Crushed (City of Eldrich Book 2) by Laura Kirwan Read Free Book Online Page A

Fahrayan women every day. John had been celibate since his exile from Fahraya eighteen years earlier. He’d only ever been with Fahrayan women. Tall, fierce, beautiful. And—at least until they’d become human—without body hair.
    Which launched her into a whole new anxiety cycle. She was fifty years old. Fifty! She knew she was a young, vibrant fifty, but still. The last time she’d had sex, only women waxed away their body hair, and only on their legs and bikini lines. Now everybody waxed everything, sexual attractiveness apparently requiring skin as smooth and hairless as a baby’s bottom. And this would be what John considered normal, since the only hair Fahrayans used to have was on their scalps.
    The thought of waxing her nether regions gave Meaghan the heebie-jeebies.
    She snorted in disgust and picked up her wine glass. With everything else going on in her life—poltergeists and evil wizards and murky nefarious plots fueled by black magic—she was worried about pubic hair.
    Sex. As if the paranormal wasn’t bad enough, now she might have to deal with sex again, too. Life in Phoenix had been simpler. Stultifying, lonely, and despair-inducing, but simpler.
     

CHAPTER NINE
    M eaghan heard Marnie and Jhoro roll out of bed again, then the sound of the shower in the hall bath, along with boisterous laughing. Apparently the language barrier wasn’t a problem, but then, Meaghan supposed, based on what she’d seen and heard since she got home from work, they weren’t spending a lot of time talking.
    As she picked up the phone to order a pizza, she heard a car horn blare in the driveway. A few short blasts and then a long honk. Russ was finally home.
    “About goddamn time,” she muttered. She walked out to the driveway and saw an old, rusted delivery truck, one of the big square ones. She waited until he climbed out. “So, you’re really gonna do it.”
    “I sure am,” Russ said. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
    “She’s a piece of shit,” Meaghan said. “Where’s my dinner?”
    Russ waved his hand dismissively. “You have no imagination. Dinner’s on the way. Natalie’s bringing it.”
    “Natalie? Since when does Natalie do our cooking?”
    Russ walked around the truck, smiling and gently patting it. “Come here. Let me show you what I’m gonna do.” Meaghan’s question finally registered. “I pit-cooked some pigs out at John’s house for the Fahrayans. Natalie grabbed some ribs and a shoulder for us.”
    She felt a quiver down her spine when she heard John’s name, followed quickly by a flutter in her gut. “So . . . how’s he doing?”
    “Why do you want know?” Russ asked, smirking and waggling his eyebrows.
    Her face turned red. “Shut up.”
    Russ rolled his eyes, then gave her a wicked grin. “Meaghan’s got a crush on John,” he said in a sing-song tone. “John and Meaghan sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”
    Meaghan stared at her toes. Blushing furiously, she said, “Just answer the question. How is he?”
    “You talk to him all the time,” Russ said, eyes roaming lovingly over the rusted truck.
    “On the phone. I mean, how does he look?”
    “Ooh,” Russ said in falsetto. “He’s so dreamy.”
    “Russ, I’m right on the edge here. I haven’t had any dinner yet, remember?”
    Russ laughed. “He looks good. Healthy. His face isn’t as puffy as it used to be. He smiles more. A lot more, actually. I’ve never seen him this happy.” He tore his gaze away from the truck. “Feel better?”
    “What about the drinking? Is he sober?”
    Russ sighed heavily. “He appears to be. Why don’t you ask him?”
    “Do you know anything about his sponsor?”
    “No. It’s Alcoholics Anonymous . I don’t even know who his sponsor is.”
    “But you suspect, don’t you?” Meaghan asked.
    “Maybe. But it doesn’t matter because it’s none of our business. The sponsor gets to be anonymous too, you know.”
    “Nobody’s anonymous in Eldrich. Not if you’re clued in.