Chapter 5
CHAPTER FIVE
Liora
Ireached for my phone to call my sister and then stopped, dropping my hand back to my side. I couldn’t keep calling Zara to rescue me from every situation I stumbled my way into.
Nope, this one was all on me.
And I needed to find a solution fast, or Torin was going to boot me out on my bum. I was surprised he hadn’t already, if the fury in his expression was any indication of how he felt about having me as his new roommate.
Not to mention that wee truth spell that had knocked him back a step when he’d crossed into my circle.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
What had I been thinking?
Of course the spell needed a subject to work on.
What? Why was I even trying a spell that had nowhere to go?
Nowhere to land? I’d been caught up in the excitement of finding my name in the book and maybe, just for once, having an answer to why my magick couldn’t ever seem to work.
And instead, I’d just made the situation worse.
Per usual.
Sighing, I slumped back onto the couch and pulled my feet up, cradling the book in my lap.
“Bloody hell, Liora, but you’ve gotten even more beautiful than the last time I saw you.”
My body flushed with heat as Torin’s words came back to me.
Had he really meant that? Obviously he had, as the truth spell was working, and he seemed furious about what had come out of his mouth.
Which meant, Torin, a man who could easily be a cover model for Lumberjack Monthly or whatever manly magazines were out there, thought I, Liora Webster with the mousy hair and messy magick, was beautiful.
Honestly? The thought didn’t even compute. It was so at odds that someone as visually stunning as Torin—I’d just leave out his abrasive personality—would find me beautiful.
Last year I’d stumbled across a woman on TikTok who watched videos of this man chopping wood with his shirt off and pretended to be solely interested in his axe-wielding technique and not the muscles rippling down his bare chest. It had made me laugh, but then I’d found myself thinking how much the man had reminded me of Torin.
Broad, strong shoulders.
Thick muscly arms.
Dark chestnut hair, searing blue eyes, and the swagger of a man used to carrying an axe around.
Or a chainsaw, for that matter.
Sighing, I let my head fall back on the cushions and closed my eyes.
Torin was a forester, used to walking among the trees, and not one for idle chitchat if I recalled.
I wished I could remember his birth date, but I was betting he was a Taurus or at least had a Cancer Moon.
Avery had been head over heels for him, or so I’d thought, until she’d been willing to let the relationship break up over an astrology reading.
Or perhaps there’d been more, but she hadn’t spoken to me about it.
She hadn’t spoken to me at all.
It had hurt to lose one of my only good friends in a town as small as Loren Brae, and when she’d packed up and moved on, I’d done the same, needing a fresh start elsewhere.
Apparently, Torin had been left to deal with the brunt of our choices.
Sympathy filled me. Frankly, it wasn’t fun to be the center of gossip and rumors, that much I knew, and when he hadn’t even done anything to deserve them?
Well, I guess I could understand why he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see me standing in the middle of his house.
I looked around the room. The furnishings were somewhat simple, but still comfortable, and the house itself exuded warmth.
It was a place to start fresh, a safe haven to ground myself, and I didn’t want to leave.
What I needed to do was find a solution to the truth spell, fix Torin, and beg him to let me stay in the flat.
An hour later, I was still paging through the book and not finding anything about how to undo that particular spell.
Sure, there were ways to generically reverse a spell, but I’d lost my confidence.
What if, in the undoing, I made the situation worse?
Already Torin had next to zero patience with me.
I was certain he wouldn’t allow me to keep practicing unknown spells on him.
Plus, I’d discovered two more books in the boxes, both of which held numerous spells, recipes, journals, and other words of wisdom. It would take me days to get through it all.
I stared off into space, my mind whirling, as I tried to come up with a solution that would suit us both and not leave me homeless. My eyes landed on my open duffle bag on the floor, a tattered romance book tilting out of the open top.
My eyes widened.
Could it work? Or would he throw me out of the house?
From what I’d remembered, Torin had been more bark than bite. Though he was intimidating, both in manner and physical form, I also remembered the time he’d helped bottle-feed a kitten that Avery had rescued from behind a garbage bin on the street.
Standing, I went to the small bathroom and sighed at my appearance.
Dust smudged one cheek, and my hair was tousled in a messy knot on my head.
