~
“Why did you do that?” Quinn growled.
“Do what?”
“You know what — electrify the damn door handle!” Quinn growled back.
“Oh, that.”
“Yes, that.” Quinn sneered.
“Self-preservation,” Valerie said, and she didn’t try to hide the small, smug smile that touched her lips. Quinn growled harder.
“You’re a…” The man bit down and hummed for a moment. “Witch!” He grumbled.
“Are you having a senior moment? Didn’t we cover that?” Valerie asked with an innocent look. Quinn didn’t think there was any innocence left in his mate.
“I’m not having a senior moment. I’m debating whether or not to kill you,” Quinn grumbled.
“Well, I’m not getting any younger here.” She shrugged.
“Maybe you should be grateful for these seconds that you do have.”
“Maybe you should be grateful that I haven’t neutered you — yet,” Valerie offered him a death glare.
Quinn swallowed down a large portion of his tongue at the thought. If he were a betting man, he’d lay a large wager that she wasn’t bluffing, but he had to stand his ground – didn’t he?
~
~
~
“If you put so much as a little toe in this hot tub…”
“Haven’t you noticed that there’s nothing little about me? You’ve certainly looked hard enough,” Rick teased her – just because he liked the rosy red hue of her cheeks, and he didn’t think it had much to do with the temperature of the water.
“I have not!” That got her brain focused and her blood boiling.
The man was so full of himself that she thought he needed to be taken down a peg or two – maybe three – she’d decide which one the more that he continued to annoy her.
“Seriously?” Rick shot her a curious look and caught the guilty flash of a look that disappeared from her face as quickly as it had appeared. “I think plausible deniability went out the window the moment you started to drool down your chin.”
“Oh, my Goddess!” She stared at him in total disbelief.
“Being busted must suck…”
“You are just…”
“You want to say sexy, but you just can’t get that word past your pride, can you?” Rick’s eyes were so full of teasing humor that she wanted to zap the man, but how could she zap someone who had damn puppy eyes?
“There are no words!” she hissed back at him.
“Really? But – you’re female…”
It was a step too far. He knew it the moment that her lower jaw almost hit the water and she got a look in her eye that said he should bend over and kiss his backside goodbye.
There was no time for that. Elizabeth lifted just one hand and snapped her fingers on an emphatic nod of her head. A wave of water rushed at him from the tub and covered his body with a hard sting that felt like he’d licked an electrical outlet, and his whole body seized up with pain.
He guessed that he should have been grateful that she didn’t lift both hands and really let him have it, and yet, as his muscles unclenched, and he lifted one large hand and rubbed the water from his face – while gasping in a breath through his nose – he knew his problems were only just beginning.
Mine…
“Sweetheart…” he wanted to deliver the news in the best way possible because he had a feeling that there was going to be a whole lot more zapping to come when he did. “If you wanted to see my naked body dripping wet then you just had to ask.”
“I think you’re insane!”
“Oh, I think I probably will be soon enough.” He offered back. Especially with a witch for a mate.
~
~
~
“Neutering me would be cutting off your nose to spite your face,” Quinn reasoned, but the woman looked very unimpressed.
“That’s a big assumption on your part. But let’s run with that for a moment — I see two parts to your problem — firstly, what you don’t have you don’t miss, and secondly, I’m too old to be dealing with all that faffing around.”
“Nobody is too old be faffing around.”
“Have you looked in the mirror lately?” She challenged him.
“I might not be a spring chicken, but I still like what I see…”
“You’re the only one.”
“I’ll ignore that.”
“How convenient. You go right ahead, but we both know it’s true.” Valerie’s left eyebrow reached for her hairline once again.
“Says you. The woman’s who’s been eyeing me like I’m a prime piece of beef.”
“You’re more of a pork chop, but don’t let the facts get in the way of a good argument.”
“And I’m betting you like to argue.”
“Why?” Valerie narrowed her eyes at the man. “Because — I’m female?”
“No, because you’re a cantankerous old boot who likes to get her own way.”
Quinn wasn’t about to sugarcoat his words. She certainly wasn’t sugarcoating hers. They might as well start as they meant to go on, and a little good-natured ribbing wasn’t going to do anyone any harm.
Quinn was wrong. With a snap of her fingers; he felt the flick of her magic against his backside like she’d flicked his naked skin with a wet towel. His initial reaction was to jump in place, but he held himself rigid.
“Fleas biting?” Valerie gave him a fake sympathetic look, but there was nothing fake about the low, deep growl that rumbled in Quinn’s chest.
He thought of a few home truths that definitely weren’t sugarcoated to offer back to her, but he was too much of a gentleman to go there.
“I’ll say this only once…”
“Oh, wait!” Valerie looked around her as if she’d lost something. “Where did I put my tape recorder? I should get this recorded for prosperity.”
Quinn just stood there and stared at her. Then he folded his arms across the broadness of his chest and gave a small shake of his head in disbelief.
“You really are something else…”
“Thank you.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.” He scowled at her.
“I know.” Valerie offered him the smallest of smug smiles, and yet there it was — smugness — like a badge of honor on her face.
“And I wasn’t finished.”
“Yes, you were. Now close the door on your way out, and if you’ve forgotten the way, just walk backward.” That smug smile grew.
“Oh, this is going to be fun.” Quinn offered her a sly grin.
“This?”
“Us.”
“There you go with the assumptions again. But then I guess we both already know that you are an ass.”
“I really am going to enjoy wooing you. Bending you to my will — making you mine…”
“Newsflash. I’m not bendy, and I’ll never be your anything.”
“Not true. You’re already a thorn in my damn side — a stubbed little toe on the side of the bed in the dark at night — the type of woman who makes a man want to run head first into the nearest wall…”
“Oh, please — don’t let me stop you from doing what you have to do. Pick a wall — I’ll wait.”
“You’re so wrong for me that it has to be right…”
“You’re really not getting the hint, are you?”
“That you’re deflecting? Sure.” Quinn offered her a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows, and she offered him back the stink eye.
“Door — you — use it.” She scowled at him. “Before I get my witch on.”
“Does that come with the snakes in your hair? Because I think that would be a good look for you.”
Quinn didn’t regret saying it. Even when the sting of her magic hit his body hard enough to make him grind his teeth against the pain.
If his mate wanted to play – he’d play – but he’d woo her too, or die trying.