Chapter 19 #3
A fate that she would most likely share if that smiling monster ever got his hands on her.
When he gripped her throat and snatched her lifespan for his own, would she realize what was happening? Or would it seem like simply another horrible nightmare or racking vision? In her final moments, what regrets would she have? How scared would she be?
“Gwen.” A deep line had formed between Hugh’s dark brows as he studied her. “You’ve done more than enough for now. Why don’t you rest?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think I could sleep.”
“What would help with that, do you think?” His glance touched on her half-empty, rapidly cooling mug of herbal tea and the small, nearly untouched bowl of mixed nuts beside it. “More cheese?”
No one could say he wasn’t a fast learner. For her next meal, though, she really needed to eat something curdless.
And luckily, she had another source of joy to tap. “I’ll stream Curdled on the tablet if you can spare it for a while.”
“I’ll join you if you don’t mind,” Hugh said to her surprise. “I can’t do much more until I receive updates from various contacts.”
“Of course I don’t mind!” Delighted beyond reason, she beamed and wiggled closer to him on the couch. “If anything confuses you, just speak up. I’m more than happy to explain stuff.”
And so she did, for two glorious, hour-long episodes. Even when he asked why the giant wheel of Brie in the sorority’s hidden rituals chamber possessed twin divots, conjoined and evocatively rounded, in the thin outer rind.
“Ass marks,” she’d succinctly told him, and the tips of his ears had turned pink.
“If you look closely, you can also see the hand and knee indentations farther off to the side. Also, at one point, I think another frat guy was actually banging the Brie while waiting for his turn? So there’s probably a penis hole somewhere too. ”
Damn, why couldn’t she think of the right term?
Oh, yeah. “ ‘Paste-humping,’ I think they call it. Or ‘going full Swiss.’ ”
He uttered a single cautious syllable in response. “Ah.”
By that point, they’d both stretched out full-length on their sides, with his arms wrapped protectively around her from behind as they watched the tablet propped on the coffee table.
His body temperature, as was typical for demons, already ran hot. But after her discussion of the characters’ sexual shenanigans? She might as well have flipped a heated blanket to maximum. She snuggled closer—and discovered that Hugh’s power boost didn’t entirely stem from embarrassment.
That? That was an erection. Apparently his libido didn’t understand the stakes in their current situation either.
When a tertiary character got tragically crushed by an enormous wedge of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Hugh’s skin immediately cooled to more normal temperatures. The following scene, however, brought the heat once more.
“I understand that cheese can have probiotic qualities.” When he cleared his throat, the sound vibrated pleasantly through her body. “But aren’t they being a bit…direct in its application?”
Half-hidden behind wooden shelves of Appenzeller cheese wheels, Rémy had his Chaource-filled hand beneath Mimi’s skirt as they passionately kissed.
He was doing…something down there. Something vigorous, which Mimi appeared to be wholeheartedly enjoying.
Something resembling, unless Gwen missed her guess, what Hugh had done to her own cheese cave the previous evening.
Minus the actual cheese. That was an important difference.
The mold in the rind might have been deliberately cultivated, but it was still freaking mold. Then again, maybe Mimi would never have another yeast infection. Who knew?
“Curdled: advancing cheese science one fingering at a time,” she murmured, and Hugh actually snorted.
Minute by minute, he relaxed even more. By the end of the second episode, he had opinions about the series’s storyline. Ones he freely shared with a great deal of enthusiasm.
“I don’t trust Rémy,” he announced. “That vampire is entirely too cagey about his secret fraternity cheese rituals and what exactly happened between him and Bree in their final, Münster-fueled argument. Besides, Mimi deserves far better than a hurried bloomy-rind hand job in a cave, and I don’t understand why she hasn’t realized that. ”
She turned her face into his biceps and faked a cough, trying her best not to laugh.
“What?” Reaching out, Hugh paused the show. “I know you’re amused, Gwen. What are you thinking?”
Her faux cough had been surprisingly convincing. So how the heck did he know she was trying not to laugh at him? For that matter, how did he always seem to know how she was feeling? Even as far back as twenty years ago?
The truth hit her like a sucker punch, and she gasped aloud.
“What?” Stretching his arm over his head, he switched on the lamp beside the sofa to see her more clearly. “Are you—Gwen, what’s wrong?”
“Your human half. Of course.” Wide-eyed, she stared blankly at the motionless tablet screen. “You’re an empath. Oh, my gods and goddesses, you’re an empath.”