Jodi Redford: Lover Enraptured

Barricades blocked the cross streets, making way for the parade progressing down Main Street. A glittery ten-foot fairy on stilts tossed lollipops into the crowd. Ignoring everyone’s mad dive for the candies, Jerrick blazed a path toward The Fairest Rose. If he was lucky, Avily wouldn’t be nursing a killer hangover that’d turned her into a snarling beast.

He stalled outside the shop’s entrance and swung toward Lex. “Keep your trap shut from here on out, understood?”

Lex blinked up at him, his face the living definition of innocence. “Why?”

“Just do it. No mention of last night. Furthermore, if you so much as start to ramble on about your cousin Calipoop or your bloody uncle Periwinkle, I will knock you unconscious.”

“My cousin’s name is Calliope, and I don’t have an uncle Peri—” Lex broke off with a loud gulp as he met Jerrick’s narrow-eyed stare.

The man needed a damn lock on his mouth. “Change of plans. You’re going to wait out here.”

“But—” A lollipop came out of nowhere and beaned the back of Lex’s head. He frowned and pivoted.

Snagging the opportunity, Jerrick ducked inside the shop and strode in the direction of the payment desk. A quick scan showed no sign of Avily, but with the customers milling about she had to be nearby. He took the farthest aisle, absently surveying the various goods for sale. It’d been too dark last night for him to properly satisfy his nosiness.

Beaded heart-shaped picture frames competed for shelf space next to lace-trimmed pillows stuffed with sweet-smelling flowers. Sachets. He was pleased and rather shocked when the word floated into his head with minimal effort. Nice to know he wasn’t a total idiot when it came to girly items.

Grunting and cursing came from the back of the shop. He followed the noise to a small room housing excess inventory. Avily was stooped over a large carton, her butt waving in the air while she lifted a corner of the box.

Swallowing hard, he lingered in the doorway, savoring the sights. She wore a fuzzy purple top and stretchy black pants that accentuated her rear end nicely. Very nicely . When she planted her feet wider apart and gave an enticing wiggle, he groaned. Her head swung in his direction the same instant she dropped the carton. It thudded onto her foot.

“ Yeow! ” Yanking her foot free, she hopped around. She spun, her glare armed and ready, and fell into the box instead.

He scrubbed a hand across his mouth, concealing his grin, before ambling forward.

Legs flopping over the side of the carton, Avily flicked a lock of hair from her eyes. “You better not be laughing at me, you son of a bitch.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Something his balls were eternally grateful for. Still, he played it safe and gave her flailing foot a wide berth as he hunkered over her.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Getting you out of there.”

Avily swatted at his arm. “I don’t need your help.” When he stepped back, she rocked around, trying to squirm her way out of the box. His jaw grew sore trying to contain his chuckle.

She gave up with a frustrated growl. “Damn it, I’m stuck.”

“And it only took you ten minutes of doing the sneaky-snake to figure it out,” he said dryly. Her leg took a swing, and he jumped back with mere inches to spare. “Do you want me to get you out of there or not?”

Cocking her head back, she peered at him. He could practically hear her running the options through her brain. “Fine. But so we’re clear, I gave serious consideration to spending the night in here instead.”

“Nice to know my help ranks slightly better than sleeping in a box.”

“Don’t get a swelled head. It was a real tight margin.”

Crooking one arm beneath her knees and the other behind the small of her back, he pulled her from the carton. He was hit all over again by her daintiness. How soft and feminine she felt tucked against him. And the flowery scent wafting from her taunted him with mental images of burying his face in the tempting expanse of fair skin above the neckline of her sweater. He’d been a damn saint not to give into the urge last night. It would have been too easy to let his mouth wander lower. A little rearranging of her top and he could have had the plump weight of her breasts snuggled in his palm, her nipple hard and peaked under his tongue.

He settled her on her feet and backed away before temptation beckoned brighter.

Avily’s breathing hitched a smidge faster while she straightened her sweater. “Thank you. If you’re ever stuck in a box, I’ll return the favor.”

“Funny you should mention that.” Scratching the side of his neck, he positioned himself in front of the doorway. A strategic move to keep Avily exactly where he wanted her.

She noticed. Chewing her bottom lip, she darted a desperate glance between the doorjamb and his face. “Mind moving? I have customers I shouldn’t be neglecting.”

“I need you.”

Avily’s eyes quadrupled in size behind her glasses, prompting him to groan at his word choice. “For a job. I need you to help me with a job.”

She folded her arms over her chest, the motion only a fraction stiffer than her features. “You know damn well I’m not in the thief trade anymore.”

“I wouldn’t ask if I had any other option.”

“Oh, so I’m your last choice? And that’s supposed to make me run circles at your feet like a hound begging for scraps?”

“Damn it, Avi, there’s no need to make this a personal grudge match. I know you think—”

“Oh no.” She shook a fist at him, her expression fierce. “Don’t you dare lecture me or pretend you know what’s inside my head.”

“I was going to say that you probably think I live up to my bastard birthright.”

She blinked. “Okay, you’re dead-on with that guesstimate.”

“I know we have…issues…but I’m begging you to overlook them for the time being.”

“ Issues? You laughed in my face when I threw myself at you!” Her hand shot out when he took a wary step forward. “Stay right there. I can’t be responsible for where my knee ends up otherwise.”

Reflexively, he palmed his crotch. “I didn’t mean to laugh back then. Your offer just…stunned me.” That was putting it mildly. He’d been struck mute on that day five years ago when Avily climbed onto his lap, all sexy and far too desirable for someone who’d always been off-limits. But the damnable woman had paid no heed to that fact, and instead kissed the daylights out of him before proceeding to whisper her naughty proposal in his ear.

I want you to be my first lover, Jer. Make love to me.

Shit, if only he’d stayed mute.

“You treated me like I had a contagious disease. If you’d hustled your ass out of there any faster, you would have left burn marks on the floor.”

He rubbed his jaw, knowing he was tiptoeing around a pit of quicksand that happened to be overrun with deadly vipers. “We went over this. It’s not that I didn’t want you.” Talk about an understatement. It’d taken every last ounce of his willpower to keep from tossing her on the floor and burying his cock inside her before she retracted the offer. “But it would have been wrong on countless levels if I’d taken your virginity.” The foremost being his heritage. Simply put, a Maddoc fae couldn’t bed a virgin without mating them for life. The meddlesome goddesses long ago bestowed the curse on his race as a means of keeping a Maddoc fae’s horniness reined and innocent virgins safe from a Maddoc’s sex magic. Bed ’em and you’ll damn well wed ’em, and all that bullshit.

Given his track record with the fairer sex, there was no way in hell he was slipping down that treacherous slope. He’d made a point to avoid virgins his entire life for precisely that reason. The fact that Avily just so happened to be the little sister of the woman who’d destroyed his heart had only reinforced his resolve.