Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
TORIN
There were several lacy pairs of pants hanging in my laundry the following morning. I froze and blinked at them, surprised at the visceral response my body had to seeing the delicate fabric hanging from the drying rack in front of the washing machine.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t known that, naturally, Liora would be doing her washing in the house. Of course she would. People had to clean their clothes, didn’t they? It was just that I hadn’t envisioned what that might actually look like.
And, apparently, it looked like neon pink and purple lace thongs.
I bet she looked incredible in them.
As the image of her draped in vibrant lace flashed through my mind, I turned away from the drying rack and took several deep breaths.
I needed to work on controlling myself. It was this damn truth spell.
No matter what, I couldn’t seem to filter the things that I thought or said.
In some ways, it felt like I’d resorted to caveman-like needs. Torin hungry. Torin horny. Torin tired.
It was deeply annoying.
Yet it had also allowed me to start dating Liora, and even though she’d been in my house just under a week, she had managed to infiltrate every part of my life. I wondered if she even knew how much her presence trickled over into the entire house.
A dish of crystals at the windowsill to “charge” in the moonlight.
A few glass bottles with sprigs of greenery on the fireplace mantel.
A scented candle by the kitchen sink.
A threadbare blanket folded across the back of the couch by the fire.
Pieces of Liora sprinkled all over the house, not to mention her mindless humming, or how she argued with herself seemingly all the time, unbeknownst that anyone was listening to her conversations.
She was endlessly intriguing, and I’d started coming home from work earlier than usual to spend more time with her.
Watching her work at the pub had actually been fun, once I’d warned Graham away, that is.
Liora was captivating to watch in action, making connections with everyone she spoke to, and bringing a breath of fresh air to the pub.
I’d been able to connect with a few people I hadn’t seen in a while, since I didn’t go out much, and though the truth spell made conversations tricky to navigate, I was getting better at pausing before I spoke.
I needed to take a moment to filter through my thoughts and then pick the comment that made the most sense for the conversation with the lowest possibility of offending anyone.
Movement caught my eye and I moved to the window in the door that led outside.
I smiled as I saw Liora, in her joggers and a puffy coat, seemingly having a very serious discussion with a small red squirrel.
The squirrel sat back on its haunches, bobbing its head as she spoke, and I quietly opened the door and stepped out into the crisp air of the sunny autumn morning.
The squirrel tracked me right away, but it took a moment for Liora to finish speaking and realize that I had joined her in the backyard.
“Bracken, I’m going to need you to help with this, you understand?”
I swear the squirrel gestured one paw to me, and Liora turned and blanched.
“Make a new friend?” I asked, surprised that the squirrel hadn’t run away.
The squirrel looked between Liora, who suddenly had a guilty look on her face, and me. It was then that I realized there was potentially something magickal going on here.
“Och, Liora. Is this another spell?” I asked, stepping closer. The squirrel stayed where it was, confirming my suspicions that something else was going on.
“I guess it’s only fair that I’m honest with you, since I’ve kind of put you in the same boat,” Liora muttered.
“Oh gee, that’s grand. Glad to hear you were thinking of lying to me.”
Liora grimaced and straightened, turning to look at me. I sighed. The soft morning light speared through the trees, illuminating her face.
“This light makes you look like a magickal wood nymph,” I muttered, unable to lie to her, but annoyed she was keeping things from me.
“I think that’s one of the grumpiest compliments I’ve ever received,” Liora said, amusement lighting her gorgeous face.
“Well, I can’t help that you’re standing here looking drop-dead gorgeous in the stupid morning sunlight while hiding things from me,” I said, shoving my hands in the pockets of my hoodie.
“Thank you? I think?” Liora said. I didn’t respond, having learned that sometimes it was just best to wait her out, and she sighed and dug at the ground with one toe of her trainers. “I can hear him speak.”
“Who?” I paused and then looked at the squirrel.
He waved at me.
“Holy shite.” My mouth dropped open and the squirrel chittered at me, before racing across the yard and bounding up a tree. “Did he just wave at me?”
“Aye. He did. That’s Bracken. It appears he’s my familiar.”
“Right.” Okay, so she had a familiar. What the hell was a familiar? “What the hell is a familiar?”
“A magickal animal or creature who bonds with their witch to help them with things in the magickal world. Or just to be a companion, really.”
“You’re a witch?” I asked, trying to sift through all the questions I had, but zeroing in on the most important part.
“Hello? Earth to Torin? I’m the one who put a spell on you, remember?”
“Aye, I do at that. But I didn’t realize that made you a witch.”
“In your world, who are the people who typically cast spells?” Liora raised an eyebrow in question. Bracken chattered from the tree, seeming to have a laugh at my expense.
“I thought you were an astrologer.”
