Signed in Incubus: A Paranormal Monster Romance (Possessive Monsters Book 6)

Chapter 1

Penny

My heart lurched in my chest as I leaped away from the red plume of smoke suddenly forming in my living room. Panic set in as the form coalesced. I ran for the kitchen.

“Fuck!” I swore, stubbing my toe on an unopened moving box.

Ignoring the pain, I hopped on one foot over to the table. I hadn’t started unpacking yet, but I was pretty sure I had some salt packets left over from my recent take-out order.

“Come on, where the hell are you?” I rifled through the paper bag and found the little white packets at the very bottom.

When I’d cast the spell to find Mr. Right, I hadn’t expected the results to be so immediate. I certainly wasn’t ready for a swirling vortex to open up in my living room on the spot, which was why I hadn’t thought to draw a salt circle to contain my would-be suitor. You know, in case I didn’t agree with the spell’s definition of the perfect man.

Packets in hand, I ran back to the swirling, smoky mass and started sprinkling tiny pinches of salt in a circle around it. Damn. There was no way there was enough to form a circle. I was only a quarter of the way around when the form fully solidified.

“Hello, Gorgeous,” said a low rumbly voice.

I looked up from the sad-looking curved line of salt and found myself face to face with—

Oh. A naked and extremely chiseled set of glutes.

Talk about buns of steel.

I tore my eyes away and scrambled back. In front of me was a very naked, very well-formed man.

No. Not man. Demon.

He stood before me, a towering mountain of muscle and horns. His eyes glowed with a preternatural light, and his skin was a dusky tan with a hint of red. Like his perfectly formed behind, the rest of him was a paragon of perfection, right down to the strong jawline and the majestic horns. My pulse pounded in my ears as I struggled to find my words.

What the hell did one say to an accidentally conjured, ridiculously hot demon?

He looked down at the salt ring I’d been trying to complete and smirked. His wide smile showed a set of perfectly straight, brilliantly white teeth that were just a little too sharp to be human.

“That wouldn’t have worked anyway.” He easily stepped over the line. “Prax Incubus, at your service.” He bowed dramatically.

When he stood again, a pair of leather pants that hadn’t been there moments ago now covered him from the hips down, although he remained topless.

I backed up around my couch. Incubus. Not just any demon, but one that consumed sexual energy. They could sometimes be a lot of fun, but definitely not perfect man material.

Yup, I’d totally fucked up.

As I watched him move across the room, I was captivated by his raw masculinity. I’d heard of sex-on-a-stick, but this guy was sex-and-confidence-on-a-stick, which was even better. The way he grinned at me made me weak in the knees. He navigated the labyrinth of moving boxes like a pro, exuding a charm that threatened to place me under a spell of his own.

“Now, why would a cute little witch like you need to cast a spell requesting my”—he waggled his eyebrows almost cartoonishly—“services? You could’ve just asked.” He momentarily puffed into smoke and then reformed around me, his chest against my back and arms around my waist. “I’d be more than willing to oblige.”

“Uh…Prax…I think there’s been a mistake.”

I tried to escape his strong embrace but couldn’t. I was trapped. So I turned around to face him instead and ended up pressed tight to his brawny chest. He smelled like a camping trip, complete with bonfire, trees, and toasted marshmallows.

His presence enveloped me like he was touching me everywhere all at once through my clothes. A thousand invisible fingers were lighting little fires all over my body and a really big one between my legs. This must be the incubus magic I’d read about: the ability to inspire lust.

No kidding. Prax was sexy as fuck. Desire was growing and intensifying in me every moment until I was so overwhelmed with need that I felt as if I couldn’t even breathe. I had to do something before I made another mistake and dug myself an even bigger hole. This whole spell nonsense had been a horrible idea. I threw up some magic of my own to counteract his.

