Page 42 of Cursed Love
Ryan ignored her and spoke to Peter. “Be careful. There are humans closer than they should be.”
Brandy clenched her teeth.“Fiancé! Seriously, Ryan?”
He took Peter’s spot on the couch and grabbed her hand. “There won’t ever be anyone else.”
She looked at their linked hands. “And you felt the need to tell my brother this? Before me? Why? Please explain it to me, because without talking tomefirst, it comes off rather possessive… something Idespise!”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think—”
“No! You didn’t!”she snapped.
“Ow!” Ryan put his fingers to his temples and squinted at her.
“I just broke up with my boyfriend of three years a few weeks ago, and now I’m an engaged woman? My family isnotgoing to drop that.” Brandy stood and paced in front of the couch. “They don’t know about any of this magic. Do you really think they are going to understand any of the shit that’s happened? My mother told me toprotectthem! How am I supposed to protect them if they hear about this and go into big-brother mode? Oh, and maybe… justmaybea woman gets the chance to say yay or nay to a proposal… ohwait. You didn’t propose!” Her heart beat erratically in her chest. She was so frustrated and confused. Her life was upside down, and all these curveballs were being thrown in her direction.
He rubbed his face and ran his fingers through his hair. He pushed to his feet and walked to her. “I didn’t consider how I just put your family in jeopardy. I’m sorry for that, sweetheart. I’m not sorry for accepting my mate. Or for cementing our bond. I feel whole. None of the past matters now.” He dropped to his knee. “I should have done this right, and I’ll apologize for it until the day we die. Will you marry me?”
Brandy froze as she stared down at him. She did not know what to say or do. She was not ready for a wedding, but he was right. He was it. It was the strangest thing. He was part of her, woven into every cell.
“I’m not ready to answer that,” she told him and watched hurt flash in his eyes.
“Oh…”
She pulled him up. “Ryan, you need to look at this from my perspective. You’ve had a lot more time to process everything, and there’s too much going on. My world has been turned upside down. You’re right. I feel whole now that I’ve found you. I’m just not ready right now.”
She held his face and rolled to her toes. The kiss was sweet, but there was an unexpected touch of sadness to it. When she opened her eyes, she found him watching her. She needed to give him something more. Staring into his eyes, she smiled. Hewashome, and she felt silly to tell him she was not ready to commit like that, but she needed more time.
“I’m falling for you, Rye,”she said.
A spark lightened his eyes, but he remained silent.
“Please be patient with me,”she begged.
His smile did not reach his eyes, but his kiss spoke of promises.
“I’m sorry I’m messing this all up,”he said.
Brandy chuckled. “What? You mean you don’t have any experience with a mate?”
Ryan shook his head in amusement and guided her to the couch. He sat and pulled her onto his lap. “So, your brother, Ethan… He said he couldn’t see you?” he asked, holding her to his chest.
“Yeah, which is weird.”
“Sweetheart, it sounds like he might be an oracle.”
“A what?”
He rubbed circles on the inside of her thigh. They were soothing and yet arousing. “Oracles have the gift of sight and can see into the future. That is the witch’s power.”
“So you’re saying he’s a psychic?”
“Few psychics have any real gifts. If they do, they’re most likely oracles living openly in the human world.”
She thought back to her mother’s letter. “Mom must have gotten pregnant with me about a month after having Ethan. Would he have been too young to show his gifts then?”
“He probably had his gift, but being so young, he wouldn’t have developed it. It’s very probable she didn’t notice it. Can you imagine having that many kids and becoming pregnant again so soon?”
“I was an accident,” she whispered.
