Page 83 of Misadventures with a Time Traveler

“Ventrebleu,” I choke. “By every saint there was and is…”

The blanket whispers to the floor. With her other hand, she reaches between my legs from the back. Once she finds my balls, she massages them with hot, perfect little circles.

“And all the angels too.” There’s an irresistible tease in her murmur. “Don’t forget them. Especially this one.”

“The one with her horns holding up her halo?”

“Something like that.”

With a grunt, I wrap a hand around her wrist. Though she does not release me, I can at least halt the insanity-inducing strokes. “I will surely fuck you until dawn, mon petit demon, and you need your rest. You have appointments all day and night tomorrow. Your preparations for the party are too important. The Hemline nobility will decide upon your fate with them. You must be prepared.”

“Psssshhh.” She cups my balls with more determination. “I can sleep when I’m dead.”

The air between us stops.

The flames between us freeze.

The time between us races. Not enough. There will never be enough time…

I step fully away from her. The seconds speed by faster.

“Shit.” She thumps a nervous toe against the floor, punctuating her gritted tone. “Shit, Max. I’m…sorry.”

I push out a hard breath. “Why?”

“Because even if I don’t believe in the freaking curse, you do, and I…”

She ceases the toe jabs, replacing them with a frustrated snarl. If she believes that will exonerate her from finishing the statement, she is gravely mistaken.

“You what, Alessandra?”

As I turn fully toward her, my arms stiff with challenge, she chews the inside of her lip. Her nudity increases how tiny and vulnerable she seems. I steel myself against that heady allure. Barely.

“I…care for you, Max.” Thump, thump, thump. She puts her toe to work again. “You have to know that by now.” She attempts a soft laugh. “Hell, I rode the Bryant Park carousel for you. And nobody ever gets half my street cart gyro wrap.”

Then why will you not admit that you love me? Preferably in front of a hundred witnesses? Or even three?

Perhaps my stillness speaks the words for me. Perhaps she simply senses them after her intense glance across my face. Either way, she grabs up the blanket and sweeps it around herself once more. “Despite all that, I know how this will end, okay? Believe me, damn it. I have a lot of experience with exactly how this will end, and—”

“Is that so?” I slice her short with a bitter bark. “Exactly how shall it end?”

She tightens the blanket like a queen with her robe. “Don’t growl at me, buddy. I don’t know any other woman who would give you leeway like this with the time-traveling fantasy, okay?”

“Ah.” I step back as if she has driven a fist through my chest. “So it is still my…fantasy.”

“Which I’m not knocking you for.” She approaches with an entreating voice and soft steps—and I yearn for a fist between my ribs instead. “But Max, one of us has to approach this thing from the real world. And in that world, I’ve watched a long list of amazing women throw away everything they are in the name of true love—which never turns out to be as true or as magical as they claim it will be.”

My body tenses as she draws near, but I make no move to halt her. I am certain my next words will perfectly accomplish that purpose.

“A list of amazing women…led by the woman you call mother?”

My prediction bears out to truth.

She stops so suddenly, her feet chirp on the wood floor. She shivers so completely, I yearn to gather her into my arms again. But I do not. She has issued her hard truths to me. It is time for her to receive the same. “I am not the only one who fights memories in their sleep, ma chérie.”

She dips a curt nod. “Fair enough.”

I almost dice the air itself with the sharpness of my new laugh. “Brava. You found one fair thing about all of this.”