She snuggles in closer, another sigh escaping.
“I know, I know.” I laugh, my breath stirring the frizzy hair on top of her head. “It sounds like something that belongs on a motivational poster.”
“On a coffee mug, at the very least,” she agrees.
“Fine, a coffee mug. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Before I met you, I just… I let myself forget it. I was so wrapped up in the curse, in my rage over what Verrick did to us, in all the dark and dirty shit we had to do to survive in this city…Goddess, West. I truly forgot the simple pleasure of lounging in a hammock in the orchard and sketching the pattern of the leaves in the moonlight. I forgot the feel of bread dough between my fingers and the satisfaction of eating a meal I put together with my own hands. I forgot the indescribable happiness that fills me up when someone I care about eats a dish I cooked for them. I forgot how much I love photographing beautiful people and animals and plants. I forgot how much I love drawing. Hell, I was so caught up in death, I forgot how much I truly love… life. The best and worst parts of it. The boring parts, the excitement, the craziness, just… all of it.”
She pulls back and blinks up at me, her face earnest. “How did you find your way back to it?”
Brushing away her tears with my thumbs, I shrug and give her the most honest answer I’ve got.
The only answer that even matters.
“I fell in love with you. And then it just unlocked everything else. I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like… like you brought life back from the dead for me—showed me all the colors when I’d been drowning in a sea of gray.”
Her eyes glaze with some new emotion, vast and deep and more beautiful than anything I’ve ever painted or drawn or photographed.
“It’s true,” I say. “So whether this life is mine for another fifty years or fifty minutes, I’m grateful for it, and I’m not going to waste any more time being angry about what already happened or worrying about what may or may not come. Because I’ve got you. I’ve gotyou, my witchling, and I’ve got my brothers, and we have this beautiful home and an orchard full of apples and a fire crackling in the hearth and that’s… Well, it’s enough. It’s everything.”
And finally—finally—my witchling smiles. She sets down her latte, then stretches up on her toes and loops her arms around my neck. “I fell in love with you too, you know.”
“Oh yeah?” I can’t help the answering grin that spreads across my face. Nudging her nose with mine, I say, “When, exactly?”
“If you really want to know… It was the waffles that did it.”
I crack up. “She mocks me, ladies and gents. I confess my undying love, and the woman mocks me. Have you no shame?”
“Are you kidding me right now? I wouldnevermock you about something as sacred as home-made vegan waffles with apple-cinnamon compote. Seriously, Augs. You won me over with those bad boys.”
“I should’ve known food was the way to your heart the minute you started lecturing me in my own kitchen.”
“Organicfood,” she clarifies.
“Obviously.”
She leans up to press a soft kiss to my lips, then says, “So now that we’ve got our origin story down, what happens next? Goddess, I really,reallyhope night breakfast is on the menu, because I’m starving.”
“Night breakfast can certainly be arranged, but if it were up to me…” Flashing a devious grin, I lift her onto the countertop and settle myself between her knees, my hands trailing up her thighs, thumbs brushing the tops of her knee socks. “I’d suggest we start with an appetizer. Maybe something sweet, like…”
I kiss the corner of her mouth, lingering just a heartbeat before moving to the other corner.
She smiles into my kiss, but I’m just getting started.
“After that,” I say, “I might move on to something with a little more…biteto it.” I kiss my way down her throat, grazing her skin with my fangs, drawing a shuddering gasp from her lips.
My claws trail across her collarbone, then down to her flannel, slowly unbuttoning it to reveal her perky, braless breasts.
“The next course should be a bit richer,” I whisper, “in an effort to satisfy the sophisticated palate of the most discerning of connoisseurs.” I brush my thumbs across her nipples, then lower my mouth to one of the dusky peeks. I flick it with my tongue before closing my lips around it and sucking hard, moaning against her skin as she arches into me.
“That’s… oh,goddess,” she breathes. “You’re… That’s perfect. Right there… Just like…Wait… The guys? Are they—”
“Out. For a little while longer, at least.” I return to her nipple, savoring it for another minute before slowly kissing my way back to her ear. “Draegan had to run down to JFK to deal with some imports he ordered. Jude and Rook went to Kingston for groceries.”
“So I’ve got you to myself?”
“For now.”
“In that case…” A grin as wide as the Hudson splits her face. “In keeping with our theme of making the most of every moment, we should probably get to it.”
