Chapter 12 #2
“It’s usually pretty quiet in here during the day. I set everything up over there. Thought you might prefer it to being in the den, since it’s nice out and you’ve been stuck in the clinic most of the day.”
I tilted my head back, looking up at him. “That’s…really thoughtful, thanks.”
“No problem.” He headed for the table and I followed.
He really was huge. I’d been aware of it, of course, but I hadn’t really allowed myself to think about it too much—now I could think of nothing else.
I couldn’t believe that he’d shifted into a ginormous hellhound and I’d ridden on his back.
He’d done that for me, to stop me from panicking.
He’d been protective, putting me first, making sure I was comfortable.
Magnolia’s words filtered through my head.
If I was looking for someone to experience sexual pleasure with, then maybe a hound, despite their size, would be the way to go.
“Do hounds enjoy casual sex?” I said as I sat across the table from him.
He was lowering himself into his chair, and he stilled midair, his gaze slicing to me. “Say again?”
“Hounds, do they have a lot of casual sex?”
His fingers curled around the lip of the table and he slowly sat. “They do, yeah.” His eyes had gone darker but were just as warm and attractive. “Hounds like sex. They also have limited emotions, so no strings suits us. At least until we find our mates.”
“What happens then?” I asked, because I’d seen Warrick with Willow and he was, for lack of a better word, besotted with her.
“Our emotions develop, and we’re all about our mate.”
That was nice. A hound as a mate would probably be a good thing, if what Mags said was true, and she had no reason to lie to me.
His gaze was leveled on me in an extremely intense way, but then hounds seemed to be intense a lot.
I ignored the return of swirls and flutters in my belly and pushed on.
“So do you and your brothers usually take long-term lovers or do you prefer one-night stands?” I asked, liking this idea more and more.
His big body had gone very still for some reason.
“I’m sorry, if that was too direct. I’m still working on my social etiquette. ”
He shifted in his seat. “You don’t have to be sorry, Temp. I like direct.”
I smiled to encourage him to keep talking and to put him at ease.
His gaze dipped to my mouth and back up, and he cleared his throat. “Sometimes a female is only looking for one night. It depends on the situation and the female,” he said, then his lips curled up again, and this time the grin looked kind of wicked. “But most come back for another night or two.”
Like Aradina. As much as I wanted to ask about her, and how long they’d had their arrangement, I stopped myself.
For some reason I couldn’t get the words out.
I didn’t know why, but I didn’t like the idea of them together, and I didn’t want to talk about her with him, definitely not about them having sex.
“Why do you think that is?” I asked instead. “Why do they come back?”
His smile vanished and his expression grew intense again. “Because we love to give our partners pleasure, over and above our own.”
My mouth went dry. “Oh.”
Silence filled the space between us. I didn’t know what to say to that. It definitely made my decision a lot easier, though.
“Any other questions, peaches?” he said into the silence that seemed strangely tense now. “You can ask me anything. Anything at all.”
My belly was all swirly again. “I, uh, can’t think of anything.”
“So there’s nothing else you want to ask me?”
There he went again. Why did he keep asking like that? “No, I think we covered everything.” I slid one of Brigid’s books toward me. “I guess we should get to work.”
His nostrils flared, and he cleared his throat. “Yeah, I guess we should.”
We pored over the books and papers for hours, and I bookmarked several sections in Brigid’s grimoire to look into further.
“Hey, check this out,” Fender said, turning one of the books my way. “This image, it’s called Matilda. Brigid said that name in the caves, I’m sure of it.”
My heart leaped into my throat, and my mouth went dry as I looked down at the sketch. “Um…which book is this?”
He flicked back to the cover. “It doesn’t say.”
I made a show of looking through the other pages.
There were images and descriptions of priestesses, profits, monsters, gods, and goddesses.
“Oh, this is an ancient guide, I suppose you’d call it.
All witches have them.” I chuckled, even as my stomach cramped with unease.
“A who’s who of the powerful, and in some cases deadly, real or myth.
Some are not so nice, and some protect those unable to protect themselves. ”
He carefully turned back to the page he’d shown me. “This Matilda? It says she’s a witch?”
“Yes, that’s right.” I was starting to feel sweaty and lightheaded all of a sudden.
“Is she real or a myth?”
“Real, by all accounts.” All he had to do was ask Willow, so I was forced to tell him the truth.
“She looks evil. You think she has something to do with Brigid’s death?”
Like myself, every Matilda had devoted their life to saving those witches from dark magic not strong enough to save themselves, but we were still feared by our own brethren.
There was a reason we lived our lives isolated and alone.
To witches everywhere, we were whispered about as a savior, yes, but we were also depicted in every book and story as a creepy, undying crone who came into your home, killed your husband or father, wife or mother without remorse and left.
The fact I…we…were doing good didn’t matter.
They didn’t want to know me, and they certainly didn’t want to be friends with a monster, and that’s how Matilda was seen by many.
I shook my head and slid the book back toward him. “Matilda does good. She would never have hurt Brigid or her sisters.”
He scowled down at the image again, his expression one of disgust. “You heard the name in that cave—”
“I’m still not convinced that’s what I heard,” I said, lying, my voice probably too sharp, but right then I was trying really hard not to freak out.
“But even if that’s what Brigid’s spirit said, it wasn’t because Matilda had hurt her.
Matilda doesn’t hurt unless it is warranted.
And if the story about the priestesses is true, neither Brigid nor her sisters earned that kind of punishment. ”