Page 24 of Curses & Cold Brew (Maple Hollow #2)

IRIS

I offered to do the dishes after dinner.

It was the least I could do after Ramona had made me one of the best meals of my life.

She insisted that she load the dishwasher because she had a special agreement with the machine, and if I broke it, she’d make me her dish servant until it was fixed.

Never mind that she could have it fixed with a wave of her hand or a call to the local repair ghoul.

I suspected she enjoyed the ritual of it.

I suspected even more that she’d have enjoyed keeping me chained to her kitchen sink for a week just for entertainment.

Having the lion's share of one and a half bottles of wine at dinner wasn’t my smartest choice, but it was making me bold and rather warm all over.

Was demon wine stronger than normal wine? Surely, nothing was stronger than witch wine.

“So, where am I permitted to sleep now that I’m fed and thoroughly exhausted from arts and crafts?

” I lazily dried my hands on a dish towel.

“Your couch looks really fancy, but with a few blankets, I’m sure I’ll sleep just fine after I finish this.

” I held up the last two sips of wine in my glass and swigged it back.

“Do demons even have beds?” I mused. “Like, vampires have coffins and ghouls have graves. But you don’t look like you’d enjoy getting dirty.” My cheeks burned as soon as the words left my mouth, and I braced myself for her reply about just how dirty she could be.

I didn’t miss the mischief that blazed in her side eye, but instead of rising to the bait, she said, “How about I take you on a tour of the house before we settle in and I kick your ass at checkers?”

I guffawed. “Are you actually an elderly woman possessing a demon?”

“I do go to bingo every once in a while.” She shrugged. “But only if Mable is calling.”

“Do zombies have some special bingo-calling abilities I’m not aware of?”

“Her cousin owns The Bloody Mary, so whoever wins gets a free round afterward.”

“Ah.”

With that, she walked out of the kitchen with a quick, “Come along,” over her shoulder.

I hung the towel over the edge of the sink and caught up to her in the living room.

Its modern styling reminded me of the waiting rooms in some corporate buildings.

The angular couch and glass table were the main components of the austere room.

There were a few pieces of art on the walls, but nothing as colorful as the floralginas in the kitchen.

“There is a bathroom just down the hall, across from the garage door. Nothing particularly notable unless you have a thing for Portuguese masonry,” she announced and took a step toward the stairs.

I had no idea what that meant. “There’s also a linen closet that I suggest you stay away from unless you want to be transported to the fiery pits of the fifth circle of hell.

It was an . . . impractical choice in hindsight, but nothing can be perfect. ”

Her sense of humor was so dry, I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not.

And I didn’t want to find out.

“Upstairs, there is another bathroom and two bedrooms, but there’s only one room with a bed. Mine.”

“Does the other room lead to the sixth circle of hell?”

Ramona only rolled her eyes. “No, but I do keep all my favorite . . . tools in there. So, for someone, it could be a special sort of hell.”

The knots in my stomach twisted, from excitement or nerves, who knew, but I wasn’t going in that room either. At least not tonight.

“There are towels under the sink,” she said, a jarring return to a normal house tour after mentioning hell pits and torture rooms. “You can find a new toothbrush in the medicine cabinet. And fresh bed linens are in the closet there. No portals required.”

I followed her to the top of the landing and peered over her shoulder. The space was lit by the large bay window at the end of the hall. Ramona opened the door to our right and stepped to the side for me. “This is the bathroom.”

To no one’s surprise, it looked straight out of a luxury hotel. The freestanding clawfoot bathtub could fit two people easily. I didn’t want to think of how many people Ramona had managed to fit under the multiple showerheads in the steam shower either.

“Could you . . . show me how it works?” I managed to breathe.

Her breath hit my ear as her luscious voice dropped lower. “Anything you want, my little witchling.”

My .

The things that single word did to me.

Her hand brushed my hip as she walked past me, and the ember in my core blazed to life. The sound of water hitting the tile snapped me out of the fantasy of Ramona wet and dripping.

