Page 147 of Something Handsome This Way Comes

Turn.

Milo spun away. Grievance caught his hand. The crowd separated into sweeping circles, coats and skirts and capes flaring beneath the jack-o’-lantern light. Nobody needed to know the dance. The music knew it for them. Magic whispered through Grievance’s muscles, suggesting each movement an instant before it came.

Forward.

Turn.

Catch.

Milo came flying back into his arms. He was laughing. Grievance laughed too.

They spun.

Separated.

Found each other again.

Around them, Pumpkin Hollow moved like one enormous living creature beneath a ceiling of orange fire. Grievance stopped thinking. He simply followed the pull of the magic woven into each drawn-out note.

Milo.

Especially Milo.

His mate’s curls bounced beneath his pointed hat. His cheeks were pink from dancing. His green eyes shone every time their gazes met. They must have looked ridiculous. Two fools grinning at one another like they had discovered love for the first time.

Perhaps Grievance had.

Perhaps he found it again every time Milo looked at him like that. Every time those green eyes softened just for him. Every time Milo reached for his hand without thinking, laughed against his shoulder, or said my mate like the words belonged together.

Perhaps that was what loving someone truly meant.

Not falling once, but falling over and over again, and never once wishing to be caught.

Another song began, and then another. By the end of the third, Milo was breathless as Grievance pulled him close, the witch’s hands coming to rest against his chest as Grievance wrapped both arms around his waist.

For a moment, they simply swayed beneath the floating lanterns while the rest of Pumpkin Hollow danced around them.

Then Milo rose onto his toes, his lips brushing Grievance’s ear.

“How about we get out of here?”

Grievance smiled, tightening his hold around his mate.

“I thought you’d never ask.”

CHAPTER NINE

milo

There was only one explanation for the feverish need coursing through Milo’s blood. One reason for the constant reminders all through the night. The way Grievance’s forearm bulged beneath his bands of gem-studded silver and gold. The way the emerald earring dangled, accenting his corded neck. The slope of his shoulders and the defined muscle there.

Milo tried all night to resist the urge and enjoy the festival. But after feeling those hands sliding over his body, leading them in a dance bursting with magic—he couldn’t deny it a second longer.

It was instinct.

It was need.

It was as though Milo were in heat. A biologically impossible function for him, but… who knew what parts of him had changed because of his Chimera? His mate, whose mark he wore proudly on his skin.