Page 120 of How to Seduce a Slender

“Well, close. I’d like you to work alongside me. Your memory for faces, ability to draw things exactly as you remember, your brute strength, among other things make you the perfect candidate for being my right hand in the field. You’ve probably figured my job isn’t all tree law and taxes?”

Melody made a non-committal grimace, “Eh?”

“What do you think I do all day?” he chuckled.

“Sign stuff.” She playfully stuck her tongue out at him. This time he caught it. Between his teeth, he caught her waggling tongue. Melody squealed, writhing in his arms but stopped the second he sucked her tongue into his mouth. Their lips met. He let go of her tongue and her waist to cup the back of her head. Melody giggled into the kiss at first. Then the music slowed, and they came to a stop. He kissed her with all his heart. She grabbed up the front of his lapels and brought him flush against her.

Dressed in a ruby dress with black lace, the very beautiful dress he’d ogled on her at his birthday party. The one he hadn’t gotten a chance to ravish her inside of the tearoom in. Agatha even improved upon it. Draping off Melody’s silky shoulders, showing off how strong her arms and back were. It clung around her waist and gave him ample view of her pretty breasts and the little pooch of her belly. It framed her like a princess. The very fairytale he never thought himself worthy of was in his arms.

Smith pulled from her lips only an inch. The words fell out of him without permission. “Marry me?”

“What?” She blurted out, blinking rapidly.

Smith eased backward only an inch to reach into his jacket. The only thing he’d brought with him was the ring. A singular ruby in the shape of a rose on a lovely gold band that matched the peachy life in her skin. He popped it out of the velvet and held it out for her. Melody’s eyes grew into saucers on her round face as he knelt before her. Bright red stop lights for eyes flashed at him as her hands flew to her lips in shock.

“Melody, this is my deal to you. I am yours. You are mine. Come with me into the city, help me aid this house and protect those in it. Let me love you and love me in return. I will render this realm to static and endless fog if you ask it of me. And I will hunt you to the ends of this realm and the next as long as you never stop smiling at me. I will give your heart all of its desires. But let me have it and you have mine in return. And that’s my deal.” He froze, unable to move as her hands fell away from her lips. “Marry me, Melody.”

“Smith,” She let out a mixture of a laugh and a sob. Her cute fangs tugged on her lip before she nodded vigorously. “Of course I’ll marry you! Just like a lawyer to want to make this about paperwork!”

“It’s not about the paperwork,” he laughed, taking her hand. The ring slid on her finger like a dream. Melody never stopped staring at him.

“And so you’re tellin’ me there’s no paperwork underneath those cloches over there?” She nodded at the table with silver bowls hiding the plates.

Smith scowled. “There’s not.”

“Uh-huh?”

“Anymore, at least.”

“I knew it!” she roared, sticking out her tongue and letting him snatch it again. Her smile against his lips made his chest warm. Smith tugged her in close, engulfing her in his arms. Melody threw hers around his shoulders. The music picked up. Their lips pressed together, one hand in her messy mane, the other at the small of her back, he led her back into a lazy dance. They spun in slow, love drunk circles across the room. Melody eventually pulled back from the kiss by only a sliver of a breath. “I love you.”

“And I love you,” he breathed against her soft lips.

“Thank you.” She pressed her nose against his blurry static and nuzzled at him with a sweet giggle. “Thank you for finding me. I was pretty lost before you. Just a wandering soul, not belongin’ anywhere. And you chose me. Sat in my section, ate theworstpancakes imaginable, just to talk with me for years. I can’t imagine what would have happened if I just continued to wander lost.”

Smith shifted his hand to cup her cheek. “They weretrulythe worst flap jacks in all creation.”

Melody snorted, nodding through the small tears welling in her eyes. “I don’t understand how you survived on them so long? Or how you didn’t turn into a bottle of maple syrup.”

He tugged her mouth back into his. Kissing her over and over as she giggled. Hot tears trailed down her cheeks and he kissed those away too.

“Thank you for being mine, sweet girl.”

She wiggled happily in his arms, her shadow tail wagging behind her. He turned her into another dance. And another. Kissing her whenever he had the chance. Holding her tight, whispering in her ear, relishing in her shivers. And somehow, he convinced her to let him feed her eventually. While she signed papers, he fed her sturdy roast beast, herby butter vegetables, and bread. Things that wouldn’t jostle too bad when he chased her through the house in an hour or two.

And if someone asked him, just a few years ago, how does one end up entangled with a Slender? How does one catch one? He’d laugh. It’d never been done before…until Melody Deathless.

So, how does one seduce a Slender? Well, it takes heartache, long nights running through the Endless Woods…it takes bravery, unending spite, and a cute pair of fangs to flash at him from over the dinner table.

Melody was and would forever be Melody Elaine Rosemont, the Guardian of the Woods, an Eldritch werewolf and menace to society…and the wife of Smith Anthony Rosemont, the legal council to the Lich of King’s Fall, and the Slender with a taste for sweet werewolves lost in the woods.