Page 69 of Bait N' Witch

Shock spiraled through him, clenching the muscles in his arms, pulling his hands into fists. What was she talking about? He hadn’t officially bonded with her yet, and they hadn’t talked about love. “What do you mean? You already knew?”

Rowan’s brows drew down. “I…” She bit her lip. “Do you want to bond with me?”

Grey couldn’t stand the uncertainty in her eyes a second longer. He reached out and ran a finger along her smooth cheek. “I fell in love with you the day you walked into my house and froze the girls mid-fight and all I could think about was kissing these freckles and that I wasn’t all on my own anymore.” He lightly touched the end of her nose. “You brought laughter back into my life, and into the girls’ lives. You filled a gaping hole inside me I didn’t realize was eating at me until you showed up.”

Big gray eyes gazed up at him, still uncertain.

“Let me show you something.” Grey undid the top few buttons of his shirt and pulled the material aside to show her his family sigil tattooed on his chest. He took her by the wrist and guided her fingers to the mark. As soon as she touched it, the tattoo glowed red, like a brand held to the fire.

Rowan gasped. Then the most beautiful smile he’d ever seen stole across her face, lighting her up from the inside. “Let me show you something, too.” She pulled her hand out of his loose grasp and flipped her arm over, pulling back the sleeve of her sweater.

There, glowing white, was a smaller version of his sigil. The breath punched out of his lungs, even as his body responded to the sight of his mark on Rowan’s skin. Bonded pairs among witches happened only when soul-deep love was involved. A magical connection that their kind didn’t enter into lightly because it could alter their magic. Even with Maddie he hadn’t considered entering into a bonding. But with Rowan… Still, it was supposed to be a choice. A spell. “When? How?”

Rowan laughed, the husky sound kicking through him. “The day we met. It took a while to fully form, so I didn’t know.”

Fascinated, Grey lightly ran a finger over her mark, enjoying the hiss of air his touch elicited from her. He smiled but released her. If hers felt anything like his at physical touch from her bonded other half, then if he didn’t stop, they’d be naked and on the floor in short order. He’d rather save that for when they got home.

First, he needed to know. He took her face in his hands and gazed into those gorgeous gray eyes that no longer stared at him with wary question but glowed with…hope. “Will you be my bonded other half, Rowan?”

She smiled softly. “I think it’s too late to stop.”

He didn’t return the smile, needing an answer.

Without his saying more, she seemed to understand. “Somewhere between trying to protect myself from you and then trying to help you with the girls, I fell in love with you, Greyson Masters. With all of you. Spending the rest of my life at your side won’t be long enough. I don’t need any sigil to tell me something my heart already knows.”

Unable to resist any longer, he laid his lips over hers, claiming her in the most basic way, with a kiss. He savored and sipped at her for a long while before pulling back, allowing his gaze to take in every curve and angle of her face. “I love you, too.”

She dimpled, eyes sparkling at him. Then she sobered. “The girls?”

“Helped save you because they love you. They will be thrilled. They love you as much as I do.”

Again, that glowing smile stole his breath. “That is a relief.”

He stole a kiss in return. “Let’s go home.”

She gave a contented sigh. “All I ever wanted, and never thought I could have, was to call your home my home.”

He put his forehead to hers, closing his eyes and inhaling, letting the tension go with the knowledge that she’d be his forever. “For the rest of our lives. I can hardly believe this is real. Maybe I died in that spirit realm.”

He took her hand and put it over his beating heart so she could feel for herself his heat and the thumping tumble of beats inside his chest. “It’s real. All of it.”

Epilogue

Delilah walked away from the door with zero remorse at listening in but satisfied the situation had finally been resolved to her liking. Rowan and Greyson had not been a foregone conclusion. Nor had been the Covens Syndicate decision not to imprison or kill Rowan, given her background and actions.

Now Delilah could turn her full attention to other clients whom she’d basically put on a back burner for the last few weeks as this situation had needed her full attention. She had to check in with Nico on his investigation of the woman who kept fading from sight. And a request to find a supernatural doctor to send up north to attend to an isolated town of elves had recently hit her desk. Except paranormal doctors were a rare breed.

Lost in her thoughts, only finely tuned instinct saved her from being knocked on her ass when a door opened right in her path, stopping inches from her face.

The door closed to reveal the imposing form of Alasdair Blakesley. She kept her expression bland, despite her pounding heart, which had nothing to do with almost being clobbered by the door and everything to do with the visceral reaction this man pulled from her with merely a glance.

How had she not come across this warlock before?

“Excuse me,” she murmured, and went to walk around him.

“Delilah.”

She turned, refusing to acknowledge what his deep voice did to her. “Yes?”

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