I threw a loose shawl over my shoulders in hopes that it would maybe detract from the girls that filled the top of my dress out a little too much. If that was a thing.
According to how Dom’s eyes were still stuck on me, it must have been.
I narrowed my eyes in the reflection, catching his gaze, which he quickly removed. I smirked. “See something you like, or is your jaw having a problem keeping itself closed?”
“I never knew you had such a wide array of tea party dresses in your wardrobe,” commented Dom, biting the inside of his cheek.
I’d had a vintage phase. That included a few bright crinoline numbers and other more ditsy florals that I couldn’t bring myself to get rid of even if I only broke them out for special occasions. Like the more than appropriate occasion of Lu, my sister, graduating college after a long four years.
It felt like she’d been in the coven alongside the rest of us for a decade, but in all reality, she was going to probably outlast us for even more now that she was staying in the gloomy small town of Barnett permanently.
Dom brought his one foot back down to the floor before standing up from the couch. It was previously balanced on his knee, unable to cross over from the slim fit of his dark-wash jeans. They looked like the ones I’d met him in, but without the rips. When he lounged back against my tiny couch, which he hadn’t been sleeping on for almost a week now, the jeans showed more his shapely legs, kept in shape by his morning runs—even if not as much as his oddly revealing sweatpants did. Those suckers huggedeverything.
When he stood, though less of a shocking view, they rounded his ass just the same. Perfectly. Biting my lip, I took a quick look as he brushed himself off. Reaching for my lip gloss, I quickly reapplied over the teeth marks that had wiped my last coat away.
He wasn’t the only one who was having trouble not staring, though I wasn’t stupid enough to let him catch me.
“And I didn’t know you had such an extensive collection of work-casual outfits that tagged along with you,” I remarked.
When he lifted his face back up, he put his hands out to either side. “How do I look?”
At the invitation, I took another moment. Starting at the top of his combed head and going all the way down toward his boots, my eyes took their time to scan. I met his dark eyes, squinting, as if he was now keeping a clock on my assessment.
He cleaned up nice. More than nice.
“You’ll do.”
There was another long moment of silence between us. I adjusted my shawl around my shoulders one more time. The weather was turning warmer. Then, I took a step toward the door.
“Let’s go. We’re going to be late. And that’s all I need,” I said.
.Besides being squished between a hundred other people, who would be craning their necks to see their special someone walk across a stage in kitten heels and garbage bag–size gown and frilly hats, I was also already dreading having the introduction between everyone and Dom. Because where I went now, so did he. Which meant that my coven was finally about to meet the man who …
Ruined you?
I blinked at the intrusive voice in my head. I hadn’t heard something like that in a while. A challenge. Usually when that happened, it was a pleasant quip or intuition that I would think was an internal message from wisps of magic tucking them inside my brain or the goddess herself.
Goddess or not, today, I pushed it away. That was incorrect, and I wouldn’t hear it. No one had ruined me.
Who broke your heart.The little voice inside me corrected.
I never wanted to say that before either, yet right now, it felt more accurate than the former. My heart, however, wasn’t broken anymore. I wasn’t broken. I had stitched myself back together with my own hands one day after another, and I wasn’t going to let anyone take that strength from me. I also wasn’t about to let it happen again, no matter what anyone thought.
I was stronger than to let Dom yank me under his own sort of enchantment. I wasn’t his. I was mine.
I am mine.
I kept reminding myself as I stuck my hip out and waved him on behind me. “Coming? All you need is to be late in meeting the ladies. Not exactly the impression I think you want to give.”
“You should’ve told me before I started the last extra sheet for work.”
I shrugged. He had looked far too invested in his job this morning. I hadn’t wanted to interrupt. “We’ll be fine as long as we speed-walk.”
“We’ll just drive.”
“It’s literally right across the bridge and up the hill onto campus.”
“I thought you didn’t want to be late.” He raised his eyebrows.
