Chapter 12
As Stephan dug into his third plate of varenyky, he let out a deep groan of pleasure. “I can’t believe I’ve never had these before.”
“My grandmother taught me to make them,” said Hayleigh with a lilt of pride.
“Well, then, be ready to be harassed for more,” said Stephan with a wink, and her ears went warm and pink at the tips. Then he tilted the plate her way. “You want any?”
She should have said no. She’d finished off her own plate already and was dangerously close to a stomachache.
But she could not resist one final mouthful.
The taste of it brought on a wave of nostalgic longing for the brush of fingertips across the backs of her palms as she pinched dimples along half-moon edges of dumplings in the baking.
When she fell back out of the memory, she found Stephan staring at her from under a piece of hair that had escaped from his ponytail, and she resisted the urge to reach out and sweep it back.
“What?” she asked.
“You’ve got a little…” He leaned in to wipe a bit of sour cream off the edge of her lips with his thumb, and then brought it back, popping it into his mouth before removing it in a slow drag.
She could’ve blamed him for drawing her attention there, but the fact was she had caught herself studying his mouth more than once already.
His beard had been grown out a bit yesterday, making it hard to get the shape of it, but he must have gone home and trimmed because she could appreciate the wide, gradual slope of his upper lip, and the slight asymmetry that left the bottom peeking out a bit.
“So,” she said, clearing her throat as she dragged her eyes off his mouth. “No one’s going to curse me a second time for taking you away for a few days?”
His eyebrow arched. “What’re you trying to ask, Sunshine?”
She found it curiously challenging to formulate the question in a more direct way. “No special women—or men—in your life who might take issue with it?”
He finally caught her meaning, and his grin was sly. “No risk of that. I am, as they say, a single man about town.”
She rolled her eyes gently. “No one says that.”
“Well, they should. Sounds way less pathetic than ‘single AF.’ ”
“Just haven’t found the right girl?”
He grunted and gestured at their surroundings.
“It’s tough in a town this small. You either end up with one of the forty people from your graduating class or hope someone new and interesting moves in.
But if it doesn’t happen, well…” He gestured down at himself. “President of the lonely-hearts club.”
She scoffed. “You have fans. They even call themselves the ‘Chainsaw C-words.”
“C-words?”
“You know…” And then she lowered her voice to a whisper, as if that somehow made it less vulgar. “Cunts.”
His eyes rolled back in his head as a laugh shook his entire body. “What an image…Look, I’m not saying I’m celibate. Working in a tourist town, there’s no shortage of women looking to hook up with a mountain man while they’re here, but it’s nothing that lasts…Also, how did you know that?”
There was no way she was going to admit that the algorithm had served her bite-sized portions of him for the last year, so she lied. “It’s all over the internet if you search your name.”
His eyes darted her way, dancing. “You been doing that? Searching my name?”
“I always search people’s names if I’m going to be alone with them. You never know who’s a grifter. Or a serial killer.”
“And you wouldn’t want to be the subject of a murder podcast, now, would you?”
She swatted at him, biting her lip as she connected with the solid wall of his arm. “Don’t make fun. You’re built like a brick house. You don’t have to worry like the rest of us.”
“You’re right, I don’t, and not just because of my size. My magic…it makes people think twice about messing with me or starting shit in general when I’m nearby.”
“You’re sure it’s not just…” She waved in a way to suggest that his general size and shape might have something to do with it.
He shook his head. “Size isn’t always discouraging.
In fact, when there’s enough alcohol and testosterone involved, a certain variety of asshole will specifically try to start stuff with a big guy.
I mean, ‘take on the biggest kid in the schoolyard’ is a classic dominance tactic.
But I’ve got this sort of boundary line around me…
” He extended his hand to circle-sweep his body.
“No matter how hard someone gets worked up, they literally won’t cross it.
It’s kind of funny to watch. They’ll just stop, look confused, like they want to keep going but can’t. ”
“So you’re saying a person is totally safe if they’re close enough to you?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
She leaned in a little closer, close enough to appreciate the gradient of dark to pale in his beard. “Like this close?”
“Mmm.” His eyes traveled lower, igniting currents up and down her body. “Stay right here, and I’ve got you.”
Her lips unstuck and pulled apart slowly as her chest heaved, keenly aware of every detail of the moment: the crunch of feet in snow amid the low murmur of voices, the lingering flavor of potato and onion on her tongue, the way a few hairs had escaped his trimming to hang longer over his upper lip than the rest. More than anything, it left her aware of her own body, and the way it hummed, primed itself for sensation.
She lingered only a moment longer before her better instincts forced her to take a step back from herself, appalled at what she saw.
Had she been about to kiss him?
She reminded herself of the line she herself had drawn in this arrangement.
Yes, he was hot, but he was also a witch.
A witch who was graciously helping her but whose life would only overlap with hers for a few days at most. Once the curse was broken, she would go home to where her mother would put her life back on track—probably by connecting it straight to Grayson, or someone like him.
And she would be just one more member of his fan club who could add “climbed a Stephan Midwinter–shaped mountain” to the list of little adventures she’d had before settling down.
But that wasn’t Hayleigh. She didn’t do casual; she didn’t do one-night stands, and she was certainly not doing him.
She straightened, smoothed her coat, and shifted away, putting the line back where it belonged—firmly between her and Stephan Midwinter.