sounded uncertain. I confess I do not see how.
“That’s ’cause you ain’t street smart like me.” Evan smiled. “Not to worry. Old Ev’s gotcha back. Now about this data bank of yours . . .”
Evan jumped as Taryn materialized in front of him.
“Jeez,” Evan said. “You should ring a bell or something. You scared the crap out of me. What are you doing here?”
“I was looking for Grim and Sassy,” Taryn said. “I know from experience that Grim favors this part of the wood. I thought I might find them here. What are you about?”
Evan shifted his feet. “I was hunting the witch. The sheriff said her place is deserted. Thought she might be hiding out here.”
“Did you find her?”
“No.”
“Then who were you speaking to?”
“Myself, Miss Nosy Britches,” Evan said. “I talk to myself sometimes, okay?”
Taryn cocked a brow at his tone. “You sound more churlish than usual. Is something amiss?”
“Nah. I’m fine as frog hair. You can forget about finding Grim and Sassy, though. They’re busy.”
“I have come to say good-bye. ’Twill take but a moment of their time.”
“You aren’t listening, Red. They’re together.” He rocked his pelvis back and forth to illustrate. “Get the picture?”
Taryn flushed. “Oh. I see. In that case, I will not disturb them.”
Ha! That had cracked her Ice Bitch façade.
Evan grinned. “Good idea. So, where you headed?”
Taryn hesitated. “I suppose it matters not if I tell you.” She drew herself up to her full height. “After much contemplation, Conall has wisely decided to charge one who is not Dalvahni with the business of tracking down and disposing of the rogue demon hunter. I have been tasked with this duty.”
Evan whistled. “Grim will shit a kitten when he hears.”
“I doubt he will be happy,” Taryn said, “which is why I came in person to deliver the news. You will inform him in my stead?”
“Oh, yeah,” Evan said. “Tickled pink to do it when—and if—he and Sassy come up for air.”
Taryn inclined her head. “You have my thanks. I bid you farewell, Evan Beck, and wish you good hunting.”
“Thanks, Red. You ain’t half bad for a pain in the ass.”
His words were wasted. Taryn was gone.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Grim carried Sassy to the bed and laid her on the white coverlet. He stepped back, drinking in the sight of her. Her long blond hair swirled about her head in curly abandon. She was every inch a woman and made for carnal pleasure, with round, pink-tipped breasts, a tiny waist, and firmly muscled thighs and calves. Dainty and feminine, his Sassy, but no weakling. She kept her body fit, her slender arms sleek and taut, shoulders firm with muscle, and stomach tight.
Heat coiled in his belly, and his cock threatened to burst the fastening on his jeans. He had been long absent from the House of Thralls, but his raging desire had nothing to do with abstinence and everything to do with this woman. His hunger for Sassy was more than physical. It went soul deep. He yearned to touch her, to give his bruised and battered heart, his weary spirit into her care.
He longed to care for her in return.
She arched her back and flung her arms wide in invitation, a luscious treat that was his for the taking. The necklace between her pale breasts gleamed with dragon fire.
The blood pounded in Grim’s head and loins. He wanted her. A knowing smile played about the corners of Sassy’s rosy mouth. He was on fire and she knew it, the minx.
She arched a delicate brow. “Like what you see?”
“Aye. Too much.” His voice was a growling rasp. “’Twas mine intent to take things slowly, but I fear my need for you is too great.”
She lifted her leg and stroked the bulge in his pants with her bare foot. “Don’t go slow on my account.”
Her wanton touch demolished the thin tatters of his resolve. With a growl of relief, Grim jerked open his jeans and shoved them to his thighs, along with the clinging braies humans called boxer briefs. Grabbing her ankles, he yanked her to the edge of the mattress and slid his hands up her inner thighs.
“So soft. So warm.” He stroked her velvet skin. “And I have been cold for so long.”
He pushed her knees to her chest so that she was open to him, vulnerable. She was a sumptuous treat, the porcelain outer folds of her sex parted to reveal the lovely pink deliciousness within.
She looked up at him without inhibition, his wild and wonderful love,