Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I’d been ambushed.
My cold, abstinent ex-girlfriend had lost her temper after our breakup and dragged me back to Fox Hollow.
Her nine fluffy tails brushed against me shamelessly, as if they were free. “Are you sick of me yet?”
God help me. Who knew this woman was secretly a fox spirit?
I’d dated the campus It-Girl for six months, and I was tired of it.
The reason was simple: she was too proper, too serious, too cold and restrained. Every time I touched her, I felt as though I were being forced to save the souls of the entire world.
Whenever I tried to hold her hand in public, she pulled away. “People are watching.”
Whenever I asked for a hug, she refused. “That’s inappropriate.”
As for kissing? That was completely out of the question. Her expression would darken instantly.
“Shameless.”
So for however long I dated Evelyn Blackwood, I spent that entire time living like a married man in a loveless marriage.
Finally, after who knew how many times she had refused my requests for a kiss or a hug, I snapped and broke up with her.
“You shouldn’t date anyone ever again. Go spend the rest of your life contemplating existence with that Buddhist Wooden Fish of yours!”
Evelyn frowned at me. “What Wooden Fish? That’s something monks use.”
“Exactly. It’ll finally be put to good use! It suits you perfectly. You’re no fun!”
With that, I stormed out.
Evelyn had already gone back to working on her Academic Thesis, completely unfazed.
I slammed the door behind me, but she didn’t react at all.
It was always like this.
Evelyn never comforted me. Whether I was genuinely angry or merely throwing a fit, she usually just waited for me to cool down and come back on my own.
Sometimes I wondered whether she had only agreed to date me because she was tired of me pestering her.
And yet she remembered every one of my preferences, quietly and carefully arranging everything for me.
It was enough to drive a person crazy.
I called my best friend.
“I broke up with her. I’m going out tonight!”
“You dumped her? Ethan Bennett, you really are an ungrateful bastard.”
The foam from my friend’s beer nearly sprayed across my face. He glared at me. “Come on. Evelyn Blackwood? She set the Campus Confession Board on fire the moment she arrived freshman year. Top grades, every scholarship available, and not a single questionable habit. And you dumped her?”
I nodded, scowling. “So what if she’s beautiful? So what if she gets perfect grades? If I can’t even touch her, why should I care what she’s like?”
“Evelyn’s practically clueless about relationships. Isn’t it normal for her not to know what she’s doing?”
Normal, my ass.
She simply had no interest in learning.
She wouldn’t let me hold her hand. She barely tolerated a hug. And she was always looking at me as if I were some entirely different species.
“But Ethan,” my best friend said after taking a drink, “are you really okay with this? You chased her for so long. Everyone knows about the two of you now, and after only six months, it’s over.”
Chapter 2
“Is dragging it out supposed to be better?”
I lowered my eyes, a sour feeling settling in my chest. “Honestly, I don’t think she ever liked me. Look at what happened. I told her we were done, and she hasn’t called me once…”
“Bzzzt, bzzzt, bzzzt—”
My phone rang.
It was Evelyn.
My best friend gave me a wicked grin. “See? A lovers’ quarrel. You’ll make up before the night’s over.”
For once, heat rose to my face. I answered, but before I could say a word, Evelyn’s voice came through the phone, perfectly clear.
“You still haven’t washed the clothes you left last night. Come back and get them. And that pile of sneakers is taking up too much space, so you—”
“I don’t want them!”
I grabbed the phone and shouted, “Evelyn, throw everything out! I don’t want you anymore either. I’m sick of you!”
Then I hung up.
Evelyn really didn’t care about me.
My best friend was silent for a moment before pouring me another drink. Then he cursed under his breath. “Damn woman.”
I blocked Evelyn and deleted every way of contacting her. Then I turned around and disappeared into the dance floor.
The bar was all colored lights and loud music, and the alcohol made my emotions swell with the atmosphere.
I wasn’t bad-looking.
Actually, I was well-known on the Campus Confession Board.
So it didn’t take long before I was dancing cheek to cheek with a girl.
