Page 46 of Escaping Monsters

Declan ran a hand down my side. “You’re okay with us planning to kill Kane. Why is Oliver Hunt different?”

“Because Jasper has a private reason to kill Kane, outside of me. Also, Kane is the Head Alpha of all of North America and a mass-murderer. With him, it’s political and personal to you. With Oliver, it’s only personal to me. I can’t go along with a plan to kill him. After the con-man I married, Michael Card, sold me to Kane…” I trailed off as the words dried in my throat.

My mind tried to pull me back. I brought you a present. Stab him until he’s dead. The taste of metal flooded my mouth, and I could feel the blood-soaked knife handle in my fingers. Panic surged in my heart. I shook my head. I wouldn’t go back, not there, not ever.

“I just can’t.” I shook my head. “There has to be another way. But I don’t think leaving right now is the right choice either.”

“All right.” Jasper sat up, and he reached out and brushed my hair back behind my ear. “Are you ready for dinner? Declan, that invite is for you too. Chad won’t be cooking for a while, so you’ll have to—”

“Chad,” I said, as an idea lit up my mind like the giant proverbial lightbulb blinking on over my head. I sat up and looked between the men who both appeared bewildered. “One of the succubuses—succubi—or whatever you call the plural form of a succubus. One of them told me that they knew someone who could consume my memories. She showed me a card that said: The Memory Eater. Supposedly, if I want to find him, I will. What if this demon can eat Oliver’s memories of Grayhaven and me, and then we can run him out of town, like you suggested, Declan?”

“This demon is called The Memory Eater?” Jasper asked.

“You’ve never heard of him?” I looked between the two men whose brows were still furrowed.

“No.” Declan rubbed a hand over his hair.

“If anyone knows about it, Ace does,” Declan said, and for some reason, this made Jasper clench his jaw.

“Ace is unavailable at the moment.”

“Well, the succubus showed me a card and said that if I wanted to call The Memory Eater, I could.”

“A calling card.” Jasper worked his jaw back and forth. “It’s one-time-use magic. You’ll be able to call the demon to you once.”

“She said this demon would eat my memories, on the house, whatever that meant,” I said.

“It means you don’t need to trade something to this demon for their help,” Declan said.

“What if we trapped Oliver and called this memory eater to us and asked them to take Oliver’s memories instead of mine?”

Declan looked between Jasper and me. “It might be a good plan… if we knew more about the memory eater. Too bad Ace can’t tell us the dangers we’d be walking into.”

Jasper growled long and low in the back of his throat. “Fine.” Jasper sighed and rubbed his neck. “I guess I’ll let him be human while we need him, but Chad is staying a wolf until he fucking redeems himself.” Jasper lifted our joined hands to his mouth and kissed my fingers before releasing them. “This will just take a minute.”

“Hey Jasper,” I said as he started to move away.

He leaned back into the bed. “Yeah?”

“I know this is going to sound weird, but I appreciate that not only are you guys protecting me, you’re also listening to how I want to be protected. I just want you to know that I noticed.”

Jasper’s rough hands came up and cupped my cheeks, and he pressed a kiss to my mouth. It was only for a second, but I felt it down to my toes. When he pulled away, his blue gaze drilled into mine, and I could hear a word shouting through my head: mate.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Jasper said before he climbed off the bed.

The moment Jasper closed the bedroom door, Declan leaned into my hair and whispered, “Alone at last, Cherry. Can we play that game where we pretend Jasper never walked in on us?”

I bit my lip, as a tingling awareness coalesced in my core. I turned back to face the big guy, who was still sprawled across the bed.

Turning, I threw a knee over him and straddled his hips. “I’m game.” I tugged open the button of his fly. “Where were we? Oh yes, you promised to take off your pants so I could lick your tattoos.”

Declan sucked in a breath. “Oh, Cherry, this is the first and only time I ever wished I tattooed my cock.”

Declan shimmied his pants down, exposing his boxers. The moment he did, a laugh burst out of me.

“You’re not supposed to laugh when a man takes his pants down, Cherry. You’re going to give me inadequacy issues.”

I laughed again. “If you don’t want women to laugh when they pull down your pants, Declan, you shouldn’t wear underwear with a giant rubber ducky over the crotch.”

“Gah, they’re boxer briefs, Cherry,” he said with a full wattage grin. “And, I wore them for you. I wanted my duck to make you smile.”

“And, I’m definitely smiling at your duck.” I crawled down his body and so I could get a better view of his tight rubber duck briefs. The bulge growing under them screamed that Declan had no reason for inadequacy issues. I pulled open the band to his briefs and peeked inside. He was without a doubt evenly proportioned to his massive frame.

“I’m a little intimidated, Declan,” I admitted.

He went up on his elbows. “You definitely don’t have to…” He cut off in a gasp as I wrapped my mouth around the head of his cock. “Mercy.”