He stepped closer without seeming to notice he was doing it.He was so near I could see the faint stubble along his jaw, the little flecks of darker gray in his irises.
“You’ve been busy,” he said softly.
“Some of us were up all night saving Hickory Hollow,” I said.Then ruined the moment by taking a giant bite of donut.
He smiled and reached up, thumb brushing the corner of my mouth to swipe away a smear of chocolate.The touch sent a bolt of electricity down my spine.
“There,” he murmured.“You missed a little.”
My heart thudded unevenly.My hand went slack around the donut.“It took a couple tries,” I said again, voice a little breathless.“But the last one should work.”
“Then we’re one step closer to not getting eaten by whatever that thing in the shop was,” he said.His gaze dipped to my lips as if pulled.“And we can test it at the tree today.”
“Yeah,” I said, half-dazed.“That’s… what I was thinking, too.”
On some ridiculous impulse, I lifted what remained of the donut.“Want a bite?”
I expected a joke.Maybe a polite refusal.
Instead, Owen curled his fingers gently around my wrist and guided my hand toward his mouth, eyes never leaving mine as he took a slow bite from the same piece of donut.
Time hiccupped.
Warmth shot through me, sharp and startling.It was such a tiny thing—shared sugar between breaths—but it felt intimate enough to tilt the room.
“Owen—” I started.
He paused, close enough that his breath brushed my cheek.Questioning.Waiting.
Whatever I was about to say dissolved when he leaned in and kissed me.
His lips were warm and soft and the right amount of firm, tasting of coffee and chocolate and something that was him.The world narrowed to the press of his mouth, the slide of his hand to my waist, the way my knees wanted to liquefy on the spot.Preston had never kissed me like this—like I was something he’d wanted for a long time and was finally allowed to touch.
My fingers curled in the front of his shirt, holding on.For a second, there was no demon, no dead aunt, no gate.Just this.
When we finally broke apart, both slightly breathless, he was smiling.
“There,” he said.
My brain flailed.“What was that for?”
“You still had chocolate on your lips,” he said.“Thought I’d help you out with that.”
Heat flared in my face.“You’re ridiculous.”
“You taste like chocolate donut,” he added.
“So do you,” I blurted.“And you’ve… been waiting a long time to do that, haven’t you?”
“Years,” he said simply.
“So you weren’t lying when you said you liked me.”
“I never lie,” he said.“I’m like Superman that way.”
“Oh yeah?”I managed.“What other superpowers you got?”
His grin turned wicked.“Guess you’ll have to find out in time, won’t you?”
