Page 54 of Hot in Witch City
It was always better when a few orgasms were involved.
“What are you thinking about?” Nova asked.
Aware of the smile that had spread across my face, I wiped it off. “Nothing,” I dismissed.
“Uh huh,” she replied in ayou’re-full-of-crap tone. “You sure it has nothing to do with Sebastian?”
“Why would you think that?” I asked in surprise.
“You have a dreamy smile on your face. I figured it was a good guess.”
Eek, busted. “We’re just friends.” My tone rose a notch, which didn’t help me with selling it—especially since we’d agreed to be lovers, exclusively, for the time being. Besides, who was I trying to sell the friends story to, anyway? Nova or myself?
The lines were blurred. That’s why I should have been careful about messing around with Sebastian. Being friends would have been fine. Hooking up a couple of times would have been fun. Mixing up the two and becoming lovers? That’s when things started to get complicated. Considering I’d just discovered a surprising new side of myself, it was probably the worst time to add anything new.
All these jumbled emotions churning inside weren’t ones I could keep to myself, especially as Nova stared at me. “Okay, Sebastian and I agreed to be exclusive lovers for a short time,” I confessed.
“Ah.” She nodded. “You’re growing feelings for each other.”
“Yes. No.” I twisted my hair. “I don’t know. This is the worst time for it to happen.”
“Why?”
“Because my life is so chaotic with everything lately.”
“Maybe it’s the best time then.”
I widened my eyes at her. “Come again?”
“You seem calmer around him. Happy. So, isn’t he a positive presence in your life?”
“Yes, maybe, but…” I released my hair, and it fell over one shoulder. “What if I’m not cut out for this? Maybe I’m better suited for casual encounters—with someone like Jakob.”
“I guess you’ll discover that as you go,” Nova replied.
“What if I hurt Sebastian, Nova? I don’t want to do that. He’s too good for that.” Too good for me.
“Give yourself more credit than that. You paint yourself as fickle and unsuited for a relationship, but I know that’s not true. Look at you and me. You’re the longest, most loyal, closest friend I’ve ever had.”
Hmm, I’d never considered it that way.
Yet there was another possibility that I left unspoken—what if the opposite happened and Sebastian hurt me?
Trusting him left me vulnerable. He could walk away at any time. He could find someone else who wasn’t a pain in the ass like me with all my issues.
And then once again, I’d be abandoned.
“Hey ladies,”I greeted Nova and Zoe, the petite, redheaded, no-nonsense elf who was training Nova to help at the network.
Nova mentioned they’d stop by. “Love the dress,” she said.
I twirled, showing more of the black dress with dancing skeletons along the skirt, going along to the beat of the Van Halen song playing. “You should borrow it. You’d look cute in it.”
Nova snorted. “I couldn’t pull it off like you. I’d look like a goth doll.”
Zoe chuckled. She was even shorter than Nova, yet her presence made her seem much taller. “Good to see you again, Gianna.”
It had been a while since we’d met on that unfortunate night with Andre. She didn’t refer to that time to which I was grateful. Being kidnapped by a demon was among my least favorite of memories.
