Page 13 of Small Town Girl
“No, a clurichaun. They’re related. Their men are fond of the liquor and beer, so theycan’t always,” she glances over at Zane as if she’s uncomfortable, “participate in activities that would aid in reproduction. So female clurichauns will seduce other creatures when they’re ready to become a parent.”
“You mean they can’t get it up?” Zane laughs.
I roll my eyes. “She was trying to be polite, Gremlin.”
“So you’re saying on top of everything else, I was an unwitting sperm donor?”
She grimaces. “Were you consenting?”
I open my mouth to answer, but Zach cuts in. “She did something to him. He overslept and looked like crap when I went to check on him.”
Darla’s face softens. “Were you coerced in any way to have sex with her?”
I close my eyes and think back on last night, then shake my head. “No. I consented fully. At least I felt fully capable of making decisions when we walked back to my place.”
“Then you can’t exactly be unwitting. I know for a fact Ginger keeps condoms of all varieties in the back, it would have taken you two seconds…”
“I still say she did something to him,” Zach insists.
“Did she issue you a command at any time?” Darla asks.
“A command?”
“Yes, like ‘walk away’ or ‘take me to your bed.’”
I think about it for a moment and realize when it happened. “She woke me up when she was getting ready to leave. We talked for a bit, then she told me to sleep, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open after that.”
Darla nods. “When the sidhe issue commands that go against your will, you’ll obey, but you’ll feel incredibly hung over afterwards.” She turns to Zach. “It honestly sounds like she didn’t have to use any glamor at all. She just came in here and talked him up.”
“So you’re saying Zander’s easy?” Zane huffs a laugh.
Darla gives him a dark look. “I’m not slut shaming anyone. I’m saying he wasn’t taken advantage of and just needs to not do stupid shit like having unprotected sex with the girls or fae he takes home.”
I rest my head in my hands. I deserve the lecture, but there are bigger fish to fry. “What do I do now? I can’t just leave her to raise my kid alone. I should at least, I don’t know…Do fae accept child support?
Darla snorts. “She made some sort of deal with you. Sperm donors don’t usually get paid. What was the coin for?”
“I don’t know. I told her I wished we could get to know each other. Then she said that this place wasn’t bad…that–” Realization dawns on me. Fuck. “That it’d be a great place to plant roots. I told her I’d love that, and then she gave me the coin and told me she’d be back in three days with her people.”
“What?” Zane asks, looking between the two of us.
Darla huffs a laugh. “Your brother just sold the back lot to a clurichaun.”
“What is she going to do with it?” Zane asks.
Darla smiles. “If I had to guess…I’d say she’s going to move in.”
Chapter Eight
In Which Three Days Feels like Three Years
Three days.
It should be nothing, but it suddenly seems like an eternity to wait. Maybe it was a joke. Just a piece of junk play coin she happened to have on her. It’s going to turn out she was just some random girl passing through, and then I’m going to…what?
What will I do if she doesn’t come back?
Stop thinking about her? Quit looking for her at the door every time someone walks in? Not dreaming about the noises she made when I was inside her?