Relief crashed into me, my knees buckling as the weight of my earlier panic finally hit. I reached out, gripping the nearest tree, steadying myself as I exhaled through the lingering tension still thrumming in my chest.

Fuck, Devlin. You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.

All I’d done was bump into her neighbor in his shifted form. He probably hadn’t even been trying to attack me if all it took was a damn bedsheet to send him slithering back into the forest.

I forced myself to breathe, to clamp down on my senses once more, locking them away before they could pull me into another spiral of overreaction. I was about to head inside when a faintsound echoed through the night... the unmistakable rhythm of distant footsteps, fading into the shadows of the forest.

My eyes snapped to the front door, panic rising once more, only to land on a battered police file sprawled across the doormat. Its edges were scuffed, smeared with smudged fingerprints, its pages slightly crumpled, as if someone had tried and failed to shove it through the letterbox.

But my attention locked onto the bold red “CONFIDENTIAL” stamp glaring up at me like a silent accusation.

Chapter 15. Jen

I stretched luxuriously, my body melting into the sheets, the deep satisfaction from last night settling into my bones. Flexing my fingers, I focused, willing my magic to respond.

Nothing.

Should I feel guilty for using up the first sliver of magic I’d gotten back in years on the most intense orgasm of my life?

Absolutely.

Did I?

Absolutely not.

“Jen.”

My body clenched at the memory. A fresh pulse of heat curled through me, my mind immediately flitting to the next scene we’d be tackling.

Kieran clings stubbornly to his ruse of being completely unaffected by Mina, gruffly dismissing every attempt she makes to call him out, until she finally snaps. Frustrated, she blurts out the truth. She saw him in the woods. She heard him moaning. And it was her name on his lips.

What follows is a reckless game of chicken, neither of them willing to back down. Mina dares him to prove just how unaffected he is. Kieran, determined to win, leans in and kisses her, pretends it means nothing, even with the hard, contradictory evidence straining against his pants. And when that isn’t enough, when she challenges him further, he takes it to the next level, claiming he could have his nose pressed right up to the source of her desire, and it would still do nothing to him.

So, she dares him to try. And to her shock, he accepts.

Kieran drops to his knees, his face inches away from temptation, his confidence unwavering until his wolf scents her.The last shred of restraint snaps, and the need to taste her, claim her, consume her takes over. And this time, he doesn’t fight it.

My original version petered out at this point, with a cringe-worthy:He licked her juices, and the taste was indescribable... He grew harder at her moan, and it was the best feeling when she came on his lips. And when he rose, it took every fiber of his being to glare down at her and say, “Nothing.”

Yeah... I was definitely going to need all the help Devlin had to offer for that one.

A shiver ran through me at the thought that tonight he might actually use his tongue on me—provided he didn’t come up with some mad idea about using teaching aids again.

But then, just as quickly, another thought hit me like a punch to the gut.

What if he finds someone else to date?

My stomach hollowed, the excitement from moments ago dampening. I’d made him a promise. And if I held up my end of the bargain, it wouldn’t be fair to expect him to keep helping me with the sex scenes—not if he was trying to build something real with someone else.

You could always ask him to date you.

I waited for the inevitable torrent of inner voices to sound their concerns, but to my surprise, there was no opposition whatsoever.

Had I finally let go of my obsession with the Samhain summoning? Had I stopped clinging to the idea of saving myself for my mate? I mean, it wasn’t like he’d be expecting me to be a virgin after all this time.

In fact... it might actually be a bit weird to summon him after all these years and explain that I’d been virtuous out of some self-imposed duty. I was part succubus, after all. And he would be a full-blooded incubus. What if he didn’t want an untouched, blushing, inexperienced mate? What if he wantedsomeone confident, someone skilled—someone who didn’t turn into a rambling mess every time she was flustered?

And Devlin could help me with that.