Page 74 of Cookbooks and Demons

“I’m sorry,”she said.

“Don’t—” he said and tried to pull away, but she wouldn’t let him. Besides he had nowhere to go, as he was still facing the door. Instead, she came around to push him away andface him.

“Helena—” he pleaded, and then she silenced him with a kiss, pressing her lips to his while holding his face so he couldn’t pull away.

She slipped her fingers through his hair when the kiss broke. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was upset. And I blamed you for things that weren’t your fault when you were only trying tohelp me.”

He nodded with tiny shakes of his head, his face still a wreck with his unshed tears. “It’s just… when things go right, they’re miracles. And they just don’t go right so very often—”

She kissed him again, swallowing his words, making something go right for once in his existence. His hands hit her sides then, grasping her hips to pull her against him. Their kiss broke, and he buried his face in her half-dried hair, and she could feel him shudder in her arms as heheld on.

After a long moment, she spoke. “In regard to the payment I owe you this time—”

“No, no,” he said, straightening, sliding one of his hands against her cheek to hold her face as he gazed earnestly into her eyes. “You don’t owe meanything—”

But then she set her fingertips againsthis lips.

“You said that demons can be paid with mind, body …or soul?”

His eyes widened as he understood what she was offering him. “But I don’t want you that way,” he said, “Not like this.”

“It’s alright.Iwant this,” she whispered back, rising up on her toes to kiss his cheek. “Let me give this to you. Please.”

“But…” he said, still hesitating.

“What?” she said, stroking his cheek.

He captured her fingers and kissed the back of them. “If we do this, I can’t maintain…” he indicated his own face, “this. I can’t hold this image for you when I … give myself over.”

She smiled. “Rafferty, I’ve already seen you naked.”

He scoffed. “Trust me. It’s different when … you’re in the throes of passion. Nobody wants to see it.”

“It’s going to be fine,” she said, meeting him dead in the eye. “Ilove you.”

With those words, Rafferty gave in. There was nothing more for him to say.

This kiss was far more patient and toe-curling than the romantic pecks they had explored. With a growl, he grabbed her, lifting her to her toes, using her clothes for purchase. She wasn’t going to be nearly that patient. Instead, she scrabbled down his chest, reaching for the buttons of his shirt.

“Just tear them,” he said on the third button. “They’ll disappear the second I take it off.”

She giggled as she did so, the buttons snapping and vanishing as they separated their connection to Rafferty. “Okay, I’ve never done that before.”

“There are going to be a lot of firsts tonight,” he said and dived back toward her for another kiss.

She started to work on her own clothing, which was a sweater that went down to her thighs. It only had two buttons near the top that held it in an artful fold over her shoulders that she had to undo to get her head free. While she wrangled the wooden buttons through the tangle of soft acrylic threads of the sweater, she felt Rafferty’s hands on her head, sweeping up the sides of the sweater’s neck.

“No, don’t. Mine doesn’t disappear when you tear it,” she said before she realized he wasn’t going for the sweater, but actually pulling at the hair tie she had used to ponytail back her hair at the hospital. Sweeps of her red-gold hair, that in her mind desperately needed a brush, cascaded around her face. Rafferty patted it slowly, tracing his fingers carefully through her tresses so he wouldn’t snaganything.

“You’re beautiful,” hebreathed.

She grinned, then pulled the sweater up and off, letting it drop to the ground. “How about now?” she asked with a sultry smile.

Rafferty couldn’t say anything, only watched as she reached behind herself and unsnapped her bra, letting it drop to join thesweater.

“How about now?”

He fell to his knees before her like a supplicant, and she laughed at the show of passion. His arms came around her waist as he buried his face into her stomach. She ran her hands over his hair, then down his back, peeling the shirt away from him. It came away easily without a ripping sound, even though it didn’t need his arms to come through the sleeves to do so. He arched his back against her exploring hands as she ran her palmsback up.

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