Page 60 of Castings & Curses

Natalie assumed it was Pippa arriving, so she was utterly shocked when Corwin appeared in the doorway with a backpack and—was that a suitcase?

Corwin strode across the room, abandoning his luggage at the door—itwasa suitcase—lifted Natalie from her chair and kissed her.

Whatever questions or thoughts Natalie had upon seeing him this morning were gone in an instant.

All she knew, all she felt, was the heat of her mate against her, obliterating the rest of the world, erasing everything else but him.

He pulled back just far enough to murmur against her lips, “Ah, sweet Natalie,” before sweeping his tongue back inside for another consuming, heated kiss.

Finally, he pulled back and asked, “So which room is yours? Upstairs, right?” He turned and walked back the way he’d come, grabbing his suitcase and backpack, then disappearing toward the back of the house.

Natalie stood there, stunned a moment, then shaking free of the daze his kiss had put her in, she glanced around at her coven, who were all grinning and staring at her.

She touched her lips. “What just happened?”

“I think your mate just moved in,” Rowan said.

The fuck?

Just like that?

Without even a conversation?

What the—

Natalie stormed from the room and headed up the stairs, vaguely aware of the coven scrambling after her.

Where the hell was he anyway? There’s no way he’d found her room on the third floor, but—

The sound of footsteps overhead told her he had.

Storming down the hall, she flung open the door at the end and raced up those stairs, her coven still following behind.

Natalie loved her attic room with the peaks of the roof and the fabulous dormers that gave a 360 degree view around the house.

But even more than the room, she adored the king-sized bed that took up a good portion of the space, that was spread under huge skylights that looked out on an endless sky.

It was on that bed that Corwin currently sprawled, looking very much like he belonged there.

“Mate!” he exclaimed jovially. “I love the bed and the view is stupendous. It’s like you created it with a wolf mate in mind. So close to nature, even when indoors.”

Well, damn. How was she supposed to respond to that?

“What are you doing here?”

“Moving in, of course. I figured I should be the one to move—you know, since you’re the High Witch of your coven and they probably need you here.”

Well, that was a nice gesture, she supposed.

Still he could have—

“So I said to myself, ‘Corwin, it’s a sacrifice, but someone’s gotta make it,’ so here I am.” He gave her a huge smile.

Natalie just stared at him.

Surely she hadn’t heard what she thought she had.

“Sacrifice?” she whispered.

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