‘Oh, Cal.’ Aster rubbed incomprehensible patterns across my back. ‘I’m sorry I got mad.’
I reared away. But not far. Not out of the circle of his arms. Just far enough that I could look into his eyes. ‘You had every right to get mad.’
He scrunched his nose. ‘Yeah. Kinda. Maybe gentle indignation would have been a more proportionate response?’
I shook my head, clutching his thick jumper. ‘I lied to you. I didn’t tell you what I am.’
‘Yeah, I know,’ Aster said softly. So softly. And his eyes were so kind. ‘But you did it because you were scared, right?’
I froze, my teeth clenched together. Aster continued rubbing gentle patterns across my back.
‘If it’s any help, I’m not angry any more. And I was only pissed because I was shocked. I don’t care about you being a werewolf.’ He tilted his head, his eyes crinkling with a grin. ‘If you think about it, it’s freaking cool. I’m having sex with a literal werewolf.’
His heart hadn’t missed a beat. My eyes darted between his. He was right: I had been afraid. I was still afraid.
Aster rose up on his tiptoes to rest his forehead against mine. ‘I like you as much now as I did before I knew.’
His heartbeat stayed strong and clear. Tension leakedfrom my limbs. I gripped his jumper in my fists. ‘You don’t want to leave?’
‘Nope.’ Aster rubbed his forehead across mine.
‘I was afraid,’ I whispered. ‘I’m sorry I hid it.’
Aster dropped his feet flat on the floor and looked up at me. ‘I understand why you did. It’s okay.’ His eyebrows furrowed. ‘There’s nothing else though? Like, nothing else you’re hiding?’
I shook my head. Aster wouldn’t be able to hear the skip in my heartbeat if I said no, but I didn’t want to chance it. My final secret was for his benefit. He didn’t need to know I was in love with him. It would only make him leaving harder.
Aster sighed and cuddled into my chest. ‘Today has been a day. I need a long bath and junk food and to watch something crappy.’
I held him tight, the last traces of my fear shrinking as I breathed deep of his familiar scent. ‘We can do all that.’
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
ASTER
After perhaps our longest cuddle yet—which said something as Callum and I were undisputed champions of the prolonged hug—Callum deposited me in the bathroom. He ran hot water and added my dried flowers to the tub, then helped remove my boulder-smushed clothing.
It wasn’t sexual, something I’d never expected to say about getting naked in his presence. Callum touched every inch of skin he carefully revealed, like he was reminding himself I was here. I smiled whenever he looked up, determined he would understand people could react positively to him being a wolf-man. He left me stewing in the tub to make dinner, and my brain kicked into gear.
I was living with a freaking werewolf. Callum was not human. He looked human, acted human most of the time, but he wasn’t. His essential nature was different to mine.
I didn’t know what that meant, but I wanted to.
‘I have questions.’ I tugged one of his jumpers over my head as I stumbled out ofthe bedroom.
Callum looked up from stirring tomato-y sauce. His face wasn’t shuttered, but his tiny smile wasn’t as warm and unguarded as it could be. ‘I thought you might.’
I walked over and hugged him from behind. My number one mission: to bring Callum’s proper smiles back. Really, I was performing service to the world. A proper Callum smile was a thing to behold.
I’d use everything in my arsenal to coax him into feeling comfortable with me again. My words, my smiles, a thousand hugs. Whatever he needed.
Despite the inches he had on me, Callum huddled in the circle of my arms. ‘Ask away.’
‘I need the book.’ I squeezed him, then plonked onto the sofa with Frank’s tome on my lap. While I flicked through to the werewolf section, Callum served up steaming bowls of tomato-slathered pasta topped with melting cheese.
‘Thank you.’ I took my bowl and balanced it on one knee, the book laid open on the other. ‘Right. Let’s see how much of this is true.’
The answer: a lot of it. Which had me rethinking how easily I’d dismissed all the other magical creatures. If most of the stuff about werewolves was right, then maybe fairies and trolls and even yetis walked around in the midst of us unsuspecting humans.
