Page 21 of Witch Upon a Star
As crestfallen as I felt, I wondered how I’d gotten to a point in my life where Icouldn’toffer such an incredible woman something more genuine than a quick lay.
Her grip on the countertop loosened, and she seemed to gain control of herself. Better her than me. I felt like someone had just stabbed me in the chest and was actively twisting the knife.
“That’s the first time you’ve said my name.”
I blinked, taken aback by her words. It wasn’t what I thought she’d say. “Is it?”
She nodded, and I saw it then. The desire tampered down behind her eyes. Shelikedit when I said her name. “There’s not a doubt in my mind, Quinten, that you are an honorable man. But time is a fickle bitch.” My eyebrows flew up, a bit surprised by her cursing. She stepped closer again. “And just because there’s not anowdoesn’t mean there’s not alater.”
“You say that like my intentions will change.” I stayed where I was, but that didn’t stop me from praying she’d come closer.
“Everything changes. It’s the one constant in the universe,” she quipped. She came right up to me. I fucking hated the distance between our chests. I wanted to grab hold of her arms and close in the gap, press her to me and claim those sensual lips as my own. A spark in her eyes made me wonder if she knewexactlywhat I was thinking. “I have faith that just because there’s nottodayfor us that there won’t be asomeday.”
Did she know something I didn’t? And why the fuck didthat make me feel like a jackass, that I wasn’t what she needed, what she deserved,today?
“You make me want to be better,” I confessed. “You make me want things I’ve never even contemplated wanting before.” Slowly, I reached up and tucked her hair behind her left ear. It was a small touch, and all that I would allow myself. “What spell have you put on me?”
The question was impulsive, and I hoped she didn’t find it offensive.
Calliope laughed, turning her head into my touch. “The same one you’ve put on me, Quinten.”
Her skin was so soft. I shouldn’t, but I found myself rubbing the pad of my thumb over her cheekbone. “Not today,” I repeated, more to myself than to her. With herculean effort, I lowered my hand and took a step back from her. My eyes landed on the shelves that were still unbuilt on the floor at our feet. I needed to get back up on the ladder and attach that last bracket too. Somehow I’d gone from being grateful this wasn’t a date to fuckinghatingthat this wasn’t a date. The one-eighty was heady and confusing. “I should get back to work.” I gave her a crooked smile, wanting to lighten the somber mood that had fallen between us. “Don’t want your donation to go to waste.”
She nodded. The movement was jerky, like a hinge that wasn’t well oiled. “I’m going to make some tea. Do you want a cup of coffee?”
“Please,” I accepted.
Calliope turned away from me, walking over to the cart she’d shown me earlier. I looked down at my watch again. Half an hour. It had only been a half an hour since she’d accepted that phone call. Thirty minutes. It felt so muchlonger, like years had passed. Was this how a caterpillar felt inside its cocoon, awaiting metamorphosis?
How changed would I be now that Calliope Hutchins had come into my life? And why, for the love of God, did it not bother me as much as I thought it would? Or as much as it should? How, in thirty minutes, had I gone from being the club’s bachelor to wanting to change, to bebetter, for her?
Was this how the others had felt? Was this what it meant to fall? If so, I now understood why none of them fought it. I certainly wasn’t.
I barely lasted a minute.I couldn’t stop staring at her. Not even when I climbed the ladder to secure the last bracket and retrieve my drill. I spent so much of the last half hour memorizing her face. Now that she was turned away from me, I looked, and Ilooked.
When I should have been concentrating on screws and wood panels, my eyes travel down her petite form. I was definitely an ass man. Calliope had a small frame, narrow hips and mostly flat chest, but herass? Saliva pooled in my mouth and I had to clench my teeth together, because all I wanted in that moment was to bite her ass. To leave my teeth marks permanently embedded in her flesh.
She glanced over her shoulder at me. I lifted my eyes, but did not hide the fact that I’d been blatantly staring at her ass. Shaking her head, she turned back around to finish working on our drinks.
I decided I better get back to work. Knowing that I only had two and a half hours of my time left felt so different now. I wanted time to drag out, to go slower.
I caught sight of my cat and her dragon staring at me from their place on the counter. I swore they were judging me and finding me wanting. I gave both of them the finger.
It was harder to concentrate than I cared to admit. I wanted her to talk to me. I didn’t care about what. In the end it didn’t matter, because I wanted to know everything. If she was as single as a dollar bill because she knew the intentions of the men interested in her, then what did that mean for her? Did she not date? What about friends? Family?
“Tell me about yourself.”
She turned, a steaming mug in each hand. “You mean, other than I have a great ass that you want to bite?”
I chuckled, unabashed. “Keeping secrets from you is going to be impossible, isn’t it?”
“Usually.” She knelt down next to me. “But as you said before, I’m not a god. I don’t know everything and I’m as human as you are. I make mistakes. I read things wrong.” She pointed to my mouth. “Plus, you have a bit of drool there.”
I couldn’t have stopped the snort that escaped me if I tried. I wiped at my mouth, and sure enough, my fingers came back wet.
Her smile was nothing short of wicked. “Actually, we have family in common.”
After taking a sip of coffee, I put the mug down and reached for the drill again. “Oh yeah?” I didn’t have family in town, so I wasn’t sure what she meant. At least not blood family.
