Exclusive Excerpt:
“Ah, I guess I’d rather not talk about me anymore.” She was way too perceptive. “Do you want to talk more about your bad dream? Maybe there’s an underlying meaning we can decipher.”
Her eyes saucered, and her mouth dropped open as she stared at something on the bed behind him. “You mean like the bad dream I’m having right now?” she whispered.
“What?” He looked over his shoulder. A decent-sized spider sat motionless not more than a foot from him. Adrenaline spiked through his system, and he jumped to his feet.
Holly followed, ducking behind him. “I hate spiders,” she squeaked.
He wasn’t too fond of them either, but someone had to do something. Peter scanned the room and headed for a box of tissues on the dresser. He grabbed one and stealthily approached the bed. Closing in on the furry, eight-legged monster, he reached out with the tissue, and just as he was about to squash the critter, it raced away. Shit. He chased after spider and snatched it up, clamping his fingers together. The spider somehow avoided getting crushed and crawled to the edge of the tissue.
Peter emitted a not so masculine sound and dropped the tissue to the floor before stomping on the spider and the general area around the damn thing. Like a fool.
Snickers erupted from behind him, but he didn’t look back. Not until he carefully inspected the floor and tissue and found the dead spider. He scooped up the debris and tossed it into the trash, then turned his attention to Holly, who was still giggling. He let out a chuckle. “You shouldn’t laugh. I saved your life.”
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” She giggled again. “It’s just that . . .” She caught her breath. “That spider gave you quite the fight.”
Heat crawled up his neck. “Yes, it did.” Talk about looking stupid. Then again . . . he took in the sight of Holly’s smiling face, sans makeup, her freckles showing. She was adorable. Perfection was overrated.
“I shall henceforth call you Peter the Spider Hunter. No, Peter the Powerful. No . . . Peter the Protector.” She nodded. “That’s the one.”
He grinned. “Peter the Princess Protector.”
She gave a little snort, and his grin widened.
“What about a name for you?” he asked.
She waved away the thought. “Holly works for me.”
“Oh no. That won’t do.” She’d made a point of giving him a name. Her turn. “How about Holly the Hider? You could have helped me out with that eight-legged monster.”
“But you were doing such a good job on your own,” she insisted, her smile as big as his.
“Yeah, sure.”
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Thank you so much for setting up this tour for The Goddess of Magic!
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