Page 15 of Lila

“And why did meeting this girl make you all grumpy today?”

“I’m notgrumpy.”

“He says grumpily.” Jet chuckles. “What happened? She wouldn’t leave this morning?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” I insist.

“Ohhh. That’s it. She’s a clinger. I thought that was the reason for the rules, Boss. Did you break the rules last night?” he gapes at me.

I glare in return.

“Holy shit! Bossman broke his rules! She must have been special. So what’s the problem? Need me to get rid of her for you?” His offer has me seeing red.

“You stay away from her,” I growl.

“Whoa. Okay. Just trying to help.” He holds his hands up and backs away.

“I don’t need your help. You would only mess things up worse than I already have,” I sigh.

“You messed things up? How’d you do that?”

“She wasn’t ready. I should have known better. She’s a witch, not a siren. She had no idea and I just dropped it on her during our first night together,” I mumble.

“Dropped what on her?”

“She’s my mate. We shared an amazing night and she ran away from me as fast as she could in the morning. I don’t even know her last name. How am I supposed to find her, Jett? I have to find her.”

“Fuck. I’m sorry, Boss. I can’t imagine finding my mate only to lose her the next day. What’s her name? We’ll help you find her.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“We’ll go door to door if we have to.”

I smile. “I appreciate that. But maybe it’s best to leave it up to Fate. Give her time to come to terms with it, then maybe they’ll bring us back together.”

“If you say so.”

It’s the last thing I want to do. But I can’t risk scaring her off again. I have to respect that she needs time. Then if she doesn’t come back on her own, I’ll go find her. I finally found my mate. I’m not letting her slip away.

Chapter 12

Lila

I’vespentthewholeday thinking about him. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get him off my mind. Lav has not been subtle with her knowing looks and stupid smirks.

“Alright, come on! You’ve been moping around long enough. And I’m hungry. This calls for some honey garlic chicken,” Lav says, pulling me from a flashback of Luca manhandling me as he tossed me into position last night.

“What?” I shake my head and wait for her to repeat herself.

“Honey garlic chicken. Let’s go.” She claps her hands together and heads for the door, not waiting to see if I’m following. Which, of course, I am. She said honey garlic chicken. I’m not staying here and missing that.

I catch up to her at the elevator and she smirks as she presses the button to call for the elevator.

We ride the elevator to the second floor. Lavender leads me down the hallway, passing a nail salon and a candy store that I add to my mental list of places to check out. Finally, we stop at an arch opening that looks like it’s been carved from a tree. Cherry blossoms hang down it and a soft breeze blows them as we walk through, sending their sweet aroma into the air surrounding us. A little, old Chinese woman greets us, talking a mile a minute in Mandarin. Just as I cast a language spell, a frazzled woman about our age, rushes over.

“Wài pó! Sit! I’ll help them.” She turns to us and I have to bite my lips together to contain my laugh. What could the old woman have said to cause such a reaction? I wish I could have cast the spell sooner. “Sorry about her. She had one too many baijiu,” the woman greets.

“Really? So Gran wasn’t just saying something about the winds of change blowing?” Lav demands.

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