Page 111 of Only Fangs

“For werewolves?” she asks.

“Exactly. Or Bewitched.”

“For witches and warlocks. Genius.”

We both dissolve into fits of giggles, which turns into kissing, which turns into… well, you get the drift. I’m sure you don’t need a blow by blow – if you’ll excuse the pun – every time do you? At this rate the story will never get finished.

I wake up the next morning to find her sitting at my desk staring out of the window, my thick fluffy blanket wrapped around her shoulders and half her hair trailing out of the messy bun she’s tried to twist it up into. I want to kiss the back of her neck. I want to⁠—.

“Oh, you’re awake,” she interrupts my thoughts with just the merest hint of a strict school mistress tone to her words. As if I’ve ever so slightly disappointed her. Although perhaps she isn’t used to a partner who needs to get eight hours of sleep each night to actually function.

“How long have you been up?” I ask.

She narrows her eyes. “I don’t sleep much.”

“No. Of course. I mean…” but I trail off. I need to stop explaining myself at every opportunity. I need to believe this is real and not just a figment of my imagination that’s about to evaporate into a puff of smoke when she realises that as the most beautiful woman on the planet, she could have any man she wanted and she really doesn’t need to settle for me.

“I’m not settling,” she says, once again with that uncanny ability to read my thoughts.

“How do you do that?”

“You have the shittest poker face I have ever seen. It isn’t that I’m good at reading you, it’s because you advertise every thought on that pretty little face of yours. Anyway. I’ve been thinking about Only Fangs and we have a tonne of work to do, especially if we’re going to launch it more widely than just vampires.”

“So you think it’s a good idea. To let normies in?”

“It’s genius.”

I smile at the compliment.

“And it’s going to piss off Andrei Hele so fucking much.” She rubs her hands together and gives me a wicked grin.

“He’ll hate it, won’t he?” I ask.

“That his precious vampires might find love with the normies? He’s going to be apoplectic, especially because you messed up his plans and then you’re going to build this app too.” She smiles. “We’ll have to compete with his BloodMatch app, but I don’t think it’s going to be much of a competition. He’s going to learn that you don’t mess with Brody and Ari.”

“I love it when you’re all angry and righteous,” I tell her.

She stands up and allows the blanket to fall to a puddle on the floor. “Enough about Andrei Hele and BloodMatch. I think last night you said something about me hooking my legs over your shoulders? I would like to do that now please.”

“Of course, ma’am, your wish is my command. But first, if I may make a suggestion?” I slip out of bed and take a few steps towards her before sinking to my knees. I plant a kiss on her inner thigh.

She takes a fistful of my hair in her hand and uses it to position my mouth. “Let me help you to find the right—” she says, her final word cut off as my tongue meets its target.

Chapter 59

Ari

For the next three months Brody and I barely see anything other than the inside of my flat, or his room at the place he shares with Matt. And no, not because all we’re doing is having sex – although I will admit there is a fair bit of that – but because we’re working so hard on Only Fangs. The launch is scheduled for two weeks and we still have so much to get done. But I’m feeling quietly confident, almost as if being around Brody’s constant positivity is finally making me someone who doesn’t always assume the worst is about to happen.

But my quiet confidence in our ability to hit our impending deadline is shattered by the arrival of Clara on my doorstep one evening.

“We need to talk about the wedding,” she says as she thrusts a bottle of Sanguis into my hands.

“OK. Well, I guess you’d better come in.” I stand aside so she can enter the flat. Since Brody has been spending more time here I’ve given the place a bit of a spruce up and although it’s still tiny, it at least looks habitable now.

“The wedding is going to be at Hele House,” she tells me as she pours us both a glass, filling them both to the brim.

“I thought you were going to Transylvania.”