The feeling of uncontrollable lust abated just long enough for me to think. I wasn’t a particularly powerful witch. At best, I was just this side of mediocre, and I didn’t know how long the respite would last. Luckily, Prax didn’t keep pushing the issue.

It was too embarrassing to tell him that I’d drunkenly cast a spell I’d found online to find the perfect man after my fiancé no-showed at the altar yesterday. I’d had to explain to all our guests, most of whom had made the trip to Darlington especially for the event, that the wedding was off. Everything was already paid for, so I’d called the MC and told him just to make it a party and ensure everyone had fun. Then I’d hightailed it out of there to avoid being bombarded with questions I couldn”t answer.

I still wasn’t ready to face everyone, especially my family. My cousin Deanna, who was only a bridesmaid because my parents forced me to have her, would only rub salt in the wound. And my parents would probably find a way to blame me for the whole fiasco, as usual.

So I left out the part about being a ditched witch and just told him about the spell, showing him the page on the Let’s Talk About Hex forum where I’d found it, which was still up on my screen. The spell was the most popular and well-reviewed one of its kind, with an impressive average four-point-five star rating. That was unheard of in a forum where some users wrote reviews like, “Amazing! This potion literally saved my life! Three-point-six-seven stars.”

A pair of old-fashioned spectacles popped into existence, perched on Prax’s nose. I was pretty sure incubi didn’t have myopia since they could shape their corneas perfectly, and even if they didn’t, they didn’t need eyes to see, but it was kind of cute.

“This is a love spell. A forever until you are wedded and bedded spell,” Prax said, frowning. “That’s not what I signed up for.”

“Technically, you didn’t sign anything.”

“True.” He glanced around the room at the moving boxes and empty wine bottles. “But you look like you need some company. I’ll stick around.” He grabbed the closest bottle of wine, which still had a little left at the bottom, and drained it.

“No, it’s okay. You can go. I didn’t expect the spell to toss an incubus into my living room.” I was super lucky that he was a friendly demon. It could’ve been a lot worse, and I didn’t want to continue testing the proverbial horseshoe wedged up my butt.

Prax shrugged. “No, I’m staying. I’m not your forever man, but I’m bored right now, and you’ve piqued my interest. Besides, I already answered the summons, so I’m stuck. We might as well get to the bedded part. It’s the twenty-first century. People bed before they wed now, don’t they?”

“Uhh…yes…for the most part. But that’s not what I’m looking for. You’re not what I’m looking for. I don’t want a temporary liaison with an incubus.”

“Maybe not, but I’m what you need.” Strong arms pulled me down to sit in his lap. “I get the sense someone’s broken your heart. Guess what? I’ve comforted heartbroken women over multiple centuries, but not yet in this one. You can break me in.”

That had me giggling. “Break you in? Like a new pair of shoes? Do you use that line often?”

He grinned playfully. “Did it work?”

“Not at all!” Well, maybe a little.

It was nice in the circle of his arms. I was starved for touch, and it felt good to be held. So instead of fighting it, I decided to sink into his arms.

I was a lot more relaxed now than when he’d first appeared. He hadn’t done anything to hurt me yet, and he’d already had plenty of opportunity. That still didn’t mean he was totally safe, but I didn’t exactly have a way to make him leave either.

I’d set up rudimentary wards around my new home, but he was already through them, and I didn’t know any demon banishment spells off the top of my head. It wasn’t something I’d ever needed to memorize.

So, yeah. Better to play along and see where things went.

“Hey, I know—why don’t you show me a picture of the asshole who broke your heart, and I’ll make myself look like him, and then you can punch me. Would that make you feel better?”

Was this guy serious? I laughed. “I’m not going to punch you. That’s a dumb idea. I’ll admit I might be tempted for, like, a fraction of a second, but you’re not him. You’re you.”

“Okay then. I know something else that would cheer you up.” Prax reached for my laptop, pulled up a music streaming site, and chose a playlist. Tinny music from my laptop speakers filled the room. “Dance with me, little witch.”