Mal glanced at Cece and then at Briggs. “Sleeping with her is a bad idea. Not just because she’s a client, but -”
“I know,” Briggs said. “I won’t sleep with her.”
“One of us can stay here tonight with you, help keep Cece from…”
When Mal trailed off, Ronin grinned. “Keep her from going all queen of the jungle and tying Briggs to the bed with plants so she can boost her magic with polar bear shifter peen?”
Briggs growled at him again, and Ronin laughed as Mal shrugged. “Basically, yeah.”
“I can handle it,” Briggs said.
“Are you sure?” Mal asked.
“Yes,” he said, even though he had no fucking idea if he could or not.
But it wasn’t just looking like he was failing at the job that had him refusing Mal’s offer. He didn’t want any of the others around Cece. They were all in committed relationships, but it wasn’t enough to stop him or his polar bear from trying to keep other males away from her.
He swallowed hard. That was mate behaviour, and while he expected it from his polar bear, who was convinced Cece was their mate, the fact that he felt the same urge was more than a little alarming. Cece only wanted him because of the magic boost, and he couldn’t forget that.
“We need to find some boards for that window,” Hudson said.
Ronin rubbed his hands together briskly. “It’s not gonna make a difference with how cold it is in here. Christ, she wasn’t kidding when she said it was cold at her place.”
“Her furnace is a piece of shit,” Briggs said.
“Do me a favour and don’t assign me to watch the tiny tree witch when the big guy needs a break,” Ronin said to Bishop. “I’m too delicate for this kind of cold.”
Bishop just rolled his eyes as Hudson said, “Do you think she has something we can board up the window with?”
They all turned to Cece, who had stopped muttering but was still pacing. She studied the broken window before crossing the room to stand in front of it. She held her hands out, the green shimmer surrounding them turned to a bright glow, and she chanted an incantation repeatedly in a low murmur. The broken shards of glass at her feet rose into the air before floating to the window. They began to knit themselves back together, each piece looking for its proper place as Cece continued to chant.
“Holy shit,” Hudson muttered.
It took nearly five minutes for Cece to mend the window, and when she was done, the green shimmery glow around her had completely faded. She turned around, and relief washed over Briggs. Her dark eyes had returned to normal, and the angry, jittery energy was gone, leaving just his usual sweet Cece behind.
“Did you see that?” She gave him an excited look. “I did a restoration spell - and it was a really hard one! The glass pieces were so small and nearly impossible to fit back together, but I did it. The window’s perfect again.”
“I saw, Cece,” he said.
“I can’t believe I did that. I’ve never been able to do any spell stronger than a plant healing one before. Even though this one drained my magic, it still didn’t feel that hard to do and…”
Her voice trailed off as she studied the others in the living room. “Ronin?”
“Hey, tiny tree witch,” he said.
“What are you doing here?”
Ronin glanced at the others. “You don’t remember?”
Briggs started toward her as Cece stared at her hands. “I remember being in bed with Bri - oh shit.”
She stared wide-eyed at him, and he could almost see the memories slotting neatly into her brain. Her bottom lip trembling, she looked at the others, and her cheeks turned bright red before she whispered, “Briggs, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he said.
“It isn’t,” she said. “I shouldn’t have… my magic took control and I… oh, God.”
She buried her hands in her face, her entire body shaking. Briggs wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and comfort her, but they all knew how the fuck that would turn out.
