Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“Maybe…” I said noncommittally. I had to confess that I wasn’t nearly so resistant to letting him fulfill some of my sexual fantasies now. The way he had defended me from the Ogre had been wonderful but the way he’d pitched in and worked beside me, helping me instead of expecting me to do everything, was almost as good.
Did I mention that I dated a lot of mama’s boys before I gave up on the dating apps? It was so nice to meet a man who acted like an adult and actually wanted to help me and fulfill my needs instead of expecting me to take care of him and do everything myself.
Better slow down there, Celia, whispered the pessimistic voice in my head. Remember, he’s not a guy you’re dating—he’s a lust Demon who’s only interested in fulfilling the contract he had with your ancestress so he can be free and go back to Hell’s Waiting Room. So the minute you let him get really intimate with you, he’ll be gone. It’s better not to let your heart get involved.
That was true, I reluctantly admitted to myself. Even if I did get physical with the delicious Demon—and believe me, after having an entire day of teasing and erotic mental images, I definitely wanted to—I would have to be careful not to let myself catch feelings.
I would have pondered more on the subject but at that moment Malik opened the door and the customers started pouring in so I couldn’t think about anything else but serving everyone in town.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Ithink everyone in Hidden Hollow stopped by your bakery today,” Malik remarked, dropping onto the faded floral print couch in my living room with a sigh. Even for an immortal Demon, he looked tired.
“You’re right about that,” I said, settling beside him. “Every year I make the tarts, they get more popular. I can’t believe we sold out in an hour!”
I’d actually had to put a limit of two tarts per customer, because people wanted to buy a dozen at a time. Of course I had saved some back for Goldie to serve at her diner and some for Goody Albright to serve with the High Tea she advertised at her B&B but all the rest had gone to hungry repeat customers and people who had just moved to town and had heard about the tarts from their new neighbors.
Luckily we’d cleaned the bakery before opening the doors so after the last tart was sold, I was able to close up shop and go home early for the day. But of course, none of that would have been possible without Malik’s help. In the past, when I did tart day all by myself, I sometimes didn’t get home until nearly midnight. But there was still light in the sky as we walked through the crisp Fall weather from The Lost Lamb back to my house.
But even though it hadn’t lasted nearly as long as last year’s tart day, it had still been a long day. My feet were aching and I was glad to get off them and prop my feet up on the ugly brown coffee table that Great Aunt Gertrude had left me. She had terrible taste in furniture but I hadn’t had the heart to get rid of her stuff and get stuff of my own when I moved in to the old Victorian mansion. I wasn’t much of an interior decorator and I was always busy baking. When did I have time to furniture shop?
“You look tired,” Malik remarked, turning his head to look at me. There was concern in his black eyes.
“So do you,” I countered. “Only I didn’t know immortal Demons could get tired.”
“I expend energy the same way you do when I take corporeal form,” he remarked. “It’s not like living in spirit form where you are energy.”
“Is that what everyone is down there in, uh, Hell’s Waiting Room?” I asked with interest. “Pure energy?”
“Something like that.” He scooted closer to me and smiled. “But I don’t mind getting tired if it means I get to spend time with you.”
“Don’t talk like that,” I said, looking away. “Don’t talk like you know me and really want to spend time with me—you don’t.”
“Yes, I do know you,” he protested. “We’ve been meeting in your dreams for the past six months. And of course I want to spend time with you—it was your longing that brought me out of deep slumber and woke me completely.”
“Well…I don’t know if that counts,” I mumbled, looking down at my hands. “I barely remember those dreams.”
But I was lying—the dreams I’d forgotten had been coming back to me in bits and pieces. Almost all of them were erotic but in some of them Malik and I just talked and got to know each other. I had to admit, I probably knew the big Incubus better than I did many of the men I’d dated in the past. Which didn’t make it any easier to sit right beside him when I was still feeling the lingering desire that had been teasing me all day long.