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Kate Stone shivered from the early November cold as she watched her non-magic client drive away before she flashed inside her blacksmith shop. The Stone Forge was her pride and joy, something that would never let her down. Unlike a man.
Isaac had asked her to come over tonight. Her body didn’t have a problem with it because he could bring it to life like matches to dry kindling. It was her brain and her heart that were putting up some resistance.
If she could just convince Isaac to fuck her and nothing else, then she’d be good. For her, it had been lust at first sight. He was tall with a lean musculature, a handsome face, and although his arms had been covered, she’d soon learned he had tattoos. Win, win, win, in her book.
Part of the attraction could have been that Isaac Hull not only had tattoos, he also inked them on others. He was magic like her, as were all her friends and family, but he had a rare magic ability. Isaac could sense emotions when he touched people, and it allowed him to embed magical properties into the tattoos he inked. Not only was his specialty similar to hers, they were also both artists—and while she worked with metal, he worked with ink—making him even more irresistible.
When he first came to Blue Mountain, Colorado, the city she claimed as home, their arrangement was only supposed to be temporary. She could fuck him and move on when he left. Then Isaac decided to stay.
Since the chemistry between them had been off-the-charts they were both willing to indulge. And often. Living in the same city became a problem when they started to see each other all the time. As time went on Isaac wanted more than just sex—the exact thing she’d been hoping to avoid.
Tonight, he was going to cook her dinner. Or maybe conjure dinner—same thing. That would lead to conversation while they ate and getting to know each other better. From there, it would progress to sleepovers. Kate wasn’t one to turn her nose up at morning sex—it was the cozy breakfast that followed because that could lead to him thinking they were a couple. As soon as that happened he would want more from her, or want her to change and that’s when she’d get hurt.
Isaac was already starting to make her want more. He made her feel special, and at odd times of the day, she often wondered what he was doing. If she should pop into his shop to see how he was doing.
It was a dangerous path to go down. Maybe it had been too long since she’d given herself a reminder why. But she had a simple remedy for that.
She walked over to the small desk off to the side of her workbench and pulled out the letter-size envelope tucked into the drawer. Using her magic, she got rid of the dust, opened the flap, and dumped the contents onto the desk.
As the years passed, the pain brought on by seeing each item lessened. It was seeing them all together that hurt so much—a reminder that she had been burnt more than once and if she didn’t remember that, it could happen again.
As she did every time, Kate picked up the ribbon first. She let the green silk slide through her fingers and remembered how excited she’d been when the hair stylist had weaved it into her up-do. She and her friends had been talking about prom their entire senior year, and Kate’s dress and hair ribbon had hung on her closet door for months in anticipation.
Brandon had been a friend of her brother’s in college. When he’d asked to take her to prom a few days before the dance, she’d been over the moon.
The euphoria had lasted right up until the moment Brandon left her to dance with her friend Sonya. After his third dance with Sonya, they stopped for a drink and Brandon confessed to his real reason for asking Kate to the prom. He had been infatuated with Sonya ever since he’d seen her when he had been at the house with Damon. All he’d needed was a way to meet her that would seem casual and friendly. Kate was that way.
Kate put the ribbon back in the envelope and picked up one of the pieces of the credit card she had cut up. Holding it in her fist, she closed her eyes and pictured Justin, who had been her boyfriend for six months. She had been so sure she was in love with him. Right up until the day he stood in front of her and said the betting had just gotten a bit out of hand, and he had been so sure the last one was going to make him rich. It wasn’t his fault that someone gave him bad advice.
If Kate had truly loved him, a measly twenty-thousand dollars should have been nothing, he’d said. He had needed a fast way to get cash to pay off his loan shark, or the guy’s enforcers would have hurt him. Kate should understand, he’d said, since one of the only things magic people couldn’t conjure was dollar bills due to them being counterfeit. Justin accused her of being a cold-hearted bitch—saying that all she cared about was the debt he’d racked up on her credit cards, and not him.
Kate picked up the credit card pieces one at a time and put them back in the envelope. Then she picked up the last reminder—a drawing of a sword—and put it in the envelope with the ribbon and credit card pieces. She didn’t need to relive what had happened with the drawing because the pain and humiliation Ethan had caused was always with her.
Love and trust had shown her that they were nothing more than a myth. “Nope, never again. Sex or nothing,” she muttered, the motto she’d adopted five years ago.
After putting the envelope back in the desk, she looked at the clock on the wall. Still over an hour before she had to be at Isaac’s. With her motto fresh in her mind, she’d be able to keep it to only sex.
Maybe if she went now, he wouldn’t be ready for dinner, and they could just have sex. Then she’d be sated and could leave.
Liking her plan, she used her magic to lock her shop and put a small protection spell. If Maverick really wanted to get into her shop, the spell wouldn’t stop him but it might deter one of his minions. She didn’t know how much evil magic Maverick possessed, but just knowing he currently used it to terrorize all magics made her be extra careful.
With one final glance at her shop, she flashed to Isaac’s apartment.
Kate always went to his place, even though she loved her two-story Craftsman-style house sitting on the same two acres where she’d built her workshop. Coming to Isaac’s meant she could leave whenever she wanted. Just like she would today.
Kate touched down in the hallway outside Isaac’s door. Not bothering to knock, she entered his apartment. She didn’t see or hear Isaac in the bright and airy open concept.
As she walked down the hallway toward the bedrooms, she listened for where he might be, although the place was only two bedrooms.
When she heard the shower running, her excitement amped up. Slowing her pace, she used her magic to rid her body of her clothes because they would only get in the way. Knowing she wouldn’t need them later, she magically sent them home. Her hair-tie was gone too, her red hair flowing down her back and hitting just above her ass.
Now completely naked, she stepped into Isaac’s bedroom. The door to his bathroom was wide open. Leaning against the doorframe she took in the sight of water sluicing down over six feet two inches of tattooed lean muscle. Isaac had almost two full sleeves—his arms were both covered in black and gray designs. Kate loved watching Isaac’s muscles ripple under the ink whenever he gripped her hips and thrust into her.
When Isaac reached for the shampoo on the shower stall’s shelf, he turned enough to give Kate a glimpse of the owl inked on his chest. She’d enjoyed licking every inch of that piece of art. More than once.
Never before had she been as attracted to a man as she was to Isaac. Even Ethan hadn’t been the visual delight that Isaac was. Just watching him had her wet and ready for him. That’s why she had to remember her motto and guard her heart.
