Page 50 of Monsters' Manor

Laughing softly, I nestle into his chest. I close my eyes and reach down deep for the spark of my power to concentrate on reeling it back in. It’s easy enough to manage, even with as pleasure-drunk as I feel right now, and when I open them again the last of my embers blink out into the darkness.

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to walk back,” I groan.

The demon doesn’t seem to mind as he keeps stroking my back, keeps running his lips over my hair, my cheeks, catching my mouth in gentle half-kisses.

It’s… nice. And strange. I’m not really sure what to do with all this tenderness from him, but I decide not to question it as he helps me back into my clothes and swings me up into his arms.

When we reach my cottage, he sets me down on unsteady feet. I’m about to ask if he wants to come inside, strip off those leather pants of his and let me show him I’m a witch with some other talents he might enjoy, but Ren speaks before I can.

“I want you to have a big glass of water and something to eat before you go to bed,” he says, nodding toward the door. “And a bath, or at least a quick shower, if you’re too tired.”

For my magick drain, I realize.

And even though he doesn’t need to be worried—aside from some orgasm-induced wobbliness, I feel great right now—his concern puts a warm, syrupy feeling smack in the center of my chest.

I smile up at him. “Don’t you want to…”

My words trail off and I step closer, brushing my fingertips over the hard line of his erection where it’s straining the front of his pants.

Though a rough, needy noise rasps its way out of his throat, Ren steps back and shakes his head.

“Not tonight.”

I frown at the refusal and am about to open my mouth and argue the point when he leans in and kisses me again.

“Water. And food. And a bath,” he murmurs against my lips. “You need your strength to keep training tomorrow.”

I let out an irritated breath. “Fine.”

Looking entirely pleased, and not like I’m sending him home with a big, aching hard-on and no relief, Ren kisses me one last time before stepping away.

“Goodnight, Rosie.”

“Goodnight,” I murmur, leaning against one of the wooden posts on my porch and watching the demon disappear into the night.

15

The next couple of weeks pass in an exhausting blur.

Between training with Ren, working the ticket booth, and trying to manage the relationships I’m having with not one buttwomonsters, I barely have time to keep my head on straight, let alone come to any kind of decision about my future as Samhain approaches.

Things between Ren, Silas, and me… well, things between the three of us are just the same. Which is to say that despite my growing connection with them both, neither one has tried to pry or find out what’s happening on the other side of this little triangle we’ve created.

All of it feels… precarious. Like it can’t last much longer.

At the same time, no part of me feels ready to let either of them go.

That’s more true than ever when Silas has me pinned to the wall just inside my front door a week before Samhain. His shadows—stronger and more tangible than ever—take me apart piece by piece, strip me bare and keep me bound as he has his slow, decadent way with me.

When I’m moaning and writhing against the touch of his darkness, when I’m breaking into a million starlit pieces, none of it seems to matter. All that matters is being here, right here with him.

The next afternoon, when Ren’s red eyes are glowing in warm approval as we take my pyrotechnics up to the Parlor to practice, that feels right, too. The way he lays me down on the plush red velvet sofa and devours me, the way my blood burns at the wildness of him, it makes me want to reach out and take it.

All of it. Both of them. For as long as they’ll have me.

But we don’t talk about it. As the moon grows fuller each night and the crackling power of the Acres waxes with it, it all feels like it’s coming to its inevitable breaking point.

What that breaking point will be, I don’t know, and I’m too caught up in the overwhelm of it all to be able to make sense of any of it.

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