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For seven days now.
He’d been back to the diner twice now—she hadn’t been there. Either time. He’d been both happy she hadn’t been there and disappointed. Damn it.
The woman had him all tied up in knots, and she didn’t even know.
Maybe that was it? Not being able to face his Dusty Demoness made her that much stronger? Made Destiny Marie Talley have even more power over him than she’d ever had before?
He’d just been doing a find/replace each night when he finished working and changing Dusty to Sasha. Otherwise, he’d make himself crazy wonderingwhyshe just wouldn’t get out of his head.
She could have cast a spell on him. It could happen. It could happen.
Ben could just see the story playing out just like that. He’d been toying with the idea of starting an urban fantasy pen name in a few years. Once he had the dojang going with someone to run it and had his rental properties going and had himself settled on a ranch nearby or something.
When he had more time.
Maybe he’d start with a storyline about a gorgeous blond woman who looked just like Dusty. And she got sucked into another dimension or something. Or discovered how powerful she was over men. Because she just had to be a demon. Well, a demoness anyway.
The character. Not the real woman who seemed to be possessing him now.
Dusty haddone somethingto him. Ben was starting to just accept that.
Ben had just been innocently sitting there in the diner, writing the words about a hapless man falling in love with his sister’s bestest friend while a killer was on his tail and the love interest had morphed intoBen’ssister’s bestest friend.
It was that whole write-what-you-know-BS beginning authors were spoon-fed until they vomited. That was what it was.
He definitely hadn’t intended that to happen. Yet it had.
Again.
Over and over and over for seven days.
Dusty just kept slipping herself into his head. Taking over. Destroying him.
Damn that woman. She was even more witchy than Marin. She just didn’t advertise it. She’d cast a spell on him. He was almost certain of it.
He stared at the words in the glow from his laptop screen and cursed. He found-and-replaced once again, cursing himself for losing his mind. Only then did he grab the flashlight and head to the fuse box.
Fifteen minutes later, he admitted to himself he wasn’t going to be able to fix the problem. The electrician he’d hired to fix the building’s problems—his uncle Bill—couldn’t get to it for two more days. At least.
Bill was tied up fixing a wiring problem in the bedroom of one of Ben’s youngest cousins, out at his cousin Augusta’s ranch, more than an hour from town. Since Auggie, Junie, and Em were going to be raising their six younger sisters by themselves, their needs took ultimate priority. Auggie had only had the kids for two weeks now. While trying to get back into some sort ofnormalafter taking a bullet on the damned street.
How could her life ever benormal,when she had one traumatized teenage baby siter, four traumatized little girl baby sisters, two traumatized grown-up baby sisters, and ababybaby sisterthat was just three-and-a-half months old—while Auggie had also just started walking again herself?
Ben knew the truth—he wasn’t half as strong as that beautiful cousin of his. He just wasn’t.
Ben had no choice. He was going to have to face his new personal succubus nemesis for the night. Onherhome turf.
Time to storm the Talley Castle.
Ben shoved a few days’ worth of clothes into his duffel bag and grabbedhis laptop bag, locked the building, and headed on foot in the one direction he had no business going. If he was lucky, he’d be able to get a room at the inn before she even crossed his path.
Sometimes Ben didn’t get that lucky at all.
Then his head went straight to the thought of getting lucky with Dusty and…hell. He’d circled himself right back to the beginning. His body was tuned up and ready to roll now. For her. No denying it was for her now.
Dusty the Demoness struck him again.
Sometimes, being a writer and imagining scenes in such exact detail seriously sucked.
