Page 13 of A Heart of Winter
“That’s great news. And so fast! I mean, not great news that they’re stuck at the airport, but you know.” I didn’t know how fast house selling usually went, but it seemed excessively so to me. Maybe because I wanted to keep him in Minnesota, at least for a little while.
Sure, we were already talking about extreme long distance dating, but it seemed like a good idea to get to know each otherlittle better before we went flying across the country to see one another.
So I had to ask. “Are you . . . leaving town, then?”
He tucked his phone back into his pocket and leaned toward me once again. “They asked for thirty days closing, so I thought I’d stay till it was done. I’m sure we’ll end up getting some work done on the house during closing, but I’ll survive living around that.”
“You could stay here instead.” I had no idea where the words came from, or how they escaped my usually very well trained brain, but given the pleasure that bloomed on his face, I couldn’t bring myself to be sorry for them.
“Are you sure? I don’t want to impose.”
I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t remotely sure. I was inviting a man I’d met a few days ago to stay with me in a cabin I didn’t even own for a whole month. And yet, I hadn’t wanted anything so much in years.
I’d been surviving, I realized suddenly. Not living at all. Never asking for what I wanted, just trying to give Michael enough of whathewanted to keep him happy. Taking my own joy in what small places I could, like my apartment and my furniture and my things, not doing the things I preferred. Never quite able to stand on my own anymore.
A three-hundred-year-old witch, relying on someone else to tell me how to live.
It was pathetic.
More important, it was time to move forward.
“I am sure.” I stepped into his space and popped onto my toes to press a kiss to those lips I’d spent breakfast watching. It was time I did some things for myself, starting with Kai Mori.
Have a Ball
Edwin’s beak tapped at the glass of the crystal ball, as though he could pick at the eggs left on the plate. Or as though he was pointing something out.
He gave an annoyed caw and turned to me, his beady black eyes almost glowing in the low light. “It’s reaching critical levels,” he said, dissatisfaction in his tone.
Fucking ravens, the most judgmental of familiars.
Perfect for me, I supposed.
I reached out and rubbed my fingers over his glossy black head. “I know. The magic either needs to be removed or anchored soon, or it’ll kill him.”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Edwin demanded, his croaky cawing voice echoing back off the walls.
I stared for another moment at Johannes, kissing the handsome young lawyer. He’d always been . . . well, not precisely irresponsible. More like . . . distractible. He’d put his studies first, just as I had. But a beautiful face and a few kind words had always been able to turn his head, at least for a while.
Like twenty years wasted on that vapid braying jackass, Michael.
I waved a hand over the crystal, and there he was, sitting in a cafe somewhere in New York. Long beige vicuna coat, navy cashmere sweater and merino wool slacks. Shiny dark brown boots with detailed decoration in the leather. All designer. All no doubt paid for by Johannes.
Johannes had always been weak to a pretty face, and if he kept going, it was going to kill him. And possibly a lot of other people at the same time, with the wild storms that formed around him whenever his love life was screwed up.
In the crystal, Michael was staring at his phone, lips pursed in annoyance. The little bastard never had been able to be satisfied, no matter how much he got that he didn’t deserve. He was the kind of man Johannes fell for too damned often. A pretty face that hid a selfish, self-serving asshole.
And then the people all around suffered for it, because of Johannes and his uncontrolled snow powers.
It was time for that to stop.
His Future
Talking.
We had spent the entire day talking, and slept together on the couch again overnight—it really was incredibly comfortable—and somehow, we still hadn’t had sex.
Not that I’d always had sex within the first few days of knowing a man, but it was more common than not. Physical attraction came first, followed by sex, and then after that, taking the time to get to know one another.
