Page 36 of Curses and Cauldrons

“Here. I’ll help.” Piper carefully unzips her coat and tugs at the left sleeve. Ava works on the arm draped loosely around my neck, both of them operating as a team to free the coat and flannel without ever touching Josephine. I grit my teeth, realizing that I can’t get my coat off, either. I sigh.

“Would you mind?” I pull my arm out from under Josephine’s legs and hold it up. My coat isn’t buttoned, but it’s also not as flexible as Josephine’s.

“This is so weird,” Ava mumbles as she grabs my cuff and yanks. I nearly dislocate my shoulder but finally get my arm free. I pull Josephine closer to my chest, holding her with my now liberated arm so that Piper can tug the sleeve on the other side.

“This feels like the start to a really sad orgy.” Stellan cringes, watching the whole thing from the other side of the room with his arms crossed. Now that we’re not in the dark woods, I get a good look at how damn big the dude is. He’s like a lumberjack who moonlights as a boxer.

“Gross.” Ava shudders, and then joins her brother in his staring with her arms crossed.

I resettle Josephine in my arms, still wishing for more exposed skin, but this will have to do. She’s down to a short-sleeved t-shirt. I have on a henley, but the sleeves are pushed up my forearms. I press our skin together everywhere I can.

“Are you guys just going to stand there and stare?”

Stellan grunts and nods, walking over to one of the chairs. “Right. Might as well sit.”

Piper quietly moves around the apartment, appearing a few moments later with a glass of water and a soft blanket. She sets the throw on the couch next to me and the water on the coffee table.

Ava takes the chair opposite her brother, sitting sideways with her feet dangling off the side. She turns on the TV and proceeds to scan through Netflix endlessly. Piper sits down on the floor, her back against the couch. She’s far enough away from me and Josephine that there’s no chance of an accidental touch.

“Everyone’s staying, then. Great.”

19

JOSEPHINE

I’m slow to wake up, lost in the most delicious feeling. I’m surrounded by heat. There’s a weight on my back and another on my butt. My body is languid, and nothing hurts. All the aches I live with constantly are just…gone.

I burrow down into my bed. Bristles scrape over my cheek, and the weight on my butt clamps down.

No, not weight. A hand.

I freeze, my brain taking way too long to chug to life. I’m not in my bed. My nose is pressed into the crook of a neck. My hand is on the very bare and defined muscles of a man’s chest. As if I need any more indication that I’m lying on a person and not a bed, the massive erection that just happens to be perfectly slotted between my thighs would be a dead giveaway.

I don’t want to open my eyes yet. I’m not sure if I think it will all go poof and disappear, but I’m lingering in this limbo for a moment longer.

What happened last night? Snippets come back to me. The new moon ceremony, my mother’s anger over my magic, and the extreme fatigue afterward. Shit. I collapsed in the woods.

Ava called Roman.

I barely hold back the groan. She didn’t. Shit, that’s embarrassing. Except he came, didn’t he? And…he’s still here. I crack open an eye, only to find Roman looking at me.

“I was wondering how long you were going to pretend to be asleep.” His voice is quiet, like he doesn’t want anyone to hear us.

“I was trying to figure out if I fell asleep on a flagpole or if there was just a man beneath me.”

Roman’s chest rumbles with a soft chuckle. “I’ve been accused of a steely gaze before, but the rest of me is all organic matter.”

I close my eyes, smiling. I trail my fingers over his chest through the light smattering of hair there. It’s such a gift to touch someone without pain. Roman’s shirt has been hiked up, and my hands have worked their way underneath the fabric. Did I do that in my sleep?

Roman sucks in a breath, and I lift my eyes to him again. The gaze staring back at me is hot enough that my face flushes. I pull my hand away, embarrassed that I thought it was okay to maul him. Roman’s hand captures mine, pressing it back to his chest. His heart beats hard and fast under my fingers. What is this connection between us?

“Thank you for coming for me last night,” I whisper.

“I could have you coming for me this morning, too.” He grins back at me.

The loud clearing of a throat has my eyes going wide. Roman’s fingers flex on my butt, pressing me against his hard dick. I stifle a groan and lift my head enough to see over the back of the couch. Ava is sitting on a stool at my kitchen island, sipping a cup of coffee.

“Don’t let me interrupt.” She lifts her mug and takes a slow drink.

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