AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I tell him about Byron and the anti-hexing.
His face creases into a frown.
“Yeah, yeah, I know it’s bullshit,” I say with a sigh, starting to half-heartedly clean up the kitchen island with a sponge. “I think it’s just…I need a distraction, and there’s no denying Josie is entertaining.”
“The sponges for cleaning are under the sink,” he says.
“Of course they are. They’re next to impossible to reach down there.”
“Sit down, Mira,” he says, reaching over and touching my shoulder. His hand is so big, it easily wraps around it, and a hot and cold shiver passes through me. “I said I’d do it.”
I reach up and touch his hand, layering mine over it. “Thank you for my leaf.”
He looks into my eyes, and I’m swept away by his intense regard. “I’d like to take you up where I found it.”
It echoes what I was thinking earlier—that I want to see the changing trees through his eyes and find the beauty I’ve been missing.
“I’d like that,” I admit, my fingers moving over his because even now I can’t be still. I want his hand to move too—to trace down my arm and pull me to him. To reach under my shirt, the way it did last night, his skin warm and hot against mine. But I already know he won’t. Not unless I ask him to. I set a boundary, and he’s made it clear that he respects that.
He respectsme.
So I sit in one of the chairs at the counter and watch him take out the sponge and efficiently clean the kitchen island. It’s the kind of thing that probably shouldn’t be sexy, but he does it so efficiently, with such authority, that I feel myself leaning closer, wanting a better view.
He retrieves the broom from the closet where I didn’t know it was kept and starts to sweep.
“Isn’t your wrist still bothering you?”
He shrugs. “It felt mostly okay when I woke up this morning. I took a couple of Advil.”
“Good. You know, you’re like a sexy Cinderella.”
His smile is so subtle most people would miss it, but I’m getting used to catching his smiles.
“Please never say that to any of my friends. I’d never hear the end of it. They already give me shit about the pumpkin spice thing.”
“I make no promises.”
His expression loses some of its humor and he sits at the chair across from me. “I’ve been trying to come up with a way to say this that won’t piss you off, but I’m coming up empty. So I’m just going to stay it. I don’t like the thought of you going to see Byron and Josie by yourself. Will you bring someone?”
“You really think they’re dangerous?” I scoff.
“They believe they hexed you,” he points out dryly. “That speaks of ill intentions. I’d feel better if you went with someone. If you want…I’ll go with you.”
Something catches in my throat, because we both know that’s the evening he’s supposed to “catch up” with Daphne.
“What about your ex-girlfriend?” I ask.
“I told you I’d cancel that. I want to.”
“How important is it for you to sell your game?”
“Very. But we can sell it to someone else. I don’t really want to work with Daphne on it anyway. It would be awkward and uncomfortable. I’m going to ask her if Big Bear can put someone else on the deal.” He runs a hand through his hair, glances at the door. When he turns back to me, his expression is different—serious and grave. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.”
The way he says it reminds me of the blond- or maybe white-haired woman across the alley.
“Me too,” I say. “I know it’ll sound paranoid, but—”
He reaches his hand across the kitchen island, and I take it without thinking, liking the way his fingers wrap around mine. “Come with me.”
