Page 51 of Beneath the Cursed Veil

“The thought has crossed my mind,” I said, rubbing my temples with my elbows propped on my desk. “The likelihoodof a chair flying at my face is usually how that scenario ends when I imagine it.”

“Right? What is she? Sheiscrazy strong for someone whose powers are nullified.” He tilted his head the way he usually did when he was thinking. “Have you gotten her something? A gift? Women like things like that.”

I arched a brow. “Since when are you an expert on women?”

“I observe. And I’ve decided the best advice comes from inexperience.” He flicked his ear. “So? You gonna get her something or what?”

I leaned back in my chair, rubbing at the scruff of my beard. “I’ve been sending her books. I stopped sending flowers. The vases all ended up broken. I swear she dumped the glass lilies in the hallway and stomped on them.”

Corvo’s ear twitched. He looked wholly unimpressed.

“What?”

“You got her books. That’s the best you can do?”

I flicked a wadded ball of parchment at him. “She likes books, and I got her the romance-kind she likes. I’ve been sending Lorne to the earth realm to get them.”

“Did you read them?”

“No,” I said quickly. “Why?”

Of course I read them. What else could I do with my time? The heat in the books was likely contributing to the increasingly intense desire to fuck her.

“You really are dense,” he meowed, curling his tail around himself. “If she likes the books, maybe she likes what the guys in there do for romance.”

Scenarios played out in my mind. I had a feeling if I told her to get down on her knees and crawl to me, I’d get kicked in the balls. What did some of those characters do? Killed an abuser. Tortured an enemy. There was some lightstalking on occasion. We’d already done the whole kidnapping thing, and she didn’t seem to be into it. What was actually considered romantic?

“Jewelry,” I said suddenly, remembering a character that gifted a family heirloom to the woman he loved. “She told me she collects it.”

“You already got her a necklace,” he said with a feline cackle, and I glared at him. “It went over so well.”

“Be helpful or I’m trading your tuna for some shit they feed cats in the earth realm.”

He narrowed his eyes. “You wouldn’t.”

“Try me.”

He hissed, swishing his tail sharply in annoyance, but he wisely–and reluctantly–chose to keep quiet.

Pushing myself back from the desk, I stood up, heading to the door.

“Where are you going?” he asked, sitting up.

“The family vault.”

“You’re going to get her jewelry from the family vault?” I turned, raising a brow in response to his tone. He chuckled. “Oh, wait until Eleanor sees her son’s kidnapper wearing a family heirloom. She’ll have a heart attack.”

“We can only hope.”

Chapter 17

Meera

What could one do when locked in a room for days? Well, I’d spent the first two destroying things and crying, plotting the demise of a certain leprechaun. The necklace that had been forced on me? I knew all about it. I was the one who’d been paid to find it last year. I just didn’t recognize it when I first saw it in the library. If that’s not the consequences of my actions coming back to bite me in the ass, I don’t know what is. Even though I knew what would happen, I still tried to take it off, hoping and praying that since I’d touched it before, it wouldn’t hurt me. The burns on my hands proved that theory was wrong.

If I spent too much time focusing on my situation, the rage tears wanted to make a reappearance, and I was over the stuffy nose and swollen eyes. Besides a good long nap, the only thing that kept me sane was the company of a certain cat and reading romance novels.

Vareck was clearly trying to suck up to me. Flowers? What a generic, shitty gesture after binding my powers. Even though the lilies were downright beautiful, something as simplistic as a floral arrangementwasn’t an apology. It was actually maddening that he could think something so shallow would win my affection or earn my forgiveness. Then he sent books. While it was still a shitty attempt, all things considered, he was at least sending me romance books. Stacks of them. I was devouring them like potato chips. Even though I was still pissed at him, the books did make for some interesting dreams. Weird how I could want to strangle him during the day, but each night my dreams were filled with him. Every delicious inch of him. An ache throbbed between my legs, and I squeezed them together.

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