Page 72 of All's Fair in Love and Magic

“Is he dead?”

“Yeah. All but two of his inner circle, too.”

I whistled. “Don’t tell me how many of them I took out.”

“Alright. You did well, though.”

“I did what I needed to. I wish I didn’t have to, but that’s just life.”

“Especially here.”

I nodded. “It’s basically the wild west of the supernatural world. Minus a few tumbleweeds, plus a bunch of gigantic palm trees.”

His lips curved, just the tiniest bit.

Someone came to take our orders, and I went ahead and got a fancy mixed drink. Might as well, right? I was too wiped out to care what I ate, so I had Liam pick the meal for me since he knew what was good.

“Do you like alcohol?” he asked me as the waiter walked away.

“I don’t know. Haven’t tried much,” I admitted. “Do you like it?”

His leg brushed mine, and remained resting against the side. “I don’t have any real feelings about it. My system burns through it too fast to feel any effects.”

I supposed being a creature of fire would make that happen.

“It must be weird to have fire burning through your veins alongside the blood,” I remarked.

“It must be weirdnotto have fire burning through yours.”

“That’s fair.” I leaned back in my seat, looking out at the resort. The sunset bathed everything in golden light, making it look magical. “I guess if I’m going to be trapped somewhere for the rest of my life, it could be a lot worse than here. And with you.”

“You were basically cursing my name a week ago.”

“I’m adapting.” I flashed him a smile, and the softness in his expression made me warm.

Then again, that could’ve been heat. I was usually warm.

We were both quiet as they brought out our drinks, followed quickly by the food. I knew the kitchen would consider us their first priority, given Liam’s status. And the rumors that were undoubtedly spreading about what I’d done to Cecil and his buddies.

We ate quickly. Feeling all those eyes on us wasn’t incredibly pleasant, but it was nice to watch the sunset.

Liam’s arm went around my waist as we made our way down to the hotel’s lobby, then out toward our bungalow. There weren’tmany people on the paved paths, but the ones we passed gave us plenty of space.

“I haven’t seen that demon woman again since she flirted with you,” I remarked as we neared the house.

“She was removed from the resort.”

I blinked. “Wait, what?”

“She knew what would happen when she touched a mated male without his permission. Particularly me. I did the same thing the one other time it happened, before I met you. Both women were lucky I didn’t burn them to a fucking crisp.”

Wow.

“That’s intense.”

“Clove, if you hadn’t killed Cecil and his friends for what they did to you, I would’ve done it myself. Mated pairs are off limits—and even if they weren’t, that shit doesn’t fly in my resort.”

“The wild west has a sheriff,” I murmured.

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