Demon Hunting with a Dixie Deb - Lexi George Page 0,105

canoodling in the parking lot.”

“Where would you like to go?”

She lowered her lashes, her cheeks flushed. “I don’t care, as long as I am with you.”

Grim wanted to throw his head back and roar in triumph. Taking Sassy in his arms, he reached out with his mind. There was a startled shout from the manager as they shimmered and disappeared.

They reemerged in a leafy bower deep in the forest. The wind ruffled the treetops and the waterfall in the nearby grotto played a merry song. Sassy slipped from his arms. Turning slowly, she took in their surroundings.

“It’s beautiful . . . so peaceful and quiet. Like we’re the only people on earth.” She whirled about, her violet eyes wide. “We are still on earth, aren’t we?”

Her rosy lips were parted. Grim wanted to taste them again, to trace her dimples with the tip of his tongue, to kiss away the faint worry line between her brows.

“Yes.” Without taking his gaze from her, Grim raised his arm and pointed. “The river house lies but a few leagues that way.”

Folding her arms tight across her chest, Sassy gazed in the direction of the river. “Oh.”

She was nervous. Sudden panic slammed into Grim. He was a warrior. Harsh. Uncompromising. Brutal. A man of action. War, he knew. The hunt, he knew. Sex, he knew, though only as a bodily function. A means to rid himself of emotion, emerging calm and emptied. Ready to face the enemy without distraction.

Sassy was not a thrall to be casually used and forgotten. She aroused him, delighted him, confused and frustrated him. He was easily three times her size, maybe more, but she terrified him. Sassy was a fever in his blood, a balm to his weary soul. He wanted her. He needed her.

Losing Gryff had driven him into exile. Losing Sassy would end him. What if he bolloxed things? What if he’d done so already? What if she changed her mind?

He needed guidance, but from whom? Conall, perhaps.

Grim considered the notion and rejected it. Admit to his captain that he, a warrior renowned for his tenacity and ferocity in battle, was petrified by this dab of a woman?

Nay.

Who, then, to offer him counsel? Someone who knew him and Sassy, someone dispassionate.

“Abide here but a moment,” Grim told Sassy. “I would place wards around us for protection.”

Turning, Grim fled to the edge of the clearing, away from Sassy but not out of sight. He looked back. Sassy watched him, anxiety writ on her face. Cursing himself for a bumbling fool, he set about raising a shield, though his mind was not on the task.

Provider? Grim sent the thought outward.

There was no answer.

“Dell,” Grim hissed aloud.

He glanced back again. Sassy had wandered over to the little pool. She gazed up at the waterfall. If she’d heard him, she gave no sign.

You called? Dell responded at last.

Where have you been?

Observing the mortals on this plane. Their lifespans are brief, their shells breakable, and yet—

Dell. Grim was in no mood for a lecture. There is something I would discuss with you.

They comport themselves with reckless abandon, Dell rattled on, ignoring Grim. I find them a conundrum of conflicting desires and emotions, seemingly undiluted by logic. It amazes me that they—

DELL.

Yes?

Sassy and I are about to . . . That is, we are . . . Grim faltered. Heat crawled up his neck. We are about to consummate our physical attraction for one another.

There was a startled pause.

You wish instruction on the mechanics of sexual congress? I know it has been some time since last you visited the thralls, Grimford, but to my knowledge, the process has not changed.

The heated flush spread to Grim’s face. It is different with Sassy.

How? She lacks the requisite parts?

Of course not. She is perfect. Grim hesitated. I want our first time together to be . . . special.

Indeed? Do you think it wise, then, to couple in the woods like a rutting stag?

Hot images flashed through Grim’s mind. Images of him and Sassy engaged in coitus, their sweat-glistened bodies moving together in a sexual dance.

Inside, out of doors; it mattered not. Grim burned for Sassy. He forced his mind from his lustful thoughts.

I hoped the quiet beauty of this woodland sanctuary would please her fae nature.

That, and he wanted her to himself without interruption, selfish beast that he was.

At the risk of sounding obtuse, why not consult Sassy on the matter? Dell asked. It seems to me the vast majority of misunderstandings between corporeal beings arise