Read Online Enchanting Absinthe (Sex with Strings, Book Four) by Shona Husk - Free Book Online Page A

challenged him, dared him to do more than fuck her in the change room.
    This was one of those times when he was glad he’d ignored his gut instinct and broken his rules. But that didn’t mean it was going to become a habit.
    He turned around to go back to the bedroom and stopped. The flowers on the piano were different. His eyes narrowed and he stalked closer. They’d sprouted, roses now trailed over the piano, perfect white buds ready to open. He’d known there was magic in the air last night, but he didn’t have the power to do this—sure, he could keep cut flower alive for a few extra days, but he couldn’t make cut stems grow without soil and water—hell, he wasn’t sure he could’ve made a rose bush in the ground sprout like this.
    Only a Shaman could do that. A sick feeling bloomed in his stomach. It swelled and punched upward. Claire. She was Shaman.
    Whether she was full-blooded or one quarter, he didn’t care. She’d lied about what she was. He wiped his hand over his mouth as if he could remove the sweet taste of her blood from his tongue. But he couldn’t. He should’ve known. In the club he should’ve been able to feel what she was. He should’ve been able to taste the earth in her blood.
    Fucking Shaman. Damn it. He’d been fooled.
    His appetite for food and sex gone, he strode into the bedroom, determined to get an answer from the Shaman in his bed.
    William pulled the sheets off her, not caring how fast she woke. She looked up at him and immediately knew something was wrong, her face paling and her eyes widening.
    “Get up,” he ordered.
    When she backed away, he reached out and grabbed her arm to haul her to her feet. He wasn’t going to hurt her, but he wanted to hear the truth from her lips before he turned her out.
    He dragged her to the doorway so she could see the flowers.
    “Oh.” Her body sagged as if his grip was all that was supporting her.
    “Oh? That’s all you have to say for yourself?” He released her, unable to keep touching her. No wonder he’d felt magic in the air—it was hers. She’d used him for a power burn. Then just as he was getting used to that idea, he understood the rest. He’d been tricked. He took a step back from her. “You were never under the enchantment.”
    She just looked at him.
    “You faked it.” But still, he should’ve felt her magic in the club; he’d avoided Shamen after what they’d done to his mother. “You enchanted me.”
    “No. I just suppressed my magic.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I wanted you.”
    “So did a quarter of the club.” Male and female. “That didn’t give you the right to lure my attention to you.”
    “Me? You’re the one using magic to seduce humans who don’t know any better. Do you know how lucky you are that no one has pinged you?”
    “So what was this, payback, a comeuppance, a warning to stop? Are you working for the Council? Or Fendrake?”
    “Neither. I told you the truth.” She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and he wished she wasn’t naked. It wasn’t easy to argue with a naked woman. “I wanted you. I didn’t know another way to get you to notice me.”
    He had noticed her, but now it was all a lie. She’d had his number from the moment he’d stepped onstage. “Why fake it?” His voice was flat and cold as if he could ignore the anger and hurt.
    “If I hadn’t, you would have realized I wasn’t human.”
    “Did you not consider there was a reason I choose humans? Did you not stop to think I may not want to be caught up in Shamanic magic?”
    “You’re a hypocrite.” She brushed past him and started pulling on last night’s clothes, which looked even skimpier in daylight.
    “I have reasons,” he snarled. Which he wasn’t about to share with her.
    “Yeah? Well, so did I. You got more than the fuck you wanted and so did I. We’re even.”
    “You’re Shaman.” As he said it, he realized it sounded like an insult and he regretted it.
    Claire turned, her face a mask