Page 16 of How To Please A Princely Fae

My little green witch looses what could be considered a ferocious roar from a newborn kitten. I laugh again, utterly delighted.

She points a finger at me, prodding it into my chest. I groan, because that’s all it takes for a bead of precum to begin dripping from the tip of my cock.

“Hands. Out. Of. Your. Pants.” She mumbles something under her breath, and I get the feeling I’m not supposed to hear it, but she must’ve forgotten that I have superior hearing. “Need a lot more than one pastry to deal with this nonsense,” she grumbles.

“Why, my little pastry, my sweet little chocolate croissant, you could deal with my nonsense all by yourself if only you wanted to.”

With a look of pure derision, she flounces out of the greenhouse, leaving me to follow in her wake, my laughter echoing off the glass walls.

Chapter 5

WILLOW

By the time we make it to The Pixie’s Perch, some of my ire has worn off, replaced by a childish fascination with the fact that Kieran is completely overwhelmed physically by the horny goat weed’s effects. From a purely scientific standpoint, seeing the reaction on the full-blooded male fae prince is enlightening.

From the completely petty standpoint of the woman whose life he’s made miserable for the past few weeks, I take a sick sort of pleasure from his obvious discomfort. I don’t like it about myself that his discomfort is amusing to me, but he brought it on himself.

So here we are.

I veritably tow him behind me into town, bypassing the long willow-bough broom by The Pixie’s Perch that I normally nod to in greeting in favor of getting something into the poor prince as soon as possible. Kieran, for his part, is making a sort of low tortured noise, and despite my petty amusement, I am startingto get a bit worried about the effects of the aforementioned horny goat weed.

The town center is packed with people.

I pause in my crusade to get to the bottom of whatever is going on with Kieran as soon as possible, in pure shock. The tents that we set up for the autumn festival are still raised in the center of town. And in fact, the entire town center teams with the citizens of Wild Oak Woods.

A group of rowdy dwarves are cutting up in the corner closest to the pastry displays at the tent entrance. They are about the only group I notice before pulling Kieran through the crowd. A minotaur I wedge in front of lets out a distinctly moo-sounding exclamation of disgruntlement that prompts Kieran to turn over one shoulder and level him with the nastiest look possible on his pretty face.

The minotaur takes a step back.

Can’t say I blame him.

I clear my throat, waiting for Piper to finish handing a pretty pink ribbon-tied box full of pastries to Lila, the proprietor of the town’s tea shop, and notice us.

Piper’s long brown hair is tied neatly back into two braids that crisscross and wrap overhead like a crown, her cheeks flushed from the heat of the bakery despite the chill of the fall air outside. Ga’Rek is at her side, and his pleasant, welcoming expression turns to one of confusion as Kieran stares at him as though he’s never seen him before in his life.

It must be clear from the expression on my face that something is very, very wrong, because Piper immediately takes me by the arm and pulls me behind the table still laden with the feast from last night. The scent of magic is in the air, and it’s clear that the rest of the witches performed some sort of spell work to keep this table fresh for today’s festivities.

Part of me realizes that I should congratulate Piper on being able to pull off the autumn festival despite the terrible circumstances of last night, but I’m starting to get too freaked out about Kieran to do anything but blurt the entirety of our problems to her.

Immediately.

“He’s lost his memory,” I wail. “He doesn’t remember who I am, where we are, or most anything about his past other than his name and the fact that he’s an Unseelie fae. I don’t know what happened. I didn’t cast any spells, I swear it. Even though you know I’ve been pining after him, there is no way that I would have done anything to warrant this sort of personality change.”

“Well, well, well. The truth comes out.” Kieran leans against the table, raking his gaze up and down my body.

My entire body cringes, and I cover my face with trembling hands.

Wonderful. This is just what I needed, for Kieran to hear my unfettered thoughts about him. It was one thing when he underhandedly tried to trick me into admitting I have feelings for him, but admitting it here, out in the open, in front of everyone, is a whole different problem.

How do I always find myself in these situations?

“I don’t want to hear about it from you,” I snap.

“It seems cruel of you not to help me with my current predicament, considering you have the feelings required to make good on exactly what I need help with,” Kieran says smugly.

“What?” Ga’Rek scratches his chin in confusion.

He looks exactly how I feel on the inside.

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