Page 57 of Happily Ever Witch
Scarlett sighed. “I know you can take care of yourself. But, you and Marrok are both in danger and I want my family home. Can you trust Trevelyan to help make that happen,at all?”
“No.” The answer was instant. “He might help me find Marrok, but only because he’ll want to kill him at the end.”
Scarlett was silent, thinking some more. “Marrok beat him once before. He can do it again, if he has to. I’d prefer him to face Trevelyan, rather than this Queen of Clubs bitch. Especially if you’re there to mediate.”
“Mediate?” Esmeralda scoffed. “With those two?” She had no idea how Marrok had survived the last battle. He’d either been incredibly lucky or Trevelyan hadn’t been fully invested in killing him. “Trev will walk right over me to have his revenge.”
“True Love doesn’t work that way. Trevelyan mightthinkit does, but it doesn’t. The bond is straight through your soul. You own some part of him now, whether he likes it or not.”
Esmeralda waved that aside, because none of the usual True Love stuff applied to the dragon. Trevelyan wanted to live “separate lives.” That kind of precluded a soul-deep bond. “What about Marrok’s reaction, then? He despises Trev. Even if I perform some miracle and keep Trev calm, how am I going to stop Marrok from going wolf on my True Love?”
“I have no idea.” Scarlett said honestly. “But I trust you. If you say Trevelyan can be salvaged, I’m going to go for this plan. It’s the best option for Marrok and for you. They were friends once. Maybe the two of them can…” The phone was losing the connection, Scarlett’s voice going in and out.
Esmeralda raised her own voice, like that might somehow compensate. “I will find Marrok, with or without Trevelyan. Iwill, Letty.”
“Thank you.” Scarlett told her sincerely. “…so happy to hear your… I love you, Ez.”
“I love you. And I will see you soon. I promise.”
“Just be safe and remember…” The call failed.
“Fuck.” Esmeralda gave her phone an irritated shake and then set it aside. “Alright. We’ll try again, later.” If it worked once, it would work again.
Probably.
In the meantime, she needed to find a way out of the castle. That was the next step. She’d tried breaking every window in the damn place and it hadn’t helped. The rain had stopped, but she remained stuck. The farthest she could go was the wide veranda overlooking the hedge maze. The remnants of the tea party she’d crashed were still set up on the plaid, pastel lawn. She could see them, but she couldn’t walk down the sweeping steps to reach the ground.
This palace wasnotgoing to be her red-and-pink tomb.
Sooner or later, she’d find a way out. It was just a matter of persistence and Esmeralda was the most persistent witch in the west.
In other news, the video monitor had finally started showing something interesting. Esmeralda slowed her fast-forwarding, her gaze on the screen. It showed Trevelyan touching her naked body forages. She looked great. That was important to note. But the whole experience took way longer than it had seemed, when she’d been experiencing it.
And Trevelyan looked enthralled by every single moment.
She would’ve expected him to be smug or smirking or distracted by something shiny, every once in a while. The man didn’t have the longest attention span. But, nope. He was positivelyenrapturedby her. It wasn’t even lust. That was there, sure. But Trevelyan’s expression seemed like… more. She had never seen him so fascinated and content. Not even when he was ripping out the executioner’s bones. In that moment, she really had owned the dragon.
And what a fabulous monster she’d caught for herself.
Esmeralda’s gaze stayed on his face, watching Trevelyan run his palms over her skin. She saw her own head fall onto his shoulder in dazed rapture. And she saw his eyes flutter closed in response to her show of faith. His face buried in her hair and a tender smile played around the edges of his lips. For several heartbeats he didn’t even move.
He just… held her.
Like she was precious to him.
Like a man with ninety-eight percent Badness, might possibly be tamed.
Like he’d protect and care for Esmeralda, happily ever after.
She decided not to erase the video. Instead, she stacked her chin in her palm and enjoyed Trevelyan revealing some of his secret thoughts to the hidden camera. When she’d climaxed, there wasn’t an ounce of snide-ness in his expression. Just pleasure. He’d loved making her come. Loved that she’d trusted him with everything.
The tape flickered, as her orgasm messed with the electricity, but it didn’t stop recording. So she saw him glance up at the lights. He knew she’d caused the disturbance, which meant he knew she’d lied to him about being a level one witch. But instead of being annoyed, he just held her tighter and smiled. Then, he’d licked the taste of her right off his fingers, a dragon relishing his greatest treasure.
Esmeralda’s mouth curved. Maybe shecouldteach him something about love. Maybe he wanted to learn. Maybe he just needed a little push out of his “separate lives” comfort zone to see the bigger picture.
Her phonebing-ed with a text message from Scarlett and Esmeralda glanced down at it.
Can’t get call through again. Maybe this will work. Just did five minutes of research on Trevelyan & already found a problem. Did you know there’s another woman, who’s offering a MASSIVE reward for his safe return?
