"I did knock. You didn't hear me. She was laughing."
"Nell has a name. She is my Beloved. You will treat her with respect, and not refer to her as she."
My hand, scrabbling around under the bed, closed around a dry, round object. I froze.
"You like her better than me!" Damian shouted. "She smells funny! How can you stand to be around her?"
Adrian rolled his eyes and sat up in bed. "We have had this discussion before. You are my son. I love you. I will always love you. But I also love Nell, and if you give her the chance and stop rejecting her advances, she will take you into her heart as well."
"Oh, yeah, like he's going to allow me to do that," I muttered as I pulled the object out from under the bed.
"Are we going to the museum or not?" Damian demanded, ignoring his father's request. "She said we could go. I want to see the mummies."
I stared down at Ginger's head. His jaw cracked open in a grin. I slapped a hand over his mummified lips to stop the coo of pleasure I knew he was about to make.
" Who said you could go to the museum?" Adrian asked.
Damian sighed a sigh of such martyrdom that only a ten-year-old could produce it. "Nell."
"Thank you. We'll be out in ten minutes. I suggest you comb your hair and change into clean clothing," Adrian said.
I carefully shoved Ginger's head back under the bed. Adrian's arm snaked around my waist, pulling me back until I rested on his chest. "I am not sad that you returned the mummies to their inanimate state, Hasi, but I must admit that it was more convenient when Damian could look at them without requiring us to escort him to the museum."
"Uh…" I said, gnawing on my lip, wondering how I was going to tell him that in the confused two days that followed the charming of his curse—my recovery from going one-on-one with Asmodeus taking most of that time—I might have given him the impression that I had actually performed a curse returning the mummies to their previous state, rather than just thinking about it, which was as far as I'd gone what with the whole joyous reunion with Adrian after finding out I hadn't really died.
Adrian's arms tightened around me. "Do not worry about Damian, Hasi. He will come to love you as much as I do. It will just take time for him to adapt to the change in our circumstances."
I smiled into his chest, kissing a pert little nipple that taunted me. "Yeah? Well, until then, I have four words for you."
His breath sucked in as my teeth grazed the tender morsel of nippleness, his hands sweeping down my back to wrap around my behind. "And those words are?"
"Dark One boarding school."
His laughter filled my heart, filled my soul, filled the night with more happiness than the world could contain.
* * *
KATIE MACALISTER is the author of several historical, contemporary, and paranormal romantic comedies. An eclectic reading taste covering everything from her beloved blue tweed Nancy Drews to two-hundred-year-old etiquette books has given her a taste for the absurd, eccentric, and downright wacky. She lives with her husband and dogs, and spends far too much time dallying around the Internet doing what she laughingly calls research for her next novel. Katie also writes for the young adult market as Katie Maxwell.
You can visit Katie at her websites: www.katiemacalister.com and www.katiemaxwell.com. For fun freebies and Katie's periodic newsletter, send an e-mail to funstuff katiemacalister.com. You can write to Katie at katiemacalister earthlink.net or via snail mail at: Katie MacAlister c/o Three Seas Literary Agency; PO Box 8571; Madison, Wl; 53708.
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