Page 40 of Witch of My Heart

“I’m glad to be in this moment,” I said, trying to ignore the warmth spreading over my crotch.

We had too many things to do to get off again.

“But do we?”My cat chimed into my thoughts but I didn’t answer him because Blithe nodded for me to continue.

“Recently, I’ve been zoning out – almost disassociating a lot more than I want to admit to anyone. It happens at such odd times. It happened right before I met you even. It’s like my brain is so busy trying to process the past and prevent a horrible future that all of those things steal my ability to be in the present. They literally steal my present.”

“I’ll be your tether,” Blithe whispered, still tracing his thumb over my knee. “I’ll keep you here. If you need to talk about the past, we’ll do that. If we need to add wards, do risk-assessments, or make emergency plans for the future, we’ll do that. We’ll do whatever it takes. This moment is ours and Ginger Barrel or Grady Moore or anyone else – they don’t get it. It belongs to us, and I can be very territorial when challenged.”

He pushed himself upright, leaned in, and pressed his forehead against mine. I leaned in for a kiss and Blithe put a hand on my chest. He kissed me softly, but held back because his fangs were out. I stroked my fingers up and down his throat, his adams apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.

“You’re thirsty,” I whispered. “Want me to run over to Daniel’s for you? I’m already dressed for the day. Or get Duke? I feel like I should know a lot more about what you like and want when it comes to this than I do.”

“It only feels that way, mate, because we’ve been here before. Maybe not in this bed or this room. Hell, maybe not on this piece of land with the trees that threaten to swallow the village whole, but we’ve been here with us before. That weird longing should clear up when we exchange our claiming vows. I enjoy blood shakes. I enjoy live feeding at times. Duke is more emergency blood than a regular thing. He’s less vampyric than me, but those same genes are running around in his DNA – just a bit lazier than they run around mine.”

“I’ll add blood shakes to the list of stuff we get droned in,” I said, still pressing my forehead against his.

“Also, just for clarity, I don’t need it every day most of the time. Unless I’m stressed or doing a lot of magic or something pokes at it, I’m usually okay as long as I get enough meat in,” he said.

“Good to know,” I grinned and stole another kiss. “Still, you should have them, if you like them. Plus, if we’re warding, I don’t want you passing out from lack of blood or something.”

“I won’t pass out. That would take a lot of magic. I’d just turn into an asshole first,” Blithe smirked. “Not toward you. Never toward you, but just in general. Do you know that’s how I figured it out when I was a kid?”

“Figured what out?” I asked him.

“That a lot of my magic was tied to that side of my heritage. Certain magics made me thirsty for it,” he said.

“That makes sense,” I nodded. “I think either we’re going to get out of bed now or we’re just going to have to live right here forever. I don’t want to move. I don’t want to get up. I don’t want to stop touching you. My cat wants to dig in his claws and never let you go.”

“Wards and kittens?” Blithe smirked.

“Those. We need those and want the other,” I nodded. “Still, fucking hell!”

He laughed and kissed me again, softly, his fangs rubbing against my bottom lip.

“I know, fucking hell and tarnation,” he laughed. “No one would blame us for not leaving the bedroom. They’d all have a good laugh and say that they expected it or that it was about time, but I promised you wards before we exchanged our claiming vows. So, either we need to talk to Xi and Starry about warding the bedroom since Starry’s magic is in all the nooks and crannies or we need to at least go look at the other house.”

“And you need breakfast,” I added.

“Because I’m a vampire or because you have some primal omega urge to feed me?” Blithe arched a brow.

“Because I can’t bear the thought of you being uncomfortable for a second longer than you have to. That goes both ways, you know.”

He leaned in to kiss me again, but I put both hands on his chest.

“Okay, okay,” he grinned. “I know. Wards then romps.”

“Wards then romps. All the romps. We’ll romp in every room. We’ll romp until the word loses all meaning. We’ll---” I leaned in to kiss him again.

Blithe laughed and with the same vampyric speed that put him on top of me at the beginning of our fooling around, he was out of the bed.

“That’s cheating,” I pointed at him.

“Lie, steal, cheat. There’s nothing I won’t do to keep you and our future safe. Right now, that’s getting out of bed long enough to see where the wards should go,” he said and held out his hand for me. “First, I need a shower and to locate my bag.”

“It’s in the kitchen!” Duke called from the hallway as if he’d been eavesdropping on us.

I took Blithe’s hand and let him pull me out of bed onto my feet. Feeling brave and needy, I stole a quick kiss before sprinting out of the room to get his bag. I shut the door behind me and a second later he twisted the knob.

---