“It’s just magic,” he said. “And, if you haven’t noticed, I am just a spirit. I can’t leave the bounds of this house.”
“Oh…so that’s how you just appeared…,” I panted. “You look so solid.”
“I can look that way,” he said. “And feel that way. But really…I am not here at all.” He crouched next to me and put a hand on my leg, and he definitely did feel like he was there. His hand was warm. And before I could say another word, he kissed me while his hand stroked my leg.
The thing about incubi is that they are, by definition, irresistible. That is their entire deal. So I couldn’t really blame myself for not resisting. Even when his warm, wet tongue slipped inside my mouth and proceeded to give me the most slow, sensuous kiss I had ever experienced in my entire life. It was like he was tasting and savoring my mouth like no normal man could, while his hand steadied my head, supporting my neck, and his other hand kept moving up and down my leg like it was a naughtier body part than it was, and his tail wrapped around my ankle to keep me steady—or trapped.
I started feeling better right away.
I moved my leg, and I could tell the pain was leaving. He had knitted my bones back together with some…uh…sexual healing.
It’s just…practical, I thought. This is what his magic does. It doesn’t mean anything.
And yet, when his hand moved to my breast, I was too frozen to shove him away.
Frozen?
More like starved and eager, but I didn’t want to acknowledge that.
Then I heard the front door bang open and Jake and Jasper both yelled, “Helena? Helena, where are you?”
CHAPTER SIX
HELENA
BEVAN BROUGHT these two to help me!?
I was forced to acknowledge the practicality of it. They must have still been in town after checking out the house. It wasn’t like I wanted him to go running to my parents in New York. That would have been absolutely horrible. And we couldn’t just call 9-1-1.
Still. This was humiliating.
“Don’t laugh,” I said. “The floor literally just caved in on me.”
“Where does it hurt?” Jasper asked.
Jake, meanwhile, was laughing a little. “The floor caved in? Really?”
“I mean, look at the ceiling!” I said.
“We’ve seen a lot of houses,” Jake said. “This one really is a pile of shit.”
A canister of flour flew off the counter and went splat all over the floor.
“Oh, and there’s a poltergeist too,” Jasper said, raising his eyebrows, but he quickly turned his attention back to me. “Is it your leg?”
Adding to my embarrassment was the fact that the incubus had healed my broken leg, so now I was merely bruised. It still hurt, but hardly seemed worthy of calling help, so I had to pretend. “It’s sprained, maybe,” I said.
Jasper draped a hand over my ankle. Then he shifted his touch up a little.
“You know how to heal?” I asked.
He looked slightly embarrassed, although his skin, which could have easily been sunburnt from working on landscaping and siding, instead had a perfect light tan, and he didn’t blush. “I mean, only a little. On the job type stuff.”
According to the strict and old-fashioned rules of witch and warlock education, girls heal and boys shoot fire. And Jasper wasn’t even a warlock, so anything he knew would have been learned on his own. They didn’t let wolves into magic school.
It seemed impossible that in the 21st century, warlocks still have to look embarrassed about being able to do the most basic healing skills, but the magical world was so small that the magical councils had an iron grip on society, and everyone followed along no matter how stupid it seemed.
“I like a guy who isn’t afraid to have a softer side, you know.” I patted his head. “Good boy.”
He waved my hand off and gave me a mischievous little smile. “Well, sometimes I like girls with tool belts.”
“Are you two flirting?” Jake snapped. “Come on, we have our own shit to do.”
“I’m definitely not flirting, just thanking your nicer twin for helping me out in a pinch. Believe me, I have more interesting men in my life already.” Actually, I just had a sexy ghost and a politician I had managed to get rid of—but they didn’t need to know that.
Since I had actually healed myself before they showed up, but I didn’t want them to think I had called them here under false pretenses, complimenting Jasper was still my best choice. “I do feel a lot better,” I said, flexing my ankle. “I really do appreciate it. Now, feel free to get back to the shit you have to do, and I’ll get on with my work. Now that I’ve established where the holes in the floor are located, it’s all up from here.”
Jake crossed his very muscular arms—I tried not to look at them with a mixture of envy based on my own girly arms and basic lust—and tilted his head a little. “You sound confident…”
“I am definitely confident,” I said. “I got the house, and it’s still a great house. You can fix rotten floorboards, but you can’t replicate 19th century magical wallpaper.”
“This is a lot to handle,” Jake said. “Even for us. Seeing it now…”
“Thank you for the opinion. If you want, why don’t you just fill it out on a card and drop it in the mail slot on your way out.” I grabbed an old broom from the wall and started sweeping up all the floor crud.
“Helena…who is going to help you fix up this place?”
“That’s for me to know and you to not know.” I was sweeping a bit angrily now. Like I didn’t already know that my love for the house would not repair its many expensive, glaring problems.
Jasper looked at Jake. I