“I am. But it appears I’m also a witch. Of sorts. I don’t know, Torin. Truly. It’s more like a word used to cover magickals, okay? I’ve still got a lot to learn. And, not much time to talk this morning, I’m afraid. I’ve got a reading shortly.”
“Wait,” I said, before she could turn and go back inside.
“How are you? After last night? Did you have bad dreams or anything?” Liora had insisted she was dead on her feet after her shift and had gone right to bed after we’d gotten home, while I’d stayed up for quite a while just in case the Kelpies had shrieked again or if she needed me for anything.
But there hadn’t been a sound from her side of the house, so she must have done as she said and tucked into bed.
“I’m okay. It was a bit of a white-knuckle ride home, but I have to admit I’m glad that we didn’t see the Kelpies on the loch or anything like that. I really can’t say what I would have done.”
“You would have done nothing but kept driving. I would have gotten out if needed.”
Liora sighed and tilted her head, bringing her fists to her waist.
“Torin. It’s not your job to protect me.”
“It will be a cold day in hell if you think I’d actually let you get out of a car and face down a Kelpie by yourself. That’s madness, woman, madness.” I shook my head at her.
“And what is it you’d plan to be doing then?”
“I don’t know.” I threw up my hands. “But I sure as hell wouldn’t stand by and let my woman get attacked, would I now?”
“Torin. I’m not…” Liora trailed off and shook her head. “We need to talk about this whole ‘us’ thing.”
“No, we don’t,” I said, feeling my stubbornness kick in. There was no way she got to walk into my life, create total upheaval, and then create distance from me. I wouldn’t allow it. “You feel something for me. And I for you. Don’t deny it.”
“It’s not … I can’t …” Liora wrung her hands.
I stepped forward and cupped her chin. Leaning down until my mouth hovered over hers, I lowered my voice.
“Tell me you don’t feel anything when I kiss you and I’ll back off.”
Liora’s breath caught, and for one suspended heartbeat I thought she might actually say it. Might actually deny what simmered between us.
But her eyes flicked to my mouth. Her lashes fluttered.
And that was my undoing.
I closed the whisper of distance and kissed her.
It wasn’t fierce. It was a slow, seeking, an almost reverent brush of lips, like I’d been waiting all damn week for her to exhale just so I could breathe her in.
She gasped softly against me, her lips parting so that the kiss deepened, warmth sliding through me like a sip of whisky. Her fingers curled into the front of my hoodie, gripping tight.
I angled my head, lips coaxing, asking without words.
Liora made a small sound threaded with want.
And she leaned in.
Her body fit against mine as if she’d been carved for this exact moment in my arms. The truth spell hummed under my skin, pressing every unfiltered thought to the surface.
God, she tasted like morning.
Like possibility.
Like a beginning and an ending.
I pulled back only when the need for air insisted, resting my forehead against hers. Her breath came out in soft pants, plumes of white in the cold air.
“Tell me,” I murmured, voice ragged. “Tell me you feel nothing.”
Liora swallowed. Her hands slid from my hoodie, dropping to her sides as if it took every shred of willpower to let go.
“I…” Her voice cracked. She shut her eyes, regrouped, opened them again. “I can’t say that. Because it’s not true.”
A fierce bolt of satisfaction cut through me, hot and bright. “Aye. That’s what I thought.”
“But that doesn’t mean I know what to do with it,” she whispered, stepping back, retreat already in her posture. “Torin, everything in my life is upside down. I’m barely keeping my head above water. And if I fall for you, like, really fall—”
“But you are, aren’t you? Already. Just like I am,” I said. I wasn’t trying to win. I wasn’t gloating. It was simply the truth, pulled raw from the spell.
Liora let out a shaky breath. “I need … space. To think. To breathe.”
I nodded, even though every part of me wanted to pull her back in and kiss her senseless again. “Take it. But don’t run from this. Or from me.”
She bit her lip—traitorous mouth—and then turned toward the back door.
I let her go.
She paused only once, hand on the handle, and said without looking back, “That kiss … I felt it, Torin. I felt everything.” Whatever you do, Torin, do not fist bump the air.
And then she was inside, the door clicking softly shut behind her.
I stared after her, heart hammering like a bloody drum.
A rustle above me made me glance up.
Bracken hung upside down from a branch, tiny paws pumping the air like he was celebrating a championship win. He let out a chirping cheer, then did a little spin, tail flicking in triumph.
“Oh, sod off,” I muttered, though I couldn’t stop the grin tugging at my mouth.
Bracken chattered something that sounded suspiciously like, About time, lover boy, and scampered higher into the tree.
I scrubbed a hand over my face.
Liora felt something.
She’d admitted it. I felt everything. She wasn’t the only one. Liora just fitted. She fitted me. I wanted more with her, which again, should terrify me, but it wasn’t terror I felt.
And now?
Now I just had to make damn sure she didn’t talk herself out of us.