Page 80 of Claimed By Fangs and Darkness

I chuckled at Nolan’s predictably exuberant reaction. “Yes, this is the witch who stole my heart.”

Nolan clutched his chest, brows drawn and lips pouted. “She’sperfect.”

Evie was shell-shocked, her avoidance of strangers and her distrusting, wounded heart likely making her wish she could teleport away.

I enjoyed her embarrassment. It made my cock hard as usual.

“Stole the words right out of my mouth,” I said.

A bored-looking and chronically unimpressed man walked gracefully from the back of the store, carrying items to hang or display.

He ignored Evie, but he paused to scan me up and down. He lifted his brows and nodded, as if he approved of my form. Then he was back to his tasks without a word.

At this, Evie finally broke into a small giggle.

“Come, come,” Nolan said. “I have new pieces you’re both going to die over. I was saving them just for you.”

“So you really did all of that shopping for me yourself?” Evie asked, her eyes rounded as we followed Nolan’s quick stride to the back of the shop.

“Of course I did. Did you think I made myhenchmenshop for you?”

Her features were pensive, lips quirking up. “No, that doesn’t sound like you. I just never envisioned you picking out each gift.”

Her eyes welled with emotion, and for a moment, Evie was the same frightened, uncertain girl I first met. The one who believed that grand gestures and romance would remain a fantasy forever.

“He has exceptional taste, darling,” Nolan said, nodding his head.

Evie smiled. “In all things,” she agreed. “It’s sort of ridiculous.”

She made me feel so human and raw. I had the urge to grab that pretty little throat again as my tongue tasted all of her hidden depths.

Nolan began retrieving pieces from a back room to hang up for us. He left us in a tasteful, brightly lit space with tall mirrors and a seating area.

I admired one of the art pieces on a far wall, trying to place its vague familiarity. While I studied the abstract art, Evie studied me.

“What do you think?” I asked her softly.

She tore her eyes from me to the painting. The canvas shone with a warm peachy orange, a perfectly captured sunset over a cliff. Before the precipice’s edge was a crumbling archway with intricately painted vines wrapping around the structure and squeezing through cracks in the stone.

“It’s beautiful,” she said. “Very Helianic.”

“You think it’s religious?”

Evie nodded. “I do.”

“You’re right,” Nolan chirped from behind us. “Painted by a monk.”

I grinned and kissed the side of Evie’s head.

Nolan excitedly showed us each article of clothing he’d designed specifically for Evie. Evie complimented them excessively as if that might shift the focus away from her and those blushing cheeks.

“I’ll give you some privacy, but let me know if you need anything,” Nolan said with a wink.

I thanked him, reaching into my pocket to pay him.

Evie gawked at the heavy coin purse I slipped into Nolan’s palm.

She quickly closed her gaping mouth, only speaking after he’d left. “Kylo?—”