“Come closer so I can show you the action panel.” She pointed to a small black rectangle on the wall, and even though it would have been better for my sanity to keep my distance, I obeyed.

“These buttons control the temperature.” She pressed the button twice, then took my hand to stick it under one of the streams of water. “Too cold?”

“Yes,” was all I could muster as her damp fingertips caressed my wrist.

“Tell me when it’s hot enough,” she practically purred and pressed the button again.

“More,” I said, something in my chest swelling and threatening to burst. She increased the heat again.

“More.” Her brow ticked up as if she were questioning my tolerance.

“More.” I was breathless and fighting the urge to pull us both into the shower.

The word had become my mantra. It was all I wanted. “More.”

Steam filled the small glass-enclosed space and floated out between us.

“Iris?”

I tilted my head to meet Ramona’s gaze, but her eyes were fixed on my mouth. I hadn’t realized how close she was, her lips a hair’s breadth from my own and a question in her silver eyes.

Was that a question? The question? Or was it the final warning?

I didn’t know and didn’t care.

I couldn’t take it anymore. All of this building and building inside of me was always going to lead us to this moment, teetering on the precipice of something neither of us could deny.

So instead of pulling away, I simply said the one word that had swarmed all my thoughts: “More.”

Before I could close the distance, Ramona’s body crashed into mine, pushing both of us into the shower.

Her kiss was vicious but passionate. Her soft lips demanded mine as a sacrifice.

I barely noticed the water drenching our clothes while our hands roamed.

I couldn’t decide which part of her to touch first, her hips, round ass, or the valley between her breasts that had always taunted me from the low necklines of her shirts.

The madness in me was like nothing I’d ever felt before. I wanted to memorize every inch of her.

I eagerly pulled at the hem of my shirt, and that was the catalyst that turned our frenzy into an inferno.

Ramona let out a needy little growl and I knew her thoughts matched my own: No more messing around. I need you .

The buttons of her shirt popped, fabric tore, and pants and underwear magically slid down our bodies and dropped to a sopping pile at our feet.

Thank fuck for magic.

With a possessive grip, Ramona took hold of my wet hair and deepened our kiss, bringing our naked bodies together. Her knee wedged between mine, and her hand slipped between my legs.

Slick fingers circled my clit, making me moan into her mouth. Goddess, I was already right on the edge of an orgasm. She barely needed to touch me after edging me all day. But her fingers worked me as if she knew exactly what I needed.

The mounting pressure in my belly tipped as she pushed her fingers inside of me and commanded, “Come undone for me.”

Stars burst. Planets collided. And the world-rearranging orgasm had her taking all of my weight, pinning me to the wall when my knees gave out.

The rush was like nothing I’d ever felt. Wave after wave of pleasure.

If I didn’t already know magic was real, I would now.

Ramona’s kisses turned soft and tender before she pulled away and let me bask in the afterglow of the best orgasm of my life.

But when I finally managed to open my eyes and steady my legs, I was rewarded with a full view of Ramona’s gloriously naked body.

She was lithe and soft and curved in all the right ways—a body perfectly molded to fit against mine.

As if reading my thoughts, the demon smiled wickedly and reached over my head to retrieve an expensive-looking bottle of body wash.

She squirted a bit into her palm before handing it to me and lathering the soap.

It smelled like her: musky, floral, and a little bit of spice.

When her palms were full of bubbles, she rubbed my shoulders and then moved down to my chest, breasts, and belly.

All the while, our eyes never left each other’s.

The feeling of her hands massaging the soapy lather across my skin was its own sort of ecstasy.

When she deemed me sufficiently covered, she pulled me under the water, taking her time to rinse away the soap before turning off the shower and returning the bottle to the shelf. She stepped out first, grabbed two towels from under the sink, then wrapped one around me then one around herself.

We didn’t need words. I was still glowy from what had just happened, although I was a bit disappointed that we were covered up again. I was far from ready for this night to be over.

But then she took my hand and led me out of the bathroom and through a door across the hall.

As soon as the light came on, I realized it was her bedroom.

