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“Will you go on a date with me?” I blurt.

Emma’s lovely dark brows pinch together. “Like right now? It’s a little late. I guess we could go back to the bar if you want…”

I shake my head. “Not right now. In the future. Whenever you’re free. I just… I want to know more about you. I really like you and I know it’s silly to want more when you’re here on my bed looking likethat,but I have to at least ask. Seize the opportunity, like you said.”

A warm smile spreads across Emma’s lips. “You really are the sweetest. Yeah, Ren. I’ll go on a date with you. I want to know more about you, too.”

My heart threatens to burst out of my chest as every cell in my body sings with joy at her words, but I keep my reaction contained to an elated grin and a nod. “Okay. Amazing. Perfect. I’ll be right back.”

“Ren, why are you leaving? We don’t need protection. Please stay. I’m aching for you, baby.”

Fuck me.I groan. “It won’t work unless I go get, uh, something to help make this…” I wave between our bodies, then gesture to my crotch where my erection tents my pants. “To make this work. I really want to have sex. Like you have no idea how much I want to. But it won’t fit without some special lube. Magic lube.”

Emma’s eyes widen at the casual mention of magic, but I press on. “It’ll only take me fifteen minutes.” I do the mental calculations for how long it will take to drive to my minotaur friend Wesley’s house, beg him forsome magic lube that I should’ve thought to get on my own but didn’t because it seemed silly to buy something I’d never use, and drive back home. “Twenty minutes, max.”

“Okay,” Emma says with a perplexed smile.

“Okay?” I expected her to call everything off. Why would this stunning woman be willing to hang out alone in my house while she waited for me to come back and fuck her? Maybe she’s going to rob me.

Eh, it’s worth the risk.

“Yeah. As long as you don’t mind me snooping a bit. What better way to get to know you than digging around and finding your secrets?” Emma wiggles her eyebrows at me.

I snort. “Sure. Though it’s not a secret that I’m a massive dork.”

Emma laughs. “True, I noticed the mini painting area over there in the corner. Do you have those magnifying glasses that help you see the details?”

I’m not sure if I should admit the depth of my commitment to the hobby, but I don’t want to lie. “I do.”

Her eyes light up and she bursts out laughing. “Is it a monocle? Oh my god, that’s hilarious.”

I can’t tell if she’s laughing at me, but given my track record with people making fun of my interests, it’s likely. My pride stings.

She must see my reaction. “Oh, in a good way!That’s so fucking cute, Ren. You’ll have to show me sometime.”

My face flames, but secret pleasure at her words coils in my chest. She thinks one of the dorkiest things about me is cute. “O-okay. Sure. I’ll be right back!” I lean down and kiss her on the cheek, then scramble away before I do something stupid like show her the magnifying monocle and kill all of her desire to have sex with me.

It doesn’t take fifteen minutes. Or twenty. It takes a fucking hour to find some magic lube.

Gods, I’m an idiot. Wesley wasn’t home. I knew that he was out of town, but in my lust-addled state, I forgot. So I had to drive from his place over to see if my mothman friend, Tomas, was home. He was, but happened to be in the midst of his own fun with his human mate. Fun that I rudely interrupted by pounding on his door. By the time Tomas made himself decent and found an unopened jar of the special magic lube, I was mortified and defeated.

The whole drive home, I chastise myself. There’s no way Emma stuck around for an hour. Maybe if I’d gotten her number like any reasonable person would’ve,I could have texted her to let her know about the delay. But no. I had my chance, and I blew it. I’ll never see her again.

Those thoughts vanish when I get home, and her car is still parked in front of my house.

She stayed.

I rush inside.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry, I?—”

When I get to the bedroom, I freeze. Emma’s still here, and she’s asleep in my bed, Mango curled up on top of the blanket beside her. I glance around and see her sweater and jeans draped over my desk chair, which means she’s mostly naked and in my bed.

I simultaneously want to crow with delight that she felt safe enough to fall asleep here, and scream in frustration that I took so fucking long to come back that she had time to fall asleep.

She looks like a fairytale princess with her raven locks fanned across a pillow, her plush lips slightly parted and her cheeks tinged with a light flush. My chest squeezes painfully. The woman I’m infatuated with is in my bed. She’s here, and she wants me, and she said she’d go on a date.

Mango lets out a disgruntled sound as I lift her off the bed and set her out in the hall with a kiss on the head. I love my precious baby, but I don’t want her to disturb Emma’s rest by climbingall over her in the middle of the night when she decides she’s sick of being in the bedroom like she does to me most nights.