This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

Rick closed his eyes, hands over them, groaning. “I should be relieved for her. Why am I not relieved?”

Smirking, Tom replied, “Because you like her.”

Taking his hands from his face, Rick growled. “I am bad for her. And it’s not like she would be interested in me anyway—”

“Baloney.” Tom smirked more, his smile entirely crooked. “You are a temptation of hers. She may not realize it, as she has other things on her mind as well—but she has the hots for you… and she feels guilty about it. The imps tease her for ‘mind-cheating’.”

Rick stared, sure Tom was exaggerating. Tom did that. Admittedly, even he felt a degree of physical attraction coming from Audry. He embarrassed her easily, and her eyes seemed to brighten every time she spotted him. But all of Audry’s strong opinions stood in the way of any real relationship. And as Tom had explained to him—Audry did consider him merely a passing acquaintance. Or rather, she wanted it to be that. It made it easier for her to rationalize away the ‘sexual tension’ between them—Tom said—especially when she wanted to see him as a ‘stoosh ginnygog’—a phrase she mentally used on a frequent basis when thinking of Rick.

Matthew had also explained that one. A ginnygog was a rich person. But stoosh meant good looking. It was a phrase Audry had picked up from a Jamaican friend she knew. Rick was flattered, but also dismayed to hear it.

“It is good that she is getting married,” Rick said, trying to believe it. But that Hogan Orwell… something about him rubbed Rick the wrong way. And not just his dumb name. It was like Rick could smell predator on him—much worse than that Harlin. He still believed that either Hogan was a really great actor or a sociopath. Audry was attracted to dangerous people after all.

Tom shrugged, hearing Rick’s impish criticism of the man. “Meh. Honestly, even if he means it and really wants to marry her, I agree—the jury is still out on his character. His imps aren’t evil, but man… they are not starving.”

Rick lifted his gaze to him. “You’ll protect her, right?”

Making a face, Tom shrugged. “We have to anyway. Those witches are stalking her to find that other one—”

“Silvia,” Rick said, nodding.

“Yeah.” Tom nodded. “JJ contacted me and said there’s been no sign of her. Not at her work or anything. Matt talked with her boss, and her boss is worried to death about her. He said some horror movie chick showed up asking about her. Her boss thought the chick was going to pull out a butcher knife and start slashing everyone.”

“That would be one of the Garland sisters,” Rick muttered. “Jessica said Audry told her about them. She says Danna Groves is also here.”

Tom made a face. “Who’s that again?”

Nodding earnestly, Rick cringed. “An extremely dangerous witch. She’s one of those who had kidnapped Eve and brought her to Massachusetts.”

Raising his eyebrows, Tom nodded, knowing those witches would have had to use powerful magic to capture a demon like Eve who had half imp blood like him. “Ok… So what does she look like so I can keep an eye out?”

Thinking Rick said, “Prostitute Barbie?”

Tom snorted, remembering her now.

“She likes wearing pink pleather skirts,” Rick said. “And skimpy pink tops. She’s got long blonde hair—sort of wavy. And she’s leggy and busty. Oh, and she always wears high heels—these loud plastic clogs. And her perfume is like—” He shuddered. Danna’s perfume always seemed to have a spell in it. Alluring in the worst way—almost as tempting as Daisy’s scent. Danna’s lip gloss and everything about her was made to lure in men so she could use them. One might describe her as a siren—only Rick knew a real siren who only had to rely on her voice to lure in men. They didn’t use scent. And on that thought, he wondered how Selena Davenport was faring. She was now teaching part time at Gulinger Private Academy. She hadn’t talked to him since she was hired, like she was angry with him for some reason.

“Speaking of strong perfume,” Tom said, breaking his thoughts, “I heard a rumor that Daisy is still sending you scented letters.”

Rick shuddered, nodding heavily. “Carl is still intercepting them. She had never stopped.”

Tom nodded. “We have to take care of that. Nip it in the bud. I’m sick of that she-wolf trying to lure you back to her pack.”

Nodding more, Rick agreed. He needed all the help he could get. Daisy’s scent still drove him wild. He couldn’t think when he smelled her. He was addicted to it. “Do what you have to, Tom. I give you full permission to—” But halting on that, realizing what Tom might do, Rick amended, “But not garlic or honey—Tom play fair. I don’t want them hurt.”

“Because they aren’t man eaters,” Tom replied gravely, both of their minds on the German wolves. He then reached out to Rick and examined the scar next to Rick’s jugular. “I’ll do my best.”

Rick felt over that one also, rubbing his fingers over the stitches. He really had been near death back in Germany. That bite had grazed his jugular. Never had he hated being a werewolf more.  

“So, you repaired Audry’s car?” Rick said, changing the subject.

“I gave her a whole new engine and rubbed oil on it so she would not know the difference,” Tom said, grinning proudly.

Closing his eyes, Rick shook his head.

Tom continued, “I told her to ask you to buy her a new car but—”

“Don’t do that, Tom,” Rick said, smirking at him. “Let her cherish her independence. She doesn’t want to owe me anything.”

“But she doesn’t,” Tom replied, chuckling with a wink.

Nodding, Rick heaved a sigh. “No. I owe her. She saved my life three times, and she doesn’t even know it.”

“Four if you count her being there when Daisy found you at that conference,” Tom said, his humor dropping.

