AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For a moment, nothing happened. But then the gold lettering began to change. We all stayed silent as the wording changed to… “The Smutty Clusterfudge?” I read aloud, and shook the chime, making more glitter fall out. “That’s not an improvement.”
Perception laughed. “It is, though. You know that over time, cursing adds to the imbalance. You fixed it in part, at least.”
“Yeah,” Sunny added. “And honestly, I think Clusterfudge is a great name.”
Mikhail was still upset, though. “Spiritual Cloisters wasmyname.”
“I’m sorry your sign got wrecked, Growly,” I said. “Can I make you feel better?”
“I’m not sure how,” he grumbled. “The chime is severely damaged; the community center has a name that I have no tools to change. If she knew of this debacle, my own Master would unmake herself in shame for having trained me—”
He stopped talking when I jumped up, grabbed him around the neck and kissed him as thoroughly as I knew how. And I’d been taking kissing lessons from four really experienced kissers for years now, so I did it well enough to distract him. “Wanna fudge?” I breathed in his ear. “We’re at the Clusterfudge, after all.”
“Anything for you, sweet soul,” he murmured, carrying me over to the bar. My other mates gathered around.
“Are we really going to do this here?” Gavriel asked with a concerned frown.
Righteous shrugged. “I’ll do anything she wants.”
That was so true. He’d worn a Loch Ness monster banana hammock for an entire week after our big blow-up with Precious. After seven days of his special Nessie raising her head up out of his robe with those cute little googly eyes, looking for me, I’d pretty much gotten over my daughter telling me how much she hated me.
But the party was also a solid diversion. And lots of the Protectors were already shucking off their costumes. Rumple lifted an eyebrow.You don’t really want to stay?
I winked, but shook my head.I’ll take a dickstraction over a distraction any day.Although, as I thought that, two Guides found what looked like a macramé flogger and then pulled some handcuffs straight out of the wall, getting my full attention.
“A gallon of hot fudge sauce,” Mikhail ordered, and the helper behind the bar picked up one of the serving buckets, along with five cups. Mikhail pushed the cups back across the bar. “To go.”
“What are we doing?” I giggled as he carried me to the door, our friends shouting their farewells.
“We can cluster with fudge in our own home much more comfortably,” he replied. “And it’s all already set up.” Gavriel, Ry, and Rumple all leaned in to give me a passionate kiss and a couple of cheeky slaps on my ass, since my underwear was apparently still giving explicit directions. Then they flew off ahead of us.
Mikhail was extremely good at multitasking, and he kissed me while we flew. And when we reached the house, he kept kissing until we were on the bed itself. Ry and Gav were in the kitchen getting more supplies, while Rumple checked on Precious.
Mikhail’s glance flew in the direction of her room, and a shadow of pain crossed his face.
“Growly Bear, I’m sorry the chime is broken.” I wrinkled my nose. “Well, changed, anyway.”
He didn’t look at me, but murmured, “I’m not worried about the chime. Well, not that worried. We have all the time in the world to fix it.” His words rang with truth, but he still looked troubled. This wasn’t the sort of sad that could be fixed, though. All I could do was give him something else to think about.
“What seems to be the problem, sir?” I asked breathily.
He turned back to me. While he’d been staring, I’d been taking off my nurse costume, and now wore only the stethoscope and a very naughty garter belt and fasteners.
CHAPTER10
Mikhail
Only my sweet soul had the power to wipe away every care with a shimmy, a smile, and a promise of mischief in her emerald-bright eyes. My concerns about the damage done to the chime—even if it might not be as bad as I’d feared, as Seraphiel had assured me—were blown away as my mate approached with lust in her gaze, a stethoscope held toward me.
She pressed the end of it to my chest, listening for a moment, before tossing it to the floor beside the bed. “Your heart is perfect. But I’ll need to do a thorough examination of the rest of you.”Laughter spilled out of the doorway to the kitchen, as the rich aroma of hot fudge scented the air.
My eyes fell on the knotted macramé creations on the armchair nearby. “Beloved, it’s not that I—”
“You’re not in the mood for chocolate.” Feather’s soft statement held no judgment. “Or games.”
I shook my head. “Not tonight, love. Can it be just you and me, for a while at least?”
“Of course.”
