Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 227(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
“N-no it won’t!” I sang-cried. (And if you’ve never heard anyone sing while they were crying, all I can say is that it sounds really strange.) “W-what if he comes to the house?”
“He won’t—this house is well warded,” Malik assured me. “Believe me, I wouldn’t have been able to get in myself if you hadn’t opened the door to Goody Albright and let her bring my portrait inside.”
His words calmed me somewhat—I had forgotten about the magical wards around the house that Great Aunt Gertrude had put in place. Honestly, I had never had to think of them before because I’d never had an evil Creature come after me.
“I thought…thought he would kill me or eat me or both!” I sang-cried, swiping at my streaming eyes.
“I’m sure he’d like to try, but no one is getting anywhere near you while I’m here,” Malik said grimly. “I might have been too late to save Hester, but I’m here for you.” He pulled me against his chest and wrapped his arms around me. “Take some deep breaths, baby—you’re safe now. I promise.”
Though I told myself I still didn’t know him—not outside my dreams anyway—being held against his broad, warm chest was comforting. As I breathed in his smoke and spice scent, I felt my heart rate slowing and my breathing evening out. I had a deep, primal feeling that I was in the arms of a man who would kill or die to protect me—if Demons could die, that was—and somehow that calmed me down most of all.
“That’s right, just breathe,” Malik rumbled, rubbing my back and shoulders soothingly. “Just relax and tell me all about it—tell me what happened.”
“Do I have to?” I sang in a low voice, looking up at him. The whole incident had been so nasty and viscerally frightening I just wanted to forget it.
But Malik gave me a stern look.
“I’m afraid you do. I need to know everything so I can protect you.”
Part of me—the independent part who owned her own business—wanted to protest that I didn’t need protection. Luckily the sensible part of me recognized that I absolutely did.
Taking a deep breath, I told him everything—singing sadly in a minor key about the pear tree and how it only bore fruit once a year and how I always harvested it and made tarts for the whole town.
“I didn’t think anyone lived in the haunted mansion—the old house on the other side of the hedge,” I sang. “But I guess the Ogre must and I just never saw him before.”
“Not necessarily—he might just be squatting there,” Malik said, looking thoughtful. “At any rate, the pears are in your house now and possession is nine-tenths of Creature Law so they’re yours now and he can’t do anything about it.”
“Thank you for coming to save me,” I sang softly, looking up at him. “I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Well, I would say you could let me fulfill your deepest fantasy so I could be free of the Mortal Realm and go back to my rightful place in Hell’s Waiting Room, but I think that would be in poor taste right now. So I’ll settle for helping you turn those luscious pears into delicious tarts.”
“You want to help me bake?” I sang doubtfully. I had never trusted anyone but Sarah in my bakery before now and that was only after I gave her a thorough trial. She had the day off today because she’d covered the entire bakery by herself on my birthday, but I wasn’t sure if I wanted Malik’s help—who even knew if he knew how to bake?
But he didn’t seem fazed by my doubt.
“Sure, why not?” he said, smiling down at me. “Baking is your gift and I want to learn more about you. Only so I can learn what your fantasy is and fulfill it, of course,” he added quickly.
“Oh, of course.” I sighed and even my sigh sounded musical. “I guess you can help but you have to do what I say. Pastry is easy to ruin if you don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Don’t worry—I’m a fast learner.” Malik winked and then he leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “I just want to spend time with you,” he murmured, searching my eyes with his own. “I don’t care what we do as long as we do it together.”
My heart gave a little jump in my chest. It was exactly the kind of thing I’d always wished a man would say to me.
Exactly, whispered a little voice in my head. And that’s why he’s saying it. He’s here to fulfill your fantasies and not all of them are sexual, right?
Right. I told myself not to trust the Incubus’s words—he was, after all, a Demon. And there was no way I could trust my heart to a lust Demon—someone who actually made women fall in love with them for a living. I was just another job to him—an unfulfilled obligation due to the fact that I had Hester’s blood in my veins.