“You here alone?” she asked with a smile.
“My friend is over there,” I said.
But my gaze suddenly slipped past her.
I saw someone standing across the room.
That person… why did she look so much like Evelyn?
“Come with me.”
So this was Evelyn.
Only now, her face was dark with anger. Wearing a white blouse that looked completely out of place, she shoved the girl aside and seized my wrist.
I tore myself free. “Don’t touch me.”
“Ethan Bennett, you say I’m boring, but you seem to have plenty of energy for coming to a place like this?”
“Yeah. They let me kiss them, and you don’t.”
Evelyn’s expression grew even darker.
“Kissing them gives you energy?” she asked.
“Not enough.” Alcohol had given me courage, and my mouth moved faster than my brain. “I need hugs, too. I want to hold them any way I feel like.”
If I’d known I would pay for those words later, I would have said them even sooner.
Because the next second, Evelyn hoisted me over her shoulder.
“What the hell—”
In full view of everyone, I was carried out of the bar by a woman.
Just before I inexplicably passed out, I heard her snarl a threat.
“Just you wait.”
…
When I woke, I nearly thought I’d traveled through time.
Chapter 3
The room was filled with old-fashioned decorations. Lotus lamps glowed along the stone walls, casting dim light over the quiet space.
A large wooden bed stood beneath red curtains embroidered with lotuses. The Stone Sanctuary was empty.
My hand found my cell phone beside the pillow. There was no signal.
I pulled the covers around myself and called Evelyn’s name.
She answered.
Her voice was lazy, drawn out, and unhurried. The next moment, she sat down beside me.
“Ethan.”
I jolted.
Behind Evelyn, I saw nine soft, luxurious fox tails.
She narrowed her eyes and leaned toward me. One of her Fox Ears brushed against my hair.
“Have you got your energy back?”
“What?”
She gave me no time to react. Catching both my hands, she pinned them above my head.
I lay flat on the bed, surrounded by her nine tails.
Their softness brushed against the exposed skin beneath my clothes, stirring a strange sensation in me.
I tried to retreat, but there was nowhere to go.
Evelyn seemed like a completely different person. She lowered her head and inhaled lightly at my shoulder.
Her breathing was shallow.
So shallow that it made my heart pound.
“Evelyn…”
“Hmm?”
The languid fox lifted her eyes.
Then she smiled, her fingertips sliding through my long hair.
“Ethan, are you tired of me yet?”
The Stone Sanctuary had no windows.
A lotus-shaped lamp flickered, its wavering glow playing across Evelyn Blackwood’s breathtaking face. A pair of fox ears rose from her hair, but they didn’t make her look the least bit cute. If anything, they gave her an intoxicating, otherworldly allure.
For a moment, I couldn’t speak. I could only swallow.
God help me.
“Why so quiet now?”
She murmured beside my ear, a faint tremor in her voice. “I remember what you said at the bar. You said kissing alone wasn’t enough.”
“You wanted to hold me too. Wherever you felt like holding me.”
“And if touching still didn’t satisfy you, wouldn’t you want to—”
“Evelyn!”
I caught her wandering fingertips, more nervous than I had ever been in my life. “You’ve changed. You weren’t like this yesterday!”
“Oh?” She looked at me with perfect innocence. “What was I like?”
“Yesterday, you were practically a monk. Today, you’re a temptress—a fox spirit!”
She had gone from an untouchable saint who treated every kiss and embrace like a mortal sin to a Nine-Tailed Fox Spirit who looked ready to devour me if I stared for even a second too long.
Faint Spirit Markings appeared on Evelyn’s forehead, red and mesmerizing.
Her gaze grew darker as she watched me. Then she said calmly, “You know I’m a fox spirit, yet you still dare speak to me that way?”
She wore a snow-white nightgown. The fabric was thin enough to offer tantalizing glimpses of what lay beneath.
I tried to retreat, but I couldn’t move.
“Ethan Bennett.” Her eyes darkened further. “So now, you—”
“Get away from me!”
Silence fell in an instant.