Page 56 of Beings of the Forest
I nodded. Alistair Finn was not only a huge pop star that had gained popularity in the past few months, but was originally from Phoebe. His Charlotte show was only just shy of an hour from here, so we’d been getting tourists for the past few weeks. Naturally, his tickets were highly coveted and the show had been sold out for months.
“Probably, but book sales are book sales.”
The sound of a bell chiming rang loudly throughout the store, signifying the entry of a new potential buyer. I straightened up in my seat on instinct before I realized that the handsome figure heading my way was one of severe familiarity.
“There he is,” Arze smirked, leaning over the table to give me a quick kiss. Coming out of it, the smile was stained to my lips.
We were in such a good place. Arze and I were talking about moving in together. While Myers was spending so much time at Larsky’s place, leaving us alone at the RV, where we were still staying until we figured out whether we were moving in with our guys or not, I was teetering on giving up the space for good. I’d been to Arze’s apartment, and he had the extra room, so it made sense for me to move in if we really wanted to make it happen.
And we did. I wanted to wake up each morning to his handsome face, and as luck would have it, he wanted to do the same with me. You’d think we’d be getting tired of each other, especially with working together, but it didn’t wane ouraffection. If anything, it gave us more creative places to hookup under our co-workers noses, reminding us of our first sexual encounter. That seemed like child’s play to the antics we got up to now at work.
I beamed back at my boyfriend. “How was babysitting?”
Arze rolled his eyes. “Betz wouldn’t stop asking where you were and Chrizel kept saying he was too old to have a babysitter.”
I snickered. “So…a normal night?”
“Exactly.” He sighed. “Khalice and Jgel are keeping me well paid to cover for their date nights or else I wouldn’t bother. Betz always wants to play princesses and Chrizel just wants to shoot stuff in his video games.”
“Typical kid stuff.” Larsky chimed in, pressing a kiss to Myers’ cheek, inciting a giggle that she tried her best to stifle. She failed, but it was cute to witness anyway.
A group of young women happened by the table then, holding copies of my book that they had either gotten from the front register or from the shelves. Arze excused himself from the front of the table to stand next to me behind the table. Myers and Larsky waved goodbye and busied themselves off in the bookstore, presumably to kiss and giggle more.
The first of the women, an aged blonde with an inviting energy presented my book to me. I grabbed it, smiling at the swirling typography that spelled outOf Death & Demonsacross the front of the book.
“You’re Krueger Lin.” She said with a feeble smile. Gesturing to her friends, who each had their own copy of the book, she added, “We found your book on BookTok, but had no idea you lived right here in Phoebe.” She handed me her copy of the book.
“That’s right.” I said back, opening her book and flipping to the title page. “Thanks for being interested in the book.”
“Thanks for writing such a steamy dark romance.” She tittered. “I’ve actually already read it, but I devoured it on Kindle and decided I needed a book trophy of it.”
“That’s awesome, thank you so much!” My smile was Cheshire Cat levels of broad. “I can sign it if you’d like?”
“Yes, please!”
“Alright, what’s your name?”
“Anna.” Blush tempered her cheeks, tossing her middle aged head back to beam at her girlfriends.
Scribbling over the title page, I wrote her name and a thank you for buying the book, finishing with my signature, which I’d been perfecting in anticipation for today. I presented the book to her. “Thanks again for reading, Anna. It means a lot to me.”
I felt Arze’s comforting hand on my shoulder, making me look up at him from my chair with another grin. He leaned down and claimed my lips with another kiss. Anna and her friends looked overwhelmed by the exchange.
“This lovely man is the inspiration forOf Death & Demons, I take it?” Anna said with a knowing smirk.
Glancing away from the love of my life, the man that had dominion over my entire soul, the one I was completely in love with, I gazed back at Anna with a pacified demeanor. The upturning of my lips followed, and I snuck another look at Arze before I answered.
“He’s not the inspiration,” His hand on my shoulder tightened at my words, pulling another longing look from me. Staring into his beautiful orange eyes, I saw the peace and meaning I’d been longing for all my life. “He’s the reality.”
