“I need to shower,” Mal said.

A shower sounded great. After my run in the park and the stint in the stinky room, I could do with one myself. “Yeah, me too.”

I stood and stretched. My T-shirt rode up, and it wasn’t lost on me how both guys’ gazes zeroed in on my abdomen.

“You want to save water?” Mal asked.

Conah snorted and shot me a warning look before striding from the room. Our conversation from the night before came back to me. Mal’s curse. His guilt. His punishment. I’d become a part of that. He wanted me but denied himself a full connection. He wanted me but denied himself my heart.

He teased me, but he was testing himself because I could see the sincerity in his eyes even if it was masked by his cocky smile.

“I’ll wash your back, and you can wash mine,” he drawled in typical Mal style.

I stepped closer and smiled up at him. “Sounds good to me.”

His mouth parted in surprise. Yeah, weren’t expecting that, were you?

I pressed my palms to his chest and then pushed up on tiptoe so my lips hovered beneath his. “I can give you a reach-around if you want?”

Mal groaned. “Fuck, Fee.” He closed his eyes.

He wanted me, but he needed to allow himself to be more than a distraction. “You let me know when you’re ready, because I’m ready, Mal.” I smiled softly at him. “I’m ready to give you my heart. You just need to be ready to take it.”

He scanned my face, his emerald eyes filled with conflicting emotions.

I bridged the final inch and kissed his lips softly, sweetly, and then released him and walked away, leaving him standing, stunned, in the middle of the lounge.

The determination to free him from his curse was a calling in my blood now. I wouldn’t fail. Because a world without Mal would be a gray, empty world.

By the time I’d showered, food was ready, but Cora hadn’t emerged from her room. There was no way I was eating without her, though.

I knocked on her door, and when there was no reply, I entered. The scent of sex hit me, making my knees weak.

What the fuck?

The room was gloomy, but there was enough light to see two figures writhing on the bed. I caught the flash of naked limbs, a muscled back, and taut buttocks. There was a naked man on the bed with Cora trapped beneath him.

Not a naked man.

Jasper.

It had to be.

Get out. Get out now, my brain screamed at me, but I was rooted to the carpet as my mind struggled to comprehend how this could be a thing. How could she let him—

The price.

This was the price.

Bile climbed up my throat, and then I caught sight of Cora’s face. Her head was turned to the side, eyes squeezed shut, mouth pressed in a line as if she was enduring something distasteful. I took a step toward the bed, anger spiraling up inside me. The bastard needed to get off my friend.

But then a cry erupted from her lips, and her arms came up to grip Jasper’s ass, to urge him to move faster, harder.

Fuck.

I backed up as his laughter echoed around the room, accompanied by her cries of pleasure.

I stumbled out into the corridor and pulled the door closed.

My friend was fucking a malevolent entity, and she was enjoying it.

Chapter Ten

“You had no right!” Cora bristled with rage.

I stared at her from my spot in the center of my bed. She was pissed. Smoke-coming-out-of-her-nose pissed. But lying to her about what I’d seen wasn’t an option. Plus, I needed to understand the dynamic between her and the malevolent Jasper.

“You invaded my privacy.” Her chin trembled.

The steak I’d eaten churned in my stomach. “I’m sorry.”

And I wasn’t only apologizing for entering her room while she was having sex, and she knew it.

Her shoulders sagged, and she plonked her butt on my dresser chair and covered her face with her hands.

“Argh, Fee, this is all so fucked up.”

She could say that again. The image of her and him flitted through my mind, and the sounds she’d made… She’d enjoyed it. Heck, I was no one to judge, but come on. Jasper was plain evil by his own admission.

“Cora…Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not a big deal.”

“You had sex with him to pay for an amulet for me. It’s a huge deal.”

She sighed and raised her head. “It’s not the first time, and it won’t be the last.”

“What?”

“It’s how he feeds, Fee. Sex is how he feeds. The deal is to increase the frequency of our...encounters.”

Mal fed on sex too, but for some reason, this, with Jasper, felt ick.

My stomach turned. “Cora…”

She made a slashing motion with her hand. “It doesn’t hurt. I mean, it’s sex and he’s good at it. I just…I hate that I like it. I don’t want to like it. I don’t want him having any more control over me than he already does.”

