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“Will it?” I raise a brow.
“If it doesn’t by morning, we can go visit some of the witches in my new coven. Try something else.” She shakes her head and frowns. “But I’m not pounding on anyone’s door in the middle of the night.”
“So…” I raise both brows. “What’s the plan for the rest of the night?”
“I’m exhausted. I just want to go to bed.” Her shoulders droop as if to emphasize her point.
A smile tugs at my lips. “Are you inviting me to sleep with you?”
She rolls her eyes. “Only because I have to. Let’s just go. My place isn’t far.”
I follow her as she trudges up the beach. And by follow, I mean quite closely. Because when I don’t keep up, the back of the invisible barrier smacks me, causing a flash around the entire thing. Ven keeps shooting me suspicious looks over her shoulder, but it’s not like I can help but be right in her space.
Before long she turns and heads away from the water. We travel between the row of buildings facing the beach, some houses and some businesses, until we hit a dirt road that meanders parallel to the shoreline. We turn right and walk along the road for a while. Headlights approach from ahead of us and we step to the side of the road, but the driver is going too fast, hits a puddle, and drenches us in mud and murky water.
“Ugh. What an asshole!” Ven growls. She looks down at her dress, which is now splattered in brown. “I just want this night to be over.”
I don’t need sleep like she does, but I’m not thrilled about the prospect of wearing mud the rest of the night. With a sigh, I follow as she continues on. We pass a couple more rows of houses, heading away from the beach, and then Ven turns down a driveway that leads into a grove of tropical trees. Nestled within is a tiny cottage, yellow with a Spanish tile roof.
I duck beneath a flowering vine with bright orange flowers that smell like honey and step onto the small front porch. Ven stops at the front door and turns around so quickly I nearly collide with her. We’re chest to chest, our torsos brushing. Her magic washes over me.
“It’s kind of messy,” she warns. “I wasn’t expecting company.”
“I’ll survive,” I say with a small smile. She’s incredibly disarming without even trying. The mud on the tip of her nose only amplifies that.
Ven nods and turns back to the door. A moment later she has it open (keyless entry with a shimmer of magic from her fingers) and steps inside. It’s pitch-black dark, so she takes my hand as we cross the room so I don’t trip on anything. Her, most of all. On the far side, she bends over and turns on a lamp, illuminating a small living room and kitchen. It’s sparsely furnished, without much by way of décor. Clearly not lived in long.
“I’d give you the grand tour, but this is it,” she says, waving her arms at the space around her.
Behind her are two doors, which presumably lead to the bedrooms. She proves me right when she turns the doorknob on the left and steps into her room. It’s tiny, as is her bed. A painting of a woman standing in a forest wearing a long green dress hangs over it. It’s the first thing I’ve seen in the cottage that seems like it might be Ven’s.
She turns to look at me, biting her lip. Her eyes travel down to her soaked dress. “I’m filthy. I really need to take a shower.”
My lips turn up in a smile. “No one’s stopping you.”
“This is not some subtle form of flirting,” she says sternly. “It’s purely practical. Do not try anything.”
I make a cross-my-heart gesture. “You’re really presumptuous, you know that?”
A roll of her eyes. “Maybe if you didn’t act so lecherous, I wouldn’t be.”
“I hardly think I’m lecherous.” I place a hand on my chest as if aghast. “That makes me sound like a dirty old man.”
“Whatever.”
She shrugs and walks into the bathroom, which is situated between the two bedrooms. It has a small glass shower stall with slate rock tiles. It’s actually pretty nice compared to the rest of the place. I follow her inside.
Ven leans into the stall and turns on the water. “It doesn’t get very hot,” she calls over her shoulder.
A moment later she straightens and shoots me a pointed look. When I don’t respond, she crosses her arms over her chest. “Turn around!”
“Are you serious?” Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. “You do know I’ve seen literally thousands of naked human beings in my life.”
“Well, you’re not going to see this one,” she snaps.
With a sigh, I turn around and face away from her. I’m standing as far from her as I can within our little invisible circle, so close to the perimeter that I can feel a buzz of magic pressing into me.
There’s a swish and then a flumph as she takes off her dress and drops it on the floor. I hear the soft fall of her feet as she steps into the shower, and the change in the percussion of the water as it hits her body.