Chuckling painfully, Rick nodded. “Yeah. I stand corrected.”

Silence permeated the room. His mind went back to that conference. If Daisy had not found Audry and had not used Audry at her booth to find him, their meeting probably would have gone in an entirely different direction. Audry’s presence had kept Rick anchored to reality: that Daisy was bad for him, that he as just being seduced by that she-wolf and pack. If he had met Daisy anywhere else at the convention, he was sure to have abandoned his friends and left with Daisy and the Wolverton pack. Her influence on him was so intense that seeing her and smelling her again overwhelmed all his common sense. He would have gotten her pregnant again that night. And his life would be over… at least, the life he had planned for himself with all his hard work and study. Thanks to Audry, that never happened.

Tom broke the silence with a lighthearted, “Well, anyway, just to report, I did send some imps out to torment those witches like you asked. So… wherever they are, they’re probably having trouble with the law right now.”

Rick perked up his head. “Trouble with the law? And why?”

Grinning crookedly, Tom stuffed his hands into his pockets and rocked on his heels. “Oh… I told them to trash whatever hotel or place they were staying at. I’m hoping vandalism or disorderly conduct will be the charge.”

“How did they track down Silvia, by the way?” Rick asked, hoping Tom knew.

Tom frowned this time, knowing his answer would upset Rick. “They found Audry. I spoke with Jessica about it. She told me what Audry told her. It was through her ex—that jerk Harlin. From what Jessica said, she believes they scried and found Harlin, and they probably harassed him for something on Siliva but they got Audry instead.”

Groaning, Rick grabbed his hair. “Not good.”

“I know.”

“I wanted to keep her out of my mess, but she keeps getting dragged back in,” Rick moaned, feeling a stress headache coming.

“I know.”

“Those witches are dangerous.” Rick’s breathing grew hard. He imagined all the ways those Middleton Village women could hurt Audry. And how they would.

“I know.”

“Tom, what can we do for her?” Rick rose to his feet.

Tom shrugged, seriously watching him. “We are already doing a lot. JJ has a plain clothes officer watching the apartment building. Roddy got Danna’s license plate number, and I’ve asked Piranha to help me track them down.”

Glancing from the side of his eye at Tom, a smirk curled on the edge of Rick’s mouth. “You really like that Piranha, don’t you?”

Tom colored, pulling back. “Dude! She’s still in high school.”

“Almost eighteen and training to be CIA like you,” Rick said. “Didn’t she transfer to West End Prep?”

Tom nodded, still affronted. “So what?”

“So… she’s got one year left,” Rick said smirking at him. “And I’ve seen the way you look at her.”

Coloring more, Tom shook his head. “This is a non-topic. I do not talk or think about pre-adult girls—even if she is superhot and…” Tom shook his head again. “I need a cold shower.”

He turned to do just that—in Rick’s apartment.

Laughing, Rick followed him, grabbing his arm before Tom could leave the room. “Sorry! I shouldn’t do that to you. It’s just that you’ve been teasing me about Daisy and Audry—”

“So turnabout is fair play,” Tom said with sharp eyes, snorting. Yet he still continued toward Rick’s bathroom to at least splash cold water on his face.

Laughing, Rick let go.

Tom went into the room and splashed a lot of cold water on his face. Rick watched him, still laughing as it was funny to see Tom get upset when usually Tom was the one teasing everyone else. Tom could be relentless sometimes. And though he did not tease Rick much about his addiction to Daisy, he would not let up about Audry. Tom really had hoped that she and Rick would finally get over what he called ‘petty differences’, as really the only hang-ups were on Audry’s side—her insistence that everyone around her be a vegan and her distaste for Rick’s inherited wealth. Rick had none about her, except that he didn’t want to drag her into the supernatural chaos that was his life. Rick always felt he didn’t deserve a woman like her, which is what drove Rick back to his natural lust for Daisy whom he was addicted to and had to be separated from at all costs.

“It’s good to see you laugh,” Tom said after he dried off with one of Rick’s nice towels.

Rick lifted his eyes to Tom’s damp face, surprised.

“You haven’t laughed since Germany,” Tom said.

No. It was painful to. The weight of Jordan Hague’s death still pressed down on Rick. It had been all his fault. And he didn’t want the same to happen to Audry.

“It is not all your fault,” Tom said, reading his dark thoughts.

Rick shook his head. “If I hadn’t—”

“Stop doing that to yourself,” Tom said. “You did everything you could to save them.”

“But if I hadn’t—” Rick lifted his head to face Tom.

“No. They were going to go anyway, with or without you,” Tom grumbled out. He knew. He had been there in the aftermath.

Rick closed his eyes.

“Only one died. Not all three,” Tom said.

“But Rhett’s leg—”

“Stop it,” Tom bit back.

Rick closed his eyes.

“I was talking to your imps,” Tom said. “Not you.”

Nodding, Rick drew in breaths. His darkest thoughts were screaming at him, telling him that as a werewolf he did not deserve to live. He had those thoughts in the quiet hours…. Which strangely enough was when Tom showed up as if to shoo them off. His friends frequently checked in on him. They didn’t like for him to be alone for very long. Andrew had come by to examine Rick’s stitches, deciding to be his personal physician rather than having Rick expose himself at a hospital. His friends of the Seven and his Gulinger friends had decided to keep the media from getting any pictures of the damage from Germany