Compounding Traumas (Artemis University #6) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,109

lucky that’s all I gave you.”

“You always be the boss, Tamsin,” he chuckled, nuzzling my neck. “But there is something I want to poke you with. I want to poke you with it all weekend, and I still will be pent up and dying for you.”

I flinched. “I’m sorry I made you wait so long.”

“That is not what I meant,” he replied, turning me around so I was straddling him. He cupped my face, and I saw the love for me in his eyes. “I meant I want you so much. You were worth the wait after all that happened, and I am blessed you took me back. I was simply saying I didn’t even look at another woman while we were apart because no one measured up. I needed you.”

“Prickly pear,” I sighed, getting what he was trying to tell me. He wasn’t trying to make me feel bad he was pent up, but letting me know he was really pent up with longing for me. It was flattering in his weird Darby way.

I thought after dinner he would immediately jump me again, but he ended up leading me to the library and scanning what he’d known I’d worked hard to collect. He’d helped me look for books on runes and journals from deceased witches and warlocks with tons of knowledge.

“So where are the fairy ones?” he asked hesitantly, finally breaching what he knew I’d been hiding… And sort of the elephant in the room or issue between us. Not just because of what his family used to do, but simply a vampire’s reaction to fairy blood.

“There’s a lot I can’t let you read,” I warned. “I’m sorry, but I didn’t let Craftsman either. I don’t know enough to know what’s always safe to share, so it’s mostly best to be careful. That’s what I’ve read over and over again.”

He glanced around and slowly nodded. “That’s fair. I’m not your mate. I want to know more mostly to know you and try to help. I don’t want any secrets between us either, but that’s fair, and I accept that.”

Good, because I wouldn’t budge on it either.

“You’re gonna have to add this to your tat as only a few people know. Even Izzy doesn’t,” I informed him as I walked back out of the library… Much to his surprise. He assumed I had one shelf hidden in plain sight or something.

I had, but I’d long since grown out of that.

After working with Natalie’s uncle, and with Katrina Calloway’s help, I had added to the Townsend estate I had inherited. Namely, a few secret rooms to store all of the vast everything fae, and from Faerie, I had been buying up. Most of it seemed legit in the way it was sold… But sometimes I got vibes that things didn’t belong where they were.

I had the first one after I’d won the Power Playoffs and found a fae artifact in the Artemis vaults. I still didn’t know what it did or who put it there, but I knew it shouldn’t have been there. I’d found others, and I knew my powers weren’t always honed as much as I would like.

I wouldn’t keep getting hurt or in trouble if they were.

So I got what I could, when I could. I had the money and was making gobs more. Especially now that I was making more investments in the human world and the constant expanding with the hobgoblins. The co-op was thrilled when I let it slip I was reclaiming fae belongings in the supe world and started working even harder to help.

Clearly that was the right path then.

But the rooms were hidden on the far side of the estate, along the outer wall, so they weren’t all that noticeable if anyone tried to compare the layout with the blueprints. They’d have to really look, or know the house, to find them. Plus, they went into the basement. It gave me a lot of extra room in a smart way.

And the crews who had done it had been fine with Calloway taking the memory of it. They knew it was important and wanted to stay out of it. I appreciated it and gave them a very handsome bonus.

“Agra, you’re running out of house to take me to,” Darby muttered as he glanced around.

“Which is why I had an addition put on,” I chuckled, moving a side table to reveal a very small biometrics reader. I put my thumb on it, used to the