Page 89 of Monstrous Travels as Wicked as Sin

On a double take, Joe asked, “Are they really called that?”

“I didn’t name them. But they are very good.”

“They are.”

He let Joe take his hand and settle him back into his seat. Moxie had long since stretched out on her belly, and for a while, had been shuffling towards Percy. He ripped his hand away from the paw that reached for him. “Don’t you ever touch me.”

It was Joe who leaned over and scratched her behind the ear. “Don’t forget, your kitten’s in here too.”

Percy watched Moxie twist her head up to enjoy Joe’s pats, eyes half closed with the sensation, that constant purr he’dalready grown to love rattling out of the tiny body. “I wonder what that must be like for her.”

“Not bad, I think,” said Joe. “She’s warm and well fed.” He snuck a glance up at Percy. “She’s loved. I don’t know what it’s doing to her brain to be melded with a being like that, but the familiar isn’t intrinsically evil. It’s just an asshole.”

“Mew,” Moxie protested.

“You are,” said Joe, rubbing her chin.

Percy still refused to touch the little beast, but Joe could see he wanted to. He picked her up and put her on Percy’s shoulder, where she nuzzled against his neck. Percy tilted his head away, but as Joe expected, he let her stay there, albeit with the disgusted look of a man who’d just had a bird shit on his shoulder.

Joe hid a grin behind his drink. “So did you say we’re off to Paris next?”

“Joe—”

“Shh! I’m going. And you’ll see. I’m going to be a proper criminal, proper ghost hunter, proper witch, um, de-body-erer, and no fuck ups. Watch me. Because, Percy, I’d travel all the way to France for you.”

Percy levelled a powerful glare at him. “You’re going to be like that?”

“I’d walk over to that bar and back for you,” Joe quipped.

Percy rolled his beautiful eyes. “Why did I bother to save you?”

Joe leaned close by Percy’s ear and said, “I’d burn through every cigarette in that case, drink every drink in this hotel, then take you upstairs and fuck you senseless.”

Finally, a full grin broke across Percy’s face, and he was Percy again, just as much as Joe was Joe again. And they two were as hopelessly in love as they both knew they would always be.

Moxie chose that moment to stick her purring nose in Percy’s ear, and he reached up and stroked her back. “Fine. You can come to Paris. But no fucking around. And I won’t go easy on you.”

“I won’t go easy on you.”

“Stop flirting. I’m trying to be morose.”

“I won’t let you be morose. You’ll see. Once we get through this next episode, there’s a happy ending waiting for us. I promise.”

“I hate to break it to you, Handsome. I don’t think you and I are cut out for the happy ever after lifestyle.”

Joe, with an arm around Percy’s neck, his lips smacking against his cheek, said, “If I’m with you, no matter what happens, that’s my happy ending.”

“You should probably aim higher.”

“It’s not possible to aim higher. You’re it. Will you marry me?”

Percy, by this time as pink and happy as a schoolboy deep in his first crush, replied, “It’s nice to be asked.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Joe wrapped his second arm around his fiancé and kissed him long and loving. “Come on. Let’s forget the rest and go back to the hotel.”

“Ben,” Percy called out. “Get us a room upstairs, would you? And mind this cat for me.”

Ben, ever the professional, was on the phone with barely a blink.

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