She returned my smile with a sneer. “Oh my God! You arrogant … you do realise that if I ate even half that many donuts in a single sitting, not only would I make myself sick, but I’d probably stack on about forty kilos in the process! In the human world, donuts do not equal a body like that …” She waved a hand at my chest, her … feminine parts rocking against me was almost enough to make my eyes roll back in my head.

“You like my body?” My voice was rough, grating. This … thing with her was so intense.

The blush that flooded her cheeks was gratifying. Her climbing off my lap (without relinquishing the box of donuts, I might add) was not.

“What’s my next task?” she asked bluntly, biting viciously into her second donut.

Home’s bones! Why did we have to talk about this, right now? When I had an aching cockstand and she’d just all but confessed that she found my body wildly attractive.

“Come out to dinner with me,” I grunted, crossing my legs to hide my arousal from her.

Her mouth fell open, a half-chewed piece of donut tumbling out and onto the grass. “Huh?”

My smirk was genuine this time. There was something so … rewarding … in shocking her. I stood, stuffing my hands into my pockets. “You heard me perfectly well, Mouse. Will you have dinner with me, two nights hence?”

She stared, frozen. My legs longed to take me closer, but I waited, watching her process what I’d just said. Our eyes locked, and suddenly it felt like a battle of wills, with the winner being whoever could hold that intense stare the longest.

A raucous clatter from the direction of the ferret play pen made me blink first. I cursed the rotten Hell beasts as Jemma hurried over.

“Well, you three are little fiends, aren’t you? Luci, don’t you learn bad habits from these Hellions.”

I followed, still grouchy that I’d been the one to lose our little staring competition, to find that her snowy pelted pet and my two midnight menaces had overturned the little plastic igloo and were all laying in it, side by side, black, white, and black, and appeared to be using it like a rocking cradle.

Beezle and Bub were nuzzling their tiny noses against Luci-Fur’s fuzzy cheeks. I had to admit, it was quite an adorable sight.

“Oh look, they’re both kissing her,” I remarked, sidling as close to her as I could manage to make seem accidental.

“My flipping ferret is living out my why choose fantasies,” Jemma muttered, shaking her head.

“What does that mean?” I asked before thinking twice about it. Jemma’s eyes flicked up to mine, and if anything, the pink on her cheeks was even more pronounced and was spreading to her throat, her chest, her …