Page 22 of Summoning my Grumpy Demon Boss

The words spill from me before I can stop them. “Y-you’re beautiful.”

She freezes, hands hovering over her breasts. “I am?”

I nod, mouth dry and heart pounding in my chest. I fumble on. “I mean, you were always beautiful. Even when we were kids, but fuck, Mia. Now? Now you might be the prettiest bloody thing I ever saw.”

I should be apologising for spying on her. For creeping up a ladder and watching her at the most inappropriate of times.I should be explaining why I never told her I’m a monster. Instead, all I can do is blurt out stupid compliments.

Mia flings herself at me, cutting me off. Her arms wind around my neck and her wet body is plastered to mine. Her hot, demanding mouth covers mine and she kisses me so passionately there’s nothing I can do for a long moment but surrender to it.

It’s like that night ten years ago and, once again, I’m completely hers. Only this time, I’m in my true form and there’s no way to hide my body’s reaction to her.

Her lips move against mine, her breath is sweet and her tongue darts into my mouth to play with mine. I groan. Her slim curves press up against me in just the right way to make me mad, and I’m ashamed to say my tentacles snake up her legs and to the slope of her waist and over her ass to haul her even closer, reaching for those sweet secret places.

“You remembered me! You remembered that night,” she says, when I finally let her come up for air.

Did she think I forgot? Not a fucking chance. “’Course I remembered. I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I saw you again.” Then I remember her fiance. “Fuck. I’m sorry.” I step back and take my hands off her, holding them out to my sides. My tentacles refuse to budge, though.

Mia frowns up at me. “What for? Oh, God, do you have a girlfriend?”

“No!” I take a breath and regulate my tone. “No. Nothing like that. But you... you’re engaged.”

Her lower lip trembles. “No. Not anymore.”

Fuck me sideways all the way to the deepest depths and back. She’s not engaged!

Mia’s perfect face crumples and her eyes fill with tears. I feel just as shitty as the piece of scum I am for spying on her, then internally cheering when she told me about her breakup.

She collapses into my chest and I push down my feelings to concentrate on her. I stroke her hair for a minute while she cries.

When I realise she’s shivering, I gently disentangle myself from her arms and find a towel. The air is chilly and the window is still wide open, letting out all the steam from her shower. I switch off the water and shut the window, wrapping the towel around her before fetching another one for her dripping hair.

“I’m sorry.” She sniffs. “I didn’t mean to jump on you or cry on you. I’m a mess.”

“It’s me who should be sorry.” I tell her. “For so many reasons. I shouldn’t have been watching you for a start.”

She slaps my chest gently. “Do you spy on all your clients this way?”

I laugh. “You’re a lot more agile than the last client I spied on. Mrs Miles is eighty-three and when she caught me she nearly did her hip again leaping out of the shower to scold me.” There’s a pause. “In my defense, I thought you’d fallen over or something.”

Mia giggles. “Ah yeah. Something like that. You um... you didn’t see anything, though did you?” She flushes.

She’s clearly asking me if I saw exactly what she was doing in the shower. While the memory of it will be replayed over and over in my head until the day I day, I’ll take that to my grave based on the way her blush tells me it makes her feel. “Justa little bit of nipple, I promise. I was climbing up fully prepared to find you with a broken leg or something.”

Her colour deepens. “Well, thank you, for coming to my rescue.”

“I think I should be thanking you for coming to mine.” There’s a pause. I should leave. I don’t want to, though. “Do you wanna talk about what happened? With your fiance? About...this?” I gesture down at myself, quietly amazed at how well she’s taken the whole monster thing.

She sniffs again and nods. “Yeah. Maybe. That actually sounds good. I should probably get dressed, though.”

“Why don’t I make us a cuppa?”

“Thanks. I... I’d like that.” She gives me another watery smile and then heads for the master bedroom. I find a towel and dry myself again so I can shift. I tear off the bottom of my ruined jeans to make the shortest pair of shorts a guy in Kraken Cove has ever sported. Then I force myself to turn and walk down the stairs to the kitchen where I put the kettle on and try not to mentally retrace the contours of her body while I wait for the water to boil.

When Mia comes downstairs, she’s got on little pyjama shorts and my jumper over the top. I have to turn back to the counter for a moment and will my cock to behave.

I pour the tea and hand her a mug. “No sugar, right?”

She smiles. “That’s me. You’re sweet for remembering.”

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