My eyes flick around us, and it truly is a display of his power that I’m calm in this moment. “The darkness. That’s why I walk at twilight. Trying to get used to it.” With my fear dampened, I find it easier to discuss that terrible time. “When I was trapped, the sorcerer would keep my cage in a dark room. I didn’t have much light.”
“Gods.” Broderick rasps the word, clutching me tight against his chest. “If that bastard wasn’t dead, I’d flay him alive myself.”
A violent Broderick is kind of hot.
“I can’t believe … it’s terrifying to think … if I hadn’t gone …” He shakes his head, muttering to himself.
I reach up to finger-comb his red waves, not because they’re in his eyes, but only because I find the gesture soothing. “Hadn’t gone where?”
He gives a dry, humorless laugh. “To this random estate sale in London. Anthony was gone on a photo shoot, and I realized it had been over a year since I had seen my sisters. I was missing them, feeling lonely, and then some friends invited me to this sale. Just a lark, to see what the upper crusts owned. Not normally my thing, but I decided to join them because I had nothing else to do.”
My heart thumps, slow and heavy. “What did you find there?” I ask in a whisper.
Broderick meets my eyes, though I can’t see much of his green irises with night enveloping us.
“The grimoire,” he says with a tone of awe. “Just sitting in this old house, on a shelf. Magic spilling off it. I knew Mor was collecting them, so I bought the book and sent it to her.”
“Thegrimoire?” I rasp, remembering the old leather book open in front of him the night I came back to my body.
Broderick nods. “The one with the spell that freed Jack. Jack, who led us to you.”
“And you freed me too.” Now, I reach for his hand, tracing my thumb over the scar on his palm. I feel the stiff skin under the layer of fine powder he used to work magic.
The witch closes his eyes and rests his forehead against mine. “I wish I had found it sooner. That we’d found you before you spent years in the dark.”
I cup his cheeks. “You’re the reason I’m here.” I press my lips against each of his lids. “I don’t know if it was luck or fate, but you found exactly what you needed to. And now, I’m here.” I kiss his cheekbones. “And I get the chance to live.” I kiss the corners of his mouth. “I get the chance to love. To loveyou.”
He sucks in a ragged breath, and then we’re kissing frantically, full of need and passion.
And a little bit of fear.
But the useful kind that pricks at you to remind you that life is finite, so take advantage of the good things when they’re in front of you.
I tear at Broderick’s clothes, leaving scorched fingerprints in the fabric. But my fire doesn’t hurt him, only makes the man groan and beg.
“I’m yours,” he pants. “Tell me to do anything, and I’ll do it.”
“Lie back,” I command. “I’m going to take you slow until I figure this out.”
When I fantasized about having sex with Broderick, I never imagined my knees would be pressing into dead leaves and I’d have an audience of stars above me.
But I wouldn’t change a single detail.
Not how he restrains himself, like I told him. Not how heated his cock is when I slip him from his pants. Not how the muscles in his neck strain as I use the tip of him to stroke through my damp arousal.
And not the way he whimpers when I pause and say, “Do you see my purse anywhere? I think I dropped it. There’s a pack of condoms.”
The internet also taught me a lot about sex ed.
“We can look for it,” Broderick offers in a strained voice. “But so you know, I have a contraceptive tattoo. On my hip. Still, I understand if you need more than that.”
Well, that’s something Ididn’tlearn about online. Thank the gods for magic.
“I trust you.” And I make sure to meet his eyes as I say so, loving the way his brows rise in wonder.
Broderick is tight at first. Or I am. Either way, it takes some time to work his length into me. But I put in the effort, and my well-behaved witch stays prone, his fingers tangled in his hair as he rattles off curses and prayers to the gods.
I’ve never felt more in control.
