Page 14 of The Incubus's Angel
My eyes snap up. “Yes! Can you relate? Do you have that kind of problem too? Sorry, I don’t mean to sound excited, but I’ve not met someone who has understood what I meant before.”
Ren worries his bottom lip, a decision warring in his eyes as he looks directly at me. I don’t rush him.
After a couple of seconds, he says haltingly, “I don’t know if you know what species I am?”
I shake my head. “Nope. Can’t say I do.”
“I’m an incubus.”
“Okay?”
When I don’t react the way Ren thought I might, he goes on, “An incubus is a… sexual species, essentially. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with it.”
Finally, my brain catches up and I’m able to connect the dots. “You mean all your partners expect you to be some kind of sex god who gives them a hundred orgasms a day and that you should instinctively know all their kinks? That kind of pressure?”
Ren shrugs, retreating a little. “Something like that,” he says in a low voice.
My heart hurts for him. That’s an incredible weight of expectation to be placed on someone. Suddenly my own hangups seem minor. More minor than before.
I reach across the table and take his right hand with my left. “That must be hard for you. How do you even pick a partner and know they like you forwhoyou are and notwhatyou are?”
Ren’s grin is sad, defeated. “I don’t. I’m perpetually single.”
I pout. “No. That’s not good either. Unless you want to be single?”
“Not exactly,” he says hesitantly, letting go of my hand to stick both of his in his hoodie again.
I sit up straighter and slap the table as an idea occurs to me. “I know. Have you tried online dating?”
Ren visibly cringes, his shoulders climbing toward his ears. “Not yet.”
I’m fucking this up. I’m going to alienate the first actual friend I made on the island if I don’t change the topic soon. I think of a hundred different questions I can ask him, but each one seems either too mundane or too serious and my nerves start to set in.
Saving me from my internal battle, Ren says, “Something smells amazing.”
I grab onto that lifeline with both hands and fling myself up out of my chair to go check on the cake.
Chapter 8
Ren
Almost a week of “normal” goes by, a week where I pretend to be the same version of myself I was before Maisie waltzed into my life with all her sunshine.
She’s captivating. Every second spent with her feels invigorating. She makes me feel seen. Maisie also has this magical ability to ask questions that make me reveal more about myself than I thought I could.
Can’t believe I basically told her I was a virgin, but maybe she didn’t understand. Or could it be that she didn’t mind?
I may also have jerked off to thoughts of her. Daily.Okay, multiple times a day.The sensation of her arousalpushing me over the edge was mindblowing, and it’s been stuck on repeat. She’s awoken some kind of beast within me, and he’s ravenous. He’s also nervous.
And that’s why I’ll be heading into town today. To The Bandaged Heart. To talk to Nurse Tilly.
I stare at the back of my turquoise front door and take a couple of fortifying breaths before I square my shoulders and fling it open.
With my first step outside, I pick a topic that I can list. Normally I do this when my senses are flooded with someone else’s arousal, but this time it’s because all my thoughts are drenched with Maisie. I need a clear head if I have to function somewhat normally around Starry Hill’s residents.
I start with listing types of flour—something new I’ve been researching as of late—as I practically march west. Cake flour, bread flour, whole wheat flour, self-rising flour, pastry flour, rye flour, rice flour…
I’m so distracted that my nerves don’t have time to grab hold of me, and the next thing I know I’m at the base of the island’s tallest hill. All the shops are neatly arranged in three distinct levels stacked against a pretty green backdrop—which does not remind me of Maisie’s eyes. I’ve hardly ever needed to go as far up as Second or Third Street since The Winged Apple, the town’s general store, stocks most of the things I need and is conveniently located on First Street, right along with the apothecary, the clinic… and the café.
