Page 108 of Beyond the Cottage

Though she’d been the one to frame it that way first, it stung. And his tone was light, but she detected…something.

Gretta sat, drawing her knees to her chest. “I didn’t…force you, did I?”

“Did youforceme?” Indignation and amusement laced his tone.

“Okay, but do you regret it?”

“No.” He glanced at her. “Do you?”

“No.” Maybe she should, but she didn’t and wouldn’t pretend to.

He sat and scrubbed a hand through his hair with a sigh. “You were right. We both needed it. We scratched an itch, now we move on.”

Moving on had been the second part of her plan. So why did it make her heart shrivel? When he’d taken his cock out of her, apparently all Gretta’s cool worldliness had gone along with it. Wondering what sex meant or how it would change things was totally foreign territory, and the anxiety churning her stomach made her want a shot or three of whiskey.

So she fell back on what she knew. She ignored it.

“I’ll get out of your hair,” she said, pulling on her tunic. “But we should go over our strategy tomorrow.”

He stretched out beside her on the pallet. “I’ve never hunted anyone before. Perhaps you should tell me what to do.”

“First of all, you won’t be hunting.” Ansel was big and scrappy, but brawn counted for little against witches. “I’ll go in by myself. Hopefully, the repellent will let me keep this one alive for a while, giving you time to study her.”

He hesitated. “And if the repellent doesn’t work?”

“It will.”

“But if it doesn’t?”

“Itwill.”

Mouth thin with worry, he stared at the ceiling. It was really…cute. Even big, scrappy dust thieves needed reassuring.

And she was his friend now, right?

She stretched out, laying beside him with her head on her elbow. “The repellent is going to work, Anse. This will all but cement Nat throwing gobs of money at you.”

“Isn’t this dangerous, though? How can you safely test it without exposing yourself to magic?”

Gretta’s heart twitched. He was worried abouther? “I’ll be wearing my silver cloak. If she steals my voice, well. Some might call that a bonus.”

He glared at her stupid joke. “She nearly killed Heron.”

“I’m a lot more experienced than he is. But you’re right, there’s always an element of risk. For the sake of the repellent, I’m okay with that. Aren’t you?”

His mouth went tighter.

Reminding herself friends were allowed to comfort each other, she gently pet his bicep. “I won’t do anything stupid, I promise. And the repellent is going to be amazing.”

He continued glowering. Her knuckles skated across his arm, back and forth.

Soon, his mouth relaxed, and his eyes went glassy.

The past few nights had been as disrupted for him as they had been for her, but her touch seemed to relax him. She could wait a few minutes for him to fall asleep before she snuck out.

He didn’t say anything else. Gretta yawned and kept stroking his arm.

Chapter 38

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