Page 41 of Happily Ever Witch
Esmeralda was quiet for a beat, flipping pancakes.
He frowned, still waiting for a fight that didn’t seem to be coming.
“I’ll take guitar players.” She finally decided.
His brows slammed together at that completely unexpected response. “What?”
“For my monogamy exclusion.” She sent him a casual glance over one shoulder. “I’ll take guitar players.”
What the hell?
“No.” The word was out before Trevelyan even considered it.
She seemed annoyed. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
“I meanno. You can’t fuck a guitar player.” Was she out of her mind? The thought of any other man touching her… Putting his scent on her body… Leaving his fingerprints on her petal-soft skin… The dragon moved inside of him, again. Furious, now. Claws raking. Wanting out, even though his powers were still too weak to transform. “No, Ez.” The command was final and accompanied by an ominous swirl of smoke.
Esmeralda didn’t notice. “You pick your non-monogamy dates and I’ll pick mine, alright?”
“I told you, I’m not dating anyone! It would just be sex.”
She plated her pancakes with a shake of her head. “Oh, I’m for sure going on dates with mine. I enjoy dates. Dinners and flowers and shit. I think it will be fun.”
Was Trevelyan losing his mind? It seemed the most likely explanation. “That is not how this works.”
“Why doyouget to decide how this works?”
“Because it was my idea in the first place! You’re not following the rules.” Honestly, he hadn’t considered the rules himself. He’d just been trying to annoy her with a spur of the moment idea, and she’d turned it all around, and now it was chaos. Why did she have to be so difficult?
Esmeralda sighed. Loudly. Like Trevelyan was the one being completely unreasonable. “I told you, Ihaterules. What’s wrong with my ‘guitar players’ choice?”
He tried to think, but it was hard through the dragon’s roars and the frantic thudding of his heartbeat. She couldn’t go to another man. He wouldn’t allow it.
“Your choice of guitar players is much too broad a category, for one thing. There are minimal women with that spark in their eyes. There aremillionsof guitar players.” And all of them would kill to get her into bed, beaming up at them with virtue and seduction. “So, that’s hardly much of an exclusion.”
She set the breakfast in front of him, like they were discussing nothing more pressing than maple syrup or powdered sugar. “Okay, that’s sort of fair.” She allowed.
Finally, she saw reason!
“I’ll choose cute, male, guitar players, with great smiles. That’s my type.”
Shit.
Trevelyan shook his head emphatically. “No.”
Esmeralda disregarded that logical argument and sat down across from him, contemplating her perfect man. “I really only need one boyfriend, if he’s the right one. But I don’t think I should limit myself to numbers, at the beginning. I’ll need options to choose from.”
“You can’t haveanyboyfriends. A boyfriend isn’t casual. You’re completelymissing the point ofcasual sex.”
“I don’t like casual sex.”
“Good! Because you’re not having that, either.”
“I should get a vote. And I want one cute guy with a great smile, who plays guitar. And maybe he lets me do his nails sometimes. That would be fun.” She stared off at nothing, like she was imagining the musical motherfucker already. “And he owns a record shop. And he’s kind to me.”
No, no,no.
“‘Kind?’” Trevelyan repeated scathingly. “You want someonekind?”
