Chapter 16
16
ROMAN
“ I need to go.” Josephine is standing timidly by the door. Her cheeks are pink, but she doesn’t look me in the eye. I don’t know why she’s embarrassed. I’m the one who just came in my pants. Well, I guess technically, she did, too.
“I have to get back to work.” She’s just about to heft the big table up when I reach her side.
“I’ve got it.” I grab the table and open the door for her. She murmurs a soft thank you when I deposit the awkward load into the trunk of her car.
She already has the door to her car open and is about to get in when I slip my arm around her waist and turn her toward me. I drag my hand up her arm until my fingers wrap around the nape of her neck. Despite whatever reservations she has, Josephine all but goes limp in my arms. She finally meets my eyes, and, fuck, I’m hard again.
“In case you’ve already forgotten what it can be like between us.” I lower my mouth and brush my lips over hers. I control the rampaging need to devour her, opting for a drugging kiss that sucks all the oxygen from the air around us. Her mouth is so soft, perfectly matching my kiss, until I consider sweeping her off her feet and dragging her back into my house. I don’t want to scare her away, so I pull back.
We’re both breathless, Josephine’s eyes a little starry as she stares up at me.
“You can call me, text, FaceTime, any time. I don’t care.”
“As your buddy?” Josephine raises her eyebrows in question.
Anything more between us would be impossible. We’d have to keep it a secret from our families, hide it from the covens. But honestly, I don’t give a shit.
“How about as two people trying to figure shit out.”
Josephine lets out a long exhale. “Okay.”
Stepping away from her is a lot fucking harder than it should be. I let my hand linger on her waist, dragging it slowly away with reluctance. She doesn’t say anything as she gets in her car. I keep my eyes on her, walking backward toward my porch as she pulls away. I don’t miss the way her hand lifts to her lips. To my fucking mortification, I can’t help but do the same, delighting in the lingering feel of her lips pressed to mine.
Bram is waiting in my office when I get back to the hotel. His feet are up on my desk, and he’s scrolling through his phone.
“Your office is next door, in case you forgot.”
“I was worried you died. You’re never late for work. I’m just being a good brother waiting here for you.”
I pull out my phone and check my messages. There are seven from my mother, a few work-related missed calls, but nothing from Bram. “I see you tried really hard to get in touch.”
A smile sneaks up one corner of Bram’s mouth, showing the barest hint of a dimple. He rarely smiles big enough for it to show, so most people don’t even know he has one.
“I may have also been a little curious about why you’re so late this morning.”
I round my desk and sit in my chair. I shift my mouse until my computer wakes up, but I don’t bother looking at anything on the screen. “Were you worried about me?”
Bram drops his feet to the floor and leans in. His forehead furrows in concentration. “You look different.”
“New moisturizer.”
Bram’s eyes darken, and I sit up straighter. My brother’s curse is much different from my own. While mine only affects me, Bram’s has an external component. There’s a darkness slowly taking over my good-natured brother. He calls it his beast. It flares up on occasion, but I’ve noticed it happening more often recently, even when he takes the numbing potion regularly.
He blinks, and his eyes return to the same gray as mine. “I thought you were naturally handsome. Didn’t know you had to work so hard at it.”
I lean back in my chair, steepling my hands over my stomach. Bram and I have been close from the moment he came into my life. Regardless of how much my mother tried to pit me against him. We don’t share all our secrets, but he probably knows more about me than anyone else in my life.
“Have you talked to Ambrose?” I’m curious if our friend told Bram what he saw at the Delvaux house. He can be a sneaky son of a bitch, so it could go either way. He might hold on to the secret until the perfect moment to unleash it appears. Or he could have texted Bram the moment he found me and Josephine.
The corners of Bram’s eyes crinkle. The gossiping shits did talk.
“Talk about what, Roman?”
“He told you.”
“Not that I keep a list of your incredibly rare hook-ups, but I am a little surprised. A Delvaux?”
I hesitate, wondering if I should share what happened with Josephine. I hate my curse. I’m not always sure Bram does. That’s not exactly right. I know my brother hates the darkness taking over him, but I don’t know if the darkness gives a shit.
“When I touched her, I could feel.”
All humor disappears from Bram’s face and his entire body tenses. “What does that mean?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
“Is your curse broken?”
On my way up to my office, I purposefully brushed my hand against a few people walking through the lobby. I want to believe it’s not just Josephine, that this fucking curse has finally been lifted. “No. It’s still there with everyone but her.”
“Did she cast a spell on you? How is this possible?” Bram’s thoughts are so similar to my first instinct that I shouldn’t be annoyed, but there’s a small flare of anger that I can’t account for.
“Not that I can tell.” I hesitate to reveal what Josephine told me about her curse. Our curses are weaknesses, and they aren’t something we share outside our trusted circle. Still, for some unknown reason, I don’t want Bram to distrust Josephine.
“Her curse is also gone when she’s with me.”
“She told you what her curse is?” Bram’s eyes widen. He sinks back into his chair with a sound of surprise.
He’d be a hell of a lot more shocked if he knew I told her mine.