If I was going to propose what I thought would be a viable solution to buy me some time, I needed to at least make myself presentable.
Grabbing my makeup bag, I dashed some blush onto my cheeks, lined and smudged my eyes to make them a touch bigger, and ran my fingers through my hair to detangle it and leave it softly floating around my shoulders.
I changed into a soft, siren-red jumper, one of my favorite vintage finds, and slicked clear lip gloss across my lips.
When finished, I studied my face in the mirror.
Subtly sexy, well at least as sexy as I could get, approachable, and hopefully sufficiently put together to convince this man to let me stay in his house until I got my shite together.
When I eased the door open and peeked out, I found Torin eating soup and a massive sandwich at the big table, a fire dancing in the grate. Rock music, turned low, played in the background, and he scrolled through an iPad in front of him. Edging closer, I saw it was stock reports.
Of course the man was into investing.
It was so adult of him.
Which in fairness, he was.
As was I.
He had to be in his early thirties by now, though I couldn’t quite remember his exact age.
I’d turned thirty earlier this year. Which was why I knew that I needed to figure out what I was doing with my life.
At times I still felt like a kid, fresh out of school, the whole world in front of me.
Yet many of my friends were married, even mothers now, and well into their careers.
While I floundered, latching myself to, apparently, the wrong career path.
Everyone always said to do what you love and the money would follow, unfortunately, I just hadn’t found that to be the case for me.
“Are you just going to stand there staring at me, or are you going to come in?”
I jumped at Torin’s gruff voice, the sound sending a shiver of awareness down my back, and I edged closer to the table.
“Um, so I was thinking…”
Torin glanced up, his gaze slicing through me, and gestured to his pint glass.
“Beer?”
“No, I just—”
“Wine?” Torin stood and I watched, flabbergasted, as he went to an actual wine cabinet and pulled out a bottle. “Red suit you?”
“Um, sure.” It wouldn’t hurt, that was for sure. “Thank you.” Why was he doing a one-eighty and serving me wine now? Confused, I bit my lower lip and stood, hands linked behind my back.
“Did you eat?”
“Eat?” I couldn’t follow what was happening. An hour ago he was shouting at me and now he wanted to feed me?
“Aye. Food? The stuff that gives you sustenance and keeps you alive.” Torin angled his head toward a pot on the stove. “I’ve plenty of soup left. Potato leek. Help yourself.”
My stomach grumbled in response, and Torin sighed and put the wine bottle down next to a glass on the counter. Moving to the stove, he ladled out a bowl of soup, sliced off a thick hunk of crusty bread, and plopped it down at a seat across from him on the table.
“Sit.”
I did as I was told, my heart hammering in my chest, as he poured me a glass of wine and then returned to the table, sliding into the seat across from me. He’d changed into loose grey joggers, and a hooded sweatshirt, and I wanted to crawl onto his lap and wrap my arms around his neck.
Shocked at the thought, I reached for my wine and took a healthy gulp, needing to think about anything else than just how freaking gorgeous this man was.
“Slàinte,” Torin said, dryly, raising his glass to me, and I winced. I tilted my glass at his and swallowed against the awkwardness that now clogged my throat.
“Sorry, I should have thanked you first. It’s been … an unsettling day.”
“I’d say.” Torin sighed and picked up his spoon, gesturing at me with it. “Eat.”
“Oh, aye. Thanks.” We ate in silence for a few moments, until Torin had finished his meal, and I’d made my way through most of the soup. My nerves were scrambling as I searched for a way to propose my, admittedly, outlandish temporary solution to the truth spell problem.
“I need you to stay.”
I blinked at Torin’s words, my head coming up from where I’d been staring forlornly at my soup bowl, and took in his tense expression.
“You do?” I asked, incredulous.
“Aye, you’re a solution to a problem I have.”
I waited and a log snapped in the fireplace behind me. Torin’s face was all angles and shadows, the firelight flickering over the sharp edge of his jaw.
“That’s it? You’re not going to tell me more?” I raised an eyebrow at him. “What’s the problem?”
Torin opened his mouth to speak, and then glowered at me, and I realized he’d been about to put off answering my question, but the truth spell wasn’t going to allow him to do so. He, seemingly, had come to the same realization and raked a hand through his hair as he leaned back in the chair.