Tasty.
“Now I see that your true form is that of a goddess,” he said.
“Hardly.” I wet my lips a little, unable to take my eyes off of him for a moment, but then I went back to feeding the birds.
“You have taken ownership of my house and shut me out,” he said. “Usually my dreams are a little more…debauched.”
The gate was locked, I noticed, with chains and a padlock. He couldn’t get in to the heart of the garden.
That was the protection spell I had cast before sleeping.
“So this is how it will be,” he said. “You will banish me from my home.”
“I can’t stay here for long,” I said. “And neither can you. Homes need flesh and blood owners. Gardens need tending. Otherwise you’re just haunting a shell.”
“I was hoping someone would come along after Fiore died,” he said. “The right person.” The words rolled, soft and low, off his lips.
“I’m just doing my job,” I said. “If I hadn’t bought the house, someone else would. I don’t know what I can do for a ghost.”
“I can tell you one thing.”
“What?”
“Open this gate.”
I walked right into that one. “Yeah, right. I’m not letting an incubus into my dreams. Bad enough that you put me in this outfit.”
“You can’t blame that on me. The subconscious does some interesting things. What were you thinking before you went to bed?” His amber eyes compelled me even from a distance, and to his credit, they mostly stuck to my face and not the curves revealed under the sheer dream dress. “I could satisfy you with no consequences,” he said. “It’s just a dream.”
“Just a dream, my ass! The same way you’re just a man! No…I don’t deal with demons.”
“Your loss,” he said. “It’s my highest purpose in life to bring you pleasure.”
CHAPTER TEN
HELENA
I WOKE up drenched in sweat and even more starved for some physical attention than before. Holy shit. I had to get this house done as quickly as possible. Maybe I could just leave the incubus here and market the house to single women. The real estate listing wrote itself: You’ll love the original details in this Victorian charmer! Four bedrooms and one hot ghost ready to keep you busy in them.
The house didn’t have a shower and I didn’t want to take the time to scrub down the old clawfoot tub and take a bath, so I did my best to bathe off my sexually charged dream sweat with a wet rag, change into jeans and an old t-shirt, and then it was back to work. I tested the clawfoot tub for lead paint, and of course it was positive, so that was too dangerous to salvage. Heartbreaking. Maybe the guys would carry it downstairs.
I was disturbed at how readily my mind was starting to assign them more jobs, and vowed instead to wait on the tub until I could get my own crew in here. The bathroom remodel could wait until then.
So, I just started moving out as much junk as I could while making a list of smaller projects I could handle with the supplies in my truck, and another list of things I would get on my own home improvement store run. The plaster in the master bedroom was still in fantastic shape, just a few ceiling cracks needed patching, and the light green paint was lead-free. Nice. Not everyone would like the green bedroom, but I thought it was pretty, with sort of a permanent spring feeling. And there was a window seat with a built in bookcase next to it. I was thinking of staging it with a rocking chair or maybe even a wicker chair by the window and a houseplant or two for sort of a Victorian sunroom feel. This house really has a lot of upsides. This whole room hardly needs anything except refinishing the hardwood.
Most of the walls I would paint a very light gray, I thought, with the window frames and trim in white. That was trendy and neutral, but the pink dining room and green bedroom would have that little bit of quirkiness. Oh, yes. I could see it. This would be such a relaxing house once, you know, all the demons were gone.
When Jake and Jasper returned, I was back to work trying to pry up the kitchen floor.
“Princess Hel on her hands and knees,” Jake said. “You’re like Cinderella in reverse.”
I sprung up and dusted off my knees. “And I’ll be glad when you’re gone so I can get back to talking to mice.”
He chuckled. “Well, we’ve got more than enough material to redo those floors for you, and then you can dance and sing with the mice all the live-long day.”
I wished he wasn’t so useful to have around. Or that his teasing grins didn’t involve such charming dimples and sharp canine teeth. Fangs were one of my secret weaknesses.
“Any more imps?” he asked.
“Oh…no,” I said. “You don’t get more than one infestation.”
“How about the poltergeist.”
“The poltergeist?”
“The one that slammed the door while we were talking? Anyway, even I can tell there is something going on here.” He rapped the wall.
Right. That was probably the incubus. “Oh, no. No drama this morning. Just a lot of sweat.” I shouldn’t have said that. It was making me think about the dream again. There was definitely some appeal in seeing what incubus sex was like, just once, in a dream setting…but even that would sap the life out of me. Infiltrating dreams were a classic way for an incubus to gain power.
“So your leg is still feeling fine?”
“Yes. All good.”
“Have you just been working on this floor all morning?” Jasper asked, because clearly I had made little progress.
“No! I walked the house and
