Assistant to the Villain (Assistant to the Villain, #1)

by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

She’d been called many disparaging things in her life. Alarmingly all beginning with the letter F. Flighty, foolish, forgetful, and, by a strange turn of events, she was finally able to add the final F. Fucked.

He’s a murderer! Her conscience rebelled, but the rest of her, the part that wasn’t attached to her very wise brain, found him far too pretty to care.

“Um, yes— The blood’s not great…but I was referring to the fact that you look like you were carved out of marble, and I just think that as a rule of thumb, inherently evil people should be grotesque-looking.”

“You just can’t kill people and be pretty. It’s confusing.” Evie began unwrapping the wool scarf her little sister, Lyssa, had given her on her last birthday, stepping closer to The Villain and holding it up like a signal of peace. “For the blood, Your Evilness.”

Shaking his head, a small dose of wonder in his eyes, he said, “You are chaos.”

“Normal” was for those who didn’t have the ability to stretch their minds past the unreachable end.

Women? Have legs? Alert the town crier!

“My first what, you little tornado?” “Your first joke.” He grunted and opened his mouth to speak, looking quite outraged, if she were being honest. “Of all the—” He paused to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Sage, do you honestly think me incapable of humor?” “Of course I don’t think that,” she said earnestly. “You hired me.”

“I’ll remind you that, at your bequest, I haven’t actually killed an intern in several months.” Evie shook her head hopelessly. “Sir, I hate to belittle your successes, but there are people who go their entire lives without killing anyone.” His face remained serious. “How dull.”

Don’t care more than you should, Evie. Sighing to herself, she headed for the stairs. Too late.

The Villain

Muahahha his pov

Sage gently scooped the frog into the palms of her hands and nuzzled him against her cheek. Naturally, Trystan began planning the amphibian’s demise at the sight.

He was a puddle on the floor, and every speck of dust in that room was his enemy.

“No. I have a condition where my tear ducts produce an excess of warm, salty water when I’m tired or in distress.”

“Fluffy? You looked at me and thought to yourself, He looks like a Fluffy?”

“What the fuck are you doing here, brother?”

hello

“You laughed.” “I know,” Trystan said, shaking his head, hoping to knock the building ache out of it. “You’re fucked.” Trystan shoved Malcolm into the doorway, hard, before walking through and calling out behind him, “Shut up.”

He met her smile with one of his own, a genuine one that looked nothing like the cocky grins he’d shown her thus far. Pointing a finger lightly in her direction but looking at Trystan, he said, “I quite like her.”

“I didn’t want to put the bottoms of my shoes on your desk. I thought that would be rude,” she explained sensibly. “Yes, one must observe the proper etiquette when standing on other people’s furniture.”

“Is that a bald spot?” Evie asked innocently, tilting her head to the side and rubbing her chin as she sat upright. “What?” he barked, looking so panicked that Evie didn’t have the heart to keep up the jest.

Girls going to give him gray hairs

fingers. “She gave me this when we first met. I keep it close because, despite myself, I miss her.”

Always saying the wrong thing, her mind and thoughts not built for polite company. It caused Evie such pinched worry with every interaction that she’d eventually stopped trying, had stopped living.

Trystan spared a glance at Kingsley. The frog ribbited as he held up a sign that simply read: Blockhead.

heat was relentless now, the moisture so strong, a drop of water was sliding down his cheek. He furiously swiped it away and looked at the wetness on his hand with disgust.

Evie clme back

Trystan’s distress only kept growing when he looked over to Kingsley, who was holding up a sign from across the room that said, Speak.

“Dispense with the dramatics. It’s not as if I told you I have a night-light.”

Awwww

it were up to The Villain, you probably wouldn’t even have a job.” “So true, Jayne. So true.” Evie nodded sagely,

Little does she know…

twinkling color. Twinkling? He’d been spending too much time with Sage.

Only because it looked nicer that way; it had nothing to do with the sun hitting it at just the right angle, causing sparks of light to glint in Sage’s long black hair. He just liked the chair there.

He resisted a deep sigh as his assistant sat down and the sun fell over her cheeks. It was just a good spot for the chair.

“It’s huge!” Evie gasped. Blade turned to her then, a sly smile on his lips. “If I had a gold piece for every time—” A loud smack wrenched through the air, and Blade winced and clutched the back of his head. The Villain didn’t even look in Blade’s direction as he brought his hand back to his side.

Hehehehe

When it comes to the thing one loves most, Trystan thought before running out in the open toward the grate, the sounds of Sage’s screaming protests behind him, it is always better to be trapped together than free and apart.

But he came immediately after everyone left. He baked a cake.” “He baked?” “I know. But he was always fond of it. Edwin used to teach him how.” Tatianna chuckled.

handsome blond man kissing Becky’s hand and looking very appreciatively at her figure. “I’ll be right back,” he growled before stalking toward the two of them.

I love Blade

“My name is Arthur Maverine. I believe you work for my son, Trystan. I am the core healer.”

HELLO

“Would you like to dance?” Her eyes widened even more, but a small smile graced the red bow of her lips. “With whom?” She looked around theatrically. Trystan smirked, because in all truth, she was very funny. “With me.”

“Are you okay?” she yelled down, trying not to flinch when she felt the freshly healed wounds on her hands reopen in a couple of places. “Fantastic. I think I’ll have a picnic while I’m down here,” he called back with his normal dryness. Oh yes, he was fine.

Women’s tears scared men, but the functions of the female body clearly sent them into apoplectic fits.

She watched him blink twice before his eyes widened. It was the last thing she saw before she settled her lips onto his.

Thank you for this

If it’s just a dream anyway… He sat up quickly, arms whipping around her, fingers pulling lightly through the soft locks of her hair. He tugged gently, nearly groaning when a gasp escaped her lips, and angled her head so he could taste her fully.

oh king…… you don’t know…

In a devastating moment, her lips pulled from his just an inch before the Dream Evie whispered, “Sir, they think—” “Shhhh,” he whispered, pulling her in for one more slow touch of their lips. She resisted for a moment before settling once more against his mouth and gripping his cheeks in her hands.

“You meant her harm,” Trystan bit out, his power surging around him. “And that is enough for me.”

Evangelina Celia Sage was woven into his being; in the blink of his eyes, in the crinkle of his smile, in his rusty unused laughter, she was there. From the moment he’d met her, he thought of her like the sun. Bright and vibrant, untouchable.

But he was wrong. She wasn’t light; she was color. Every single one, dancing otherworldly and bright over his unworthy eyes. She was the explosion of the vivid gleams and glows of the world around him, like a constant rainbow, shining not after the rain but during.

She was everything he never deserved but longed for anyway.

Aw

“That was a joke?” Trystan was doing his best to appreciate humor in others rather than rail against it. “Yes, sir.” Blade smirked, walking up the stairs beside him. “Very good.” “Thank you?” Blade asked hesitantly.

Very good made me giggle

he’d used the gold, because unbeknownst to the public, its main purpose was protection.

But there was Kingsley at his feet, holding a sign: Father. And suddenly it whooshed through him like a wave. The horror.

NOOOO

“It wasn’t as dramatic as all that, Evangelina.” Her father waved his hand, disgusted. “He came to me and offered to give me a little extra money in exchange for a few nights a week of your company.”

Oh my god.