But she’d agreed to it for me. To save me from having to run. Hunter came to mind. The way he made my body react even though I didn’t want it to. The difference was I could stay away from Hunter. Cora was bound to Jasper in a way I couldn’t even comprehend. He was always a heartbeat away. He could find her wherever she was. There was no running for my best friend.

I scooted to the edge of the bed. “We have to find a way to get rid of him. There has to be something.”

She gave me a weary smile. “Trust me, I’ve been looking for a loophole. A way out of this deal ever since we got what we wanted from it. Nothing so far, but if there is an escape hatch, I’ll find it. It’s my problem. I’ll deal with it.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a necklace with an amulet dangling off it. “You need to deal with this.”

I plucked it from her fingers.

“Put it on,” she said. “It better fucking work.”

I guess we were done talking about Jasper then. I knew better than to push her. She was in an impossible situation, and reminding her of the yuck factor wasn’t helping. I took a deep breath and forced myself to drop the topic.

For now.

“Thanks,” she said softly.

“No, Cor. Thank you.” I turned the amulet over in my hands. The chain looked deceptively fragile, but it was weighty and solid, and the amulet was an emerald gem set in a gold frame etched with symbols. “Did he say where he got this?”

“Some bloodwitch in Asia who owes him a debt. He said he was certain it would work, but maybe not in the exact way you expect it to. Oh, and it has to be touching your skin. It won’t work otherwise.”

There was only one way to find out. I slipped it on and tucked it under my shirt. Nothing happened, and then my skin began to prick all over like I was being stabbed by a thousand needles.

“Fuck!” My voice came out deep and masculine. “What the fuck?”

Cora slapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes went wide and then she burst out laughing.

“What? What is it?” Shit, my voice.

She shook her head and pointed to the mirror.

I crossed the room to the dresser and leaned over her to stare at my face. My angular, male face.

“You’re a guy,” Cora said. “You’re a hot, young guy.”

Motherfucker.

I had a penis. An honest-to-God penis and hairy balls. I turned and studied my taut buttocks and lean muscular thighs. I had a six-pack and pecs too.

“How old do you think I am?”

“About ten inches.” Cora’s gaze was fixed on my cock.

“Stop that.”

“I can’t help it. It’s a beautiful dick.”

“Early twenties,” Cyril said, answering my original question.

When the fuck had he slithered in?

“Um…Yeah,” Cora added.

She needed to stop ogling. “It’s not real, Cor. It’s a glamour.”

“Still, babe. You look fucking hot. Come on, you would totally do you.”

There was a knock on the door, but before I could answer, Conah stepped into the room. “Have you heard from Jasp—"

I let out a squeal that was too girly to come out of a man’s mouth and made a grab for my clothes.

Conah froze in the doorway, mouth falling open, gaze going from Cora to me and then back again.

“Who the fuck is this, and what are you doing in Fee’s room with him?” he addressed Cora.

I pulled on my cotton women’s briefs, which were in no way appropriate for my glamoured package, then tugged on a shirt and my slacks, reminding myself that he was seeing a guy’s naked body, not mine.

Finally dressed, I turned to him. “Chill, Conah, it’s me.”

Conah’s lip curled. “And who are you? I don’t recall us meeting?”

I slipped off the amulet.

Conah blinked and then let out a curse.

“Yeah, the mirage amulet. I guess I’ll be attending the wedding as a guy.” I smiled smugly.

He stared at the amulet, then back at me, and rubbed his temples. “I need to think, does anyone who’ll be at the wedding know the new Dominus is a female?” He closed his eyes.

Oh, shit, I hadn’t thought about that.

“No. We’re good.” He smiled at me, relieved.

“Wait,” Cora said. “Did you memorize the guest list?”

He shrugged. “I have a photographic memory.”

Good to know, but he was forgetting one very vital person. “Kiara knows.”

“Fuck!” Conah said, echoing my thoughts.

“She asked me to be her Companion.”

“That part wouldn’t be a problem,” Conah said. “A companion can be either sex, but explaining why you’re glamoured as a guy would be another thing.” He grimaced. “I’ll need to think of a story.”

I could tell by the look on his face that the idea of lying to his wife-to-be on the eve of their wedding was distasteful to him, and to be honest, it felt wrong to me too.

“Or, you could just tell her the truth.”