Page 20 of Wicked Witch of the Wolf

The gnome continued eating his cookie, entirely unfazed by the change of scenery.

“What’s wrong with her?” Ronan yelled down at him. “This woman would shove her own grandmother to the ground to get her hands on a bakery polvoron. And what’s with the sex kitten act?”

“Act?” If he’d slapped me, it would’ve hurt less. My chest ached. My nose itched, and tears filled my eyes. “What’s the matter? Did I do something wrong?”

“Stop it, Betty. Whatever this is, stop it.”

He looked genuinely distressed, which wasn’t acceptable. My man was not to feel any measure of discomfort in my presence.

I’d failed him.

“I’m sorry.” I dried my tears and sat up straight. “I shouldn’t have gotten so emotional, dear.”

“Dear? Fuck me,” he grumbled under his breath.

I pulled my top over my head and dropped it on the sofa. Then I reached behind me to unlatch my bra.

Ronan’s eyes went very, very wide. “Cecil, put that cookie down and fix this right godsdamn now.”

Cecil looked from Ronan to me. He set his polvoron on a paperback thriller and jumped onto the sofa. I slingshotted my bra at Ronan’s head, and he squeezed his eyes shut tight. I didn’t understand what the problem was. He’d asked for this.

Silly man. He must be playing. “Come here, my sweet, sexy Ronan.”

“What the hell?” He clapped his hand over his eyes and held out the other hand. “Uh-uh. You stay back until we figure this out, Betty,dear.”

I sidestepped Cecil and threw myself into Ronan’s arms. I wriggled my hands between us, rucked his shirt up to his neck, and squeezed him against me. My breasts tightened along with every other inch of skin that made contact with his. Goosebumps was too tame a word for it. I was being strangled by what was left of my clothing.

I moaned. Gods above and below, I needed fewer clothes and morehim.

Ronan breathed in gulps and wheezes. “By the moon,hurry up, Cecil.”

“Why are you fighting this?” I reached between us, dancing my fingers over the rock-hard erection behind the fly of his jeans. “It’s obvious you want me. You even said, ‘Fuck me,’ just now. I don’t understand. Is this a game?” I brightened. “It is, isn’t it? Oh, I can play games. I’mgoodat games.”

“No, it’s … damn it, Betty, I didn’t mean it literally.” He stroked a hand over my hip and up my spine to the back of my neck. “Damn it all.” He quickly dropped his arm back to his side. “Godsdamn it, gnome.”

Cecil scaled the back of my leg to my pants pocket. The hex bag hit the floor.

Cold reality splashed me in the face.

“What the hell just happened?” I jerked away from Ronan and wrapped my arms around my breasts. Snatched up my bra. “Oh my goddess, the hex bag. Ronan, I’m sorry.”

“Are you decent?” he asked, his voice cracking like an adolescent boy’s.

Normally, my response would’ve been a flirty, “Never,” but it didn’t feel appropriate to joke around right now. “Hang on a minute, I need to yell at my partner.Cecil, you said the spell was neutralized!”

He chittered something and shrugged.

“Just because it didn’t have any effect,” I put on my bra and pulled my T-shirt over my head, “on you, doesn’t mean it was neutralized. What if I’d been around a different man? One less trustworthy. This could’ve gone very badly.”

Cecil shook his head and pointed at Ronan. Then he chittered something I understood at once, because I’d been thinking the same thing.

It wouldn’t have happened with another man, because it had only affected the way I’d interacted withRonan. I’d walked pastseveral men on the way to his office and not been the slightest bit tempted by any of them. Obviously, I felt some sort of connection with him. Husband-wife sort of connection.

The implications of that gave me the shivers. For several reasons—good and bad.

“You can open your eyes,” I said, resignedly. “I apologize for what just happened. I did something stupid and was infected by a hex bag.”

He tugged his T-shirt down over those glorious abs and blinked his eyes open. “There are aphrodisiac hex bags?”

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