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Scooping me up before I could throw one of the best comebacks I'd come up with in nearly a decade, Noel raced out of the kitchen, through the living room and parlor. (It's a really old house – make that mansion. There's a parlor, and I am duty-bound to call it that. Family, am I right?) up the steps and into my room like we were in one of those cute romantic comedies on Wonderful Life T.V.
Kicking the door closed behind him, Noel yelled into the hall, "I'm gonna trust you to keep your promise, Ginger. No one gets up those stairs for at least the next twenty-four hours, and I'll make sure you meet the Pillsbury Dough Boy."
“You got a deal, Lizard Boy.”
"What kinda deal have you made with that crazy, cuckoo Gingerbread Woman from Hell?"
"Oh, I didn't really make the deal. I added an addendum."
“But if you didn’t…? I stopped. The twinkle in his eye said it all. “Goddess Brigid?”
“You got it in one.”
“Well, are you ever gonna tell me what happened?”
Smiling a wicked smile that sent shivers down my spine, the wonderful man made just for me lovingly set me on the bed and knelt down. Sliding his eyes left then right, his smile widened. "Are you sure that's what you want to do right now?" Waggling his eyebrows, he added, "We do have forever, and I didn't know how much I missed you until…."
"Until your memories came back. "I finished his sentence. "See? That's what I'm talkin' about. I have to have some answers, or I'm just not gonna be able to focus." Laying my hands on either side of his face, I looked into his eyes and whispered, "And let me tell you something, Noel Archer, I wanna do nothing but focus on you forever and ever."
Blowing out a long breath, my very own sexy Dragon Man rolled his eyes and scratched at the beautiful beard on his gorgeous jaw, and then he chuckled, "I have always loved the way you think."
Standing up, he wrapped his hands around mine as they fell from his face and pulled me to my feet. Walking backward, he led me to my comfy reading chair, sat down, and pulled me onto his lap. Settling in, the warmth of his body filled me with the sensation of belonging, being loved, and being home, and I knew there was no place I ever wanted to be but with my Mate.
But I still needed answers. Thankfully, Noel knew me all too well.
"Okay, so I know Ginger blurted out the part about the Hell's Guards and the Goddess Brigid, but I need to back up a little. Even though I couldn't ask the Goddess much about what Big Daddy had done, She knows you so well that she put it all in my mind."
Tapping his forehead with the index finger of the hand that wasn't around me, he kept right on going. "So, even though Big Daddy and Mother Archer were on lockdown in one of the deepest Pits in Hell and being guarded by Priscilla, Satan's favorite Hellcat, they were not without their powers of persuasion and the ability to con even the most corrupt. One day, while Prissy's special tuna was being delivered by Iliana the Impress, my worthless uncle struck a deal with the fiery little Hobgoblin. He told her that if she had her boss spell his bolo tie to make him look exactly like Gryla, he would make it so she never had to deliver stinky fish to the Hellcats again."
"Of course, she believed him and somehow convinced her boss, Alvise, Hell's Own Grand Master Alchemist, to make a deal with Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat of Scandinavia who hates Gryla with a passion. The less-than-stable Feline conjured up a Spell, and on the next delivery day, it was delivered to Big Daddy as a replacement bolo tie."
"Okay, it's a rather convoluted way to be an asshole, but I guess Big Daddy and Mother Archer will do anything to…. Hey! Wait! Are they the ones who messed with our memories?"
Giving me a little peck on the tip of my nose that only made me want more, Noel winked when I hummed in pleasure, then nodded, "Yes, they did. It was just another of their fallback plans. By all accounts - and some that have yet to be uncovered - they were really busy after Granddad and the Uncles took us to the Isle of Skye. No one knows, or is saying, how they figured out whose Mate was who and exactly what to do to get to each of us."
He paused, and I waited. It was obvious he was thinking. With a slight nod, he added, "Or maybe they didn't know who was to be Mated to whom. Maybe they just took a shot in the dark."
"But who would have guessed there was a connection between the Archer Dragons and the Brown Witches?"
"It's the piece of the puzzle we still have to find."
"And how did they knowwhento get to each of us?" I added. "It just makes no sense."
"No, it doesn't, and we will get on the hunt as soon as possible."
"Didn't you say Molly, the cousins, and the Aunties had found something in an old grimoire?"
"I did."
"Well, then maybe we should..."
My words trailed off as his lips found mine with the beautifully sexy promise of things to come. Scrunching the soft cotton of my blouse at my waist...
(Thank the Goddess Brigid. She not only healed me and got us home safe, but She also cleaned us all up and removed all traces of dungeon, Black Magic, and whatever else was in the basement of Gryla's castle. Oh yeah, I plucked some details out of Ginger's mind when she wasn't paying attention. Call it paybacks for all the years of torment.)
...Noel turned me until I was straddling his wonderfully muscled thighs without interrupting our first kiss. Sliding his hand under my blouse, sparks of our connection set my body on fire as his fingers ran up and down my spine.
It was what had been missing from my life for all those years.Hehad been missing from my life for all those years. Noel Alexander Archer was the other half of my soul. He was my perfect complement. He was everything I had ever wanted and needed, and he was mine.