My hair was dripping and I worried I would somehow ruin her bedding, but any protest I had disappeared when Ramona pulled open a drawer next to her bed and pulled out not one, not two, but three straps: one a cognac leather, one a studded bloodred, and one an opalescent silver that matched her eyes.

She smirked. “Pick your poison, witch.”

She slid open the drawer below and I was greeted with an array of dildos in varying shapes and sizes.

My mouth watered.

Now this is a choose-your-own adventure I could get behind.

The purple one was small and thin but deliciously curved.

The next was thick, long, and ribbed. And like some sort of porno version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears , the third looked just right.

The tentacle-looking attachment had suction cups on the underside, an undulating bulge in the middle, and a small twist at the end to hit all the right spots.

I picked up the dildo and gave it a testing squeeze as my core clenched. “This one?”

“Good choice,” Ramona said approvingly. “It vibrates.”

With a snap of her fingers, the opalescent harness was wrapped around her waist, and the toy vanished from my fingers only to reappear perfectly positioned in the ring between her legs.

The harness fit her like a glove, and she didn’t have to split her attention between sustaining the mood while fiddling with the buckles and trying to play it off like she’d meant to step into the wrong leg hole.

All bless the goddess of lesbian magic.

Ramona pulled at my towel with desperation, the two of us stumbling backward toward the bed. When the backs of my thighs hit the mattress, her hand shot out to catch the nape of my neck and lower me onto the soft satin sheets.

Hell had nothing on the heat in her eyes when she looked at me.

“Open your legs for me,” she ordered, and I did as she commanded, my heart fluttering in my chest. “Good girl.”

She notched the tip of the tentacle at my entrance and pulsed.

The vibrations buzzed across my sensitive flesh, and my hips rose to meet hers, but she pulled back, taunting.

She climbed farther onto the bed, hovering over me as she kissed a line down my jaw and throat to my chest and sucked a nipple into her mouth.

I bit down on my lip to quell the curse clawing up my throat. Her tongue flicked and her teeth nipped until I was close to coming just from those sensations alone.

“Ramona,” I moaned. “Please.”

She let out a triumphant groan before she thrust her hips and the tentacle filled me.

“Oh fuck!” I was pulled down by the undertow of sensations, already knowing that the best orgasm of my life was about to be topped.

Those vibrating suckers hit all the right nerves.

Ramona’s breath was ragged, a satisfied hum on her lips as she pumped in and out until I was on the brink of another blinding orgasm.

When the wave of pleasure took hold, I cried out, my voice echoing off the walls.

I didn’t know how long I made those euphoric sounds, but by the time Ramona slowed her thrusts, my throat was hoarse, my body boneless and sated.

The haze started to fade, and our mouths met again as my body went slack. Ramona eased the toy out of me and over my still-sensitive nerves, causing me to shiver. A quick moment later, her warmth returned as she rolled to her side and gathered me against her.

“Wow,” was all I could manage.

She huffed a laugh. “Yeah?”

The wine and euphoria felt thick in my blood but loosened my lips. “I waited a whole year when we could’ve been doing that the whole time?”

She laughed and pulled me closer. “We’ll have to make up for lost time, then, I guess.”

“Right now?” I teased even as I stifled a yawn.

“I think you should get some sleep first.” She kissed my temple, the action surprisingly tender. “Let me tuck you in, red.”

“You’re not just going to leave me alone in here, right?

” I wasn’t ready for her to exit our little lust-filled bubble.

I knew the moment she left this room, reality would set in, and I would abandon sleep to overthink every moment of this evening and what it meant . . . and worse, what it didn’t mean.

Ramona nuzzled my hair, sleepily resting her cheek atop my head. “Not a chance, love.”

Those four words blanketed my looming anxiety, tucking it away, safe and sound, for some other time.

Together, we settled under the blankets and entwined our legs and arms. She pulled me into her chest, and I fell fast asleep to the sound of her heart, the perfect tempo to plunge me into dreams of a world where we did this every night.