Page 1129 of One More Kiss

Chapter10

A pairof needlelike claws were kneading my stomach. Fuzzily, I figured it was likely Jeff asking for his breakfast, so I shooed him off my belly and tried to turn over. That’s when my brain finally decided to come back online, and I shot up to sitting.

My ass planted on the forest floor, I peered at the three sets of eyes staring at me like I’d grown another head. Jeff in his kitty form just blinked at me, while a fully healed Asa cut across the leaves to pluck me from the ground and wrap me up in a hug. Vita stared at the tableau like we were particularly interesting zoo animals.

“Holy shit, Sugar Plum. I thought… I don’t know what I thought,” Asa said into my hair, his warm breath tickling the strands as the scent of his skin and the leather of his jacket filtered into my nose. I’d always had a thing about leather jackets. Maybe it was my days lusting after Dylan McKay as a teen, but I thought it was better than any cologne on the market. Half of me wanted to bask in the warmth of his hug and the other half wanted to bury my nose in his neck and take a big whiff…

Though, to not freak him out at my weirdness, I decided against it.

“She hit me with that fire,” he continued, breaking me out of my leather jacket fantasies, “and I couldn’t help you, and Jeff was MIA, and…”

Without much thought on my part, I reached up to cup his cheeks and brushed my lips against his. Mostly it was to calm him down, but it had the added benefit of shutting him up. That wasn’t to say that I didn’t care for Asa’s voice—I did—but I didn’t want a reminder of what I’d just done or what I could have lost.

No, I wanted to feel his pillowy soft lips on mine and the succulent brush of his tongue against my own.

Asa’s strong, wide hands clutched me tighter to his chest, and the thought of zippers and placements and the rather inconvenient timing of being outside with an audience drifted through my mind.

A distinctly male voice cleared his throat. “Honestly, Jasper. It’s like you haven’t had sex in a decade.”

I was going to kill that damn cat.

Had I had sex in a decade? Absolutely.

Had it been any good? With Mitchell? Absolutely not.

Reluctantly, I pulled my lips from Asa’s and glared into Jeff’s yellow kitty eyes. “If we’re talking about good, sweaty sex, I haven’t had that in nearly twenty years. So, yeah, keep interrupting, you little shit.”

Jeff just blinked at me. “There is a dismembered dead body twenty feet from you, Jasper. Maybe that takes priority? You know, before the sheriff decides to look in on all the explosions and ruckus you’ve been causing?”

So that was the thanks I was going to get for avenging Mercy’s murder and saving the day, huh? Ungrateful damn cat.

“I believe I could help with that,” Vita murmured, holding up a single finger like she was waiting for one of us to call on her.

“How?” I asked, shuddering to look at the pile of bloody parts that had once been Beatrice. Yeah, I’d been the one to throw the potion bomb and everything, but I sure as hell didn’t want to see the results.

The dryad gave me a sly grin that had far too many sharp teeth in it for my comfort. “She’ll feed the earth. Watch.”

With a wave of her hand, the haphazard mound of Beatrice started sinking into the ground, the soil soaking up the blood as the bones and sinew seemed to melt—her decomposition on fast-forward. In just a few moments, all the evidence of Beatrice’s death was gone, which was both comforting and frightening all at the same time.

But as much relief as I felt that I wouldn’t be going to prison for murder—a solid plus in my book—the fact that Vita could just make her body disappear was more than a little concerning.

My head bobbled in a sort of truncated nod. “That’s awesome work, Vita.”

I couldn’t say thank you to a Fae—not without some sort of deal in place—and anything else just seemed wrong.

Her lips pressed together, curling up at the ends in a weird macabre sort of smile. “A demonstration of what I’ll do to any who trespass here. I will protect this land as we agreed, yes?”

My head did the bobbling thing again as a feeling of light-headedness swamped me. I’d better put some “No Trespassing” signs up before someone got eaten by the land. “Yep. Maybe wait until we’ve agreed they’re here to do harm, though, okay?”

The Fae put a single finger to her chin as if she was thinking about the ramifications of such a request.

“I suppose that falls in line with the agreement,” she said sighing, disappointment stamped all over her as her shoulders fell.

Okay, so maybe gifting the forest to Vita might have been a bit hasty on my part, though, I didn’t see a way around it, given the fact that she was going to eat me if I hadn’t. And on that note, I decided it was high time to get the fuck out of her forest before she decided Asa, Jeff, and I were tasty morsels.

Squeezing Asa’s hand, I bid goodbye to the dryad. “See you around, Vita.”

The Fae nodded. “Yes, enough socializing. I need to get back to my forest.” Then she sighed. “My forest. My home. A real home.”

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