She laughed and dropped her head to