Oops.
Avery went to smooth it over but before she could, Callum stood up suddenly, burying his face in his hands. “I am so sorry, I completely misread the situation.”
Felix purred even louder as a little bit of blood fell from Callum’s nose.
Callum looked around, embarrassment flooding his face. “I should go. I’m sorry.”
He started to turn around, then stopped. “Oh, my jacket?” he said, before turning around with an open palm.
Avery raised her eyebrows at him and shrugged off his jacket as if she were shaking off a bug. And with that, the clueless oaf did a ding-dong ditch and left Avery gaping and shaking her head as she watched him walk away.
Once he was out of sight, Felix shifted to his human form. A shit-eating grin plastered onto his face.
“Don’t even fucking start, Felix,” she said.
Twenty-Four
Avery
He lefther in the woods alone at night. Without his jacket!Fucking nice guy, my ass.
Who did that? Evenifshe rejected him, he should have at least had the decency to walk her out of the goddamn woods. She supposed she had slapped him, though.
AndfuckingFelix, filling her with rage enough that she did slap him. Cat stew sounded fucking wonderful right now. She couldn’t blame it all on him though, she still didn’t hold back. Maybe deep down she did want to slap him. She felt bad until he asked for his jacket back. Rejection always showed the true color of men, even if it came in the form of a slap.
Somehow, she wasn’t surprised. After all, you can’t spell disappointment without men.
Avery swiveled on the bench, the alcohol making everything blurrier than it should be, and took stock of her surroundings. She was in the southern woods; that much was obvious. Towering pines crowded her rather than the grand oaks of the northern woods. Their tall canopies swayed against the clear night sky, the moon illuminating the trawling fog in silver.
“Are you okay?” Felix asked, wrapping her in a shadow sweater. Her breath caught in her throat as the new piercing vibrated at the contact, like it was beckoning the other shadows forward.
That was the last thing she expected from him. His grin had dropped, brows furrowing with concern. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that.” It was a simple sentence. But it showed far more care than Callum did. Even with all the pretty words from before. They meant nothing when he left a girl alone in the woods. Never mind that she went out there on her own volition and was perfectly fine. It was the principle, dammit.
She sighed, rubbing her arms to warm them. “It’s fine, it wasn’t the first time.”
“Give me names, baby,” he said, a lethal edge creeping into his tone.
“Did you just call me baby?”
Felix cleared his throat. “Must have been the wind.”
She was drunk. But she wasn’t that drunk. She ignored him and most definitely ignored the fluttering in her stomach at the pet name. Why hadn’t Callum had that effect on her? He was everything she should want. Handsome, stable,boring.He would give her everything her mother wanted for her in life, everything that mattered to a witch: power, stability, children. Was it strange to want none of that? To want to experience life before it becomes predictable?
Felix crossed his arms, and her traitorous brain seemed to have migrated between her legs. The moon illuminated the defined veins popping out of his arms—thanks moon, she was definitely a girl’s girl.
She could woman up and admit she wanted him to fuck her. Maybe it was the alcohol talking, but alcohol had a way of bringing up one’s deepest desires. And drunk Avery got whatsober Avery wanted. If he was poison, so be it; she was going to drown in it.
But before she could decide to make a move, something else caught her eye. Fishing out her phone from her purse, Avery turned on the flashlight and scanned the iron gate. Ivy grew around its wrought iron poles, covering most of the surface. The only thing really visible was a keyhole.
“Holy shit,” she gasped. “Felix, come here.”
In an instant, he was behind her. He could have taken a step to the side, instead the cold of her back was suddenly warm, his body not touching, but inches away. Avery tried to ignore it, but the scent of him was overwhelming. She really showed an amazing amount of restraint, and someone other than drunk Avery should acknowledge that.
“What is it?”
The damn rumble of his deep voice wasn’t helping. She wondered what it would feel like against her pussy.
Dammit, focus, Avery, she told herself as she eyed the gate.
