room, teetering in high heels on the deep carpet. “I have clothes at home! Why did we—”

“Spoiling. You.” He bared his teeth.

She wasn’t truly cowed, but she shut up. It was nice to have someone who wanted to spoil her.

“And we’re not going home so you can pack another bag, we’re going home for backup. Pine Ridge is home to some bally powerful witches and warlocks,” Simeon continued, and there’s got to be someone there who can break Mnemosyne’s spell, even if it’s just for fifteen minutes. We also need something that’ll protect our memories from her.” Simeon shuddered suddenly.

“Are you okay?”

“What if I forget you?” he whispered, true fear in his eyes.

Suddenly, she was pulled tight to his chest, feeling his head burrow into the crook between her neck and shoulder.

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