Chapter 15

Fifteen

M aple

I wake to the sensation of someone rubbing the bottoms of my feet.

My. Actual. Feet. Not me inside Hollis’s feet. Mine.

Gasping, I sit straight up, finding myself ensconced in blankets in a bed that’s neither mine nor belonging to Hollis.

And at my feet is Hollis, all six-foot-four of him, dark eyes watching me, those meaty hands pressing into the bottoms of my feet.

“Where are we? Are we dreaming again, because I swear to god…”

He stops his foot massage abruptly, comes to the head of the bed, and sits next to me. The mattress creaks under his weight as he shushes me with his mouth. Those full, wicked lips that I’ve been staring at all week. Those lips I’d thought just days ago were forever fixed in a flat line now brush over mine in a delicious, slow kiss.

“I’ve been wanting to get back to normal just to do that if nothing else,” he says.

I arch an eyebrow. “Nothing else?”

Hollis laughs, then presses the back of his hand against my forehead. “How’s your head?”

Other than some residual tunnel vision, I’m fine. “Good. No headache.”

He exhales and kisses me softly on the forehead. “God, that was the worst pain of my entire life the first time that asshole demon pulled the switcharoo on us.”

Immediately, I realize that I’m the one who put him through all of this. I sniff, but I’m not quick enough to hide my tears. “Oh, shit. This is my fault. If I hadn’t made that stupid wish….”

“Hey.” That one hushed word is all it takes for the waterworks to commence.

“Hollis, I’m so sorry!” Tears flow, and I’m heaving uncontrollably now.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he murmurs. “None of that now. Come here.”

And the next thing I know, I’m in his lap on this strange bed, my side tucked in tight against his firm torso, his broad chest supporting my face. Hollis strokes my hair and lets me ruin his tee shirt with my tears.

“It’s not your fault. You didn’t know he was a chaos demon or whatever.”

“I should never wish for something like that.”

“It’s fine!”

He hands me a tissue, and I dab my eyes, blow my nose, and wipe my face. “It’s not fine. Look at the mess I made. What day is it? You need to get to New York and round up Brayden….”

“Brayden’s been given the weekend off to do some sightseeing. And then on Monday, you’re coming with me to New York to help him workshop his idea.”

I don’t even register the stuff about me going to New York. I’m still feeling awful about all the mayhem I caused.

When I finally calm down, I ask again, wiping my eyes and scanning the room. “Where are we?” Apart from the luscious mattress and blankets, we look like we’re in a guest room at an old cottage. There’s an antique dresser on the opposite wall, and homemade curtains hang over the window, through which I can see dense woods. Dried herbs, flowers, fruits, and bulbs hang from fixtures in the ceiling. Through the doorway, I can see more of the same, and delicious aromas waft in from somewhere.

“We’re at Morgan’s house,” he says. “She and her family will be staying elsewhere for a few days. She said we needed supervision while recovering, and the house would watch over us.”

I don’t know what that means. “So she left us alone? Makes about as much sense as anything else I’ve been told these last couple of days,” I say, dabbing the last of my tears away. “I feel fine, though.”

Hollis brushes some stray hairs from my eyes. “Me too. But I guess because it was a demon spell, she wants us indoors. Something about salting the perimeter of the cottage, too, just to be safe.”

He shrugs.

I shrug.

I give a small, teasing smile. “So…we have the place to ourselves?”

Hollis squeezes me against his chest. “Until Morgan comes back to check on us in a few hours. She said she would call first. Something about not wanting to be around us when we came back into our bodies because of reasons.”

Hollis rubs the tip of his nose against mine.

I think I know what those reasons might be. I’m feeling rested, elated, and horny as fuck.

“Interesting,” I say, angling my face to beckon him to kiss me.

Hollis murmurs, closing in and pressing a kiss to the corner of my mouth. “Is it interesting, or is that just a filler word because you can’t think good thoughts?”

“You read my mind,” I laugh, welcoming his claiming kiss, wasting no time opening to his licking tongue.

“I love kissing you, Maple,” he groans, cinching me closer, his hard length pressing into my leg. “I love kissing you for real.”

I moan into his mouth.

Needing more contact, I find myself straddling his lap. This is better. Hollis kisses and licks the cords of my throat. Heat pools in my sex, and I roll forward, grinding against him.

“I don’t know about you, but I am….” Distracted by his lips biting my collarbone through my shirt, I trail off.

“Needing to fuck, really, really bad?” Hollis growls.

He took the words out of my mouth.

His fingers creep under the hem of my shirt, skimming my lower back, teasing my bra strap.

I lean back, shuck my tee-shirt, toss it to the floor, and then help him lose my bra the same way.

Something in the way he stares at my body makes me go still.

I remember what he said before: he would stick by me until we were through this mess. But what now? Is what we’re doing right now still a part of the effects of what happened to us?

I don’t just want sex for its own sake.

I don’t know how to say it.

And so, I have to summon the woman I want to be. The bad bitch who’s not afraid to get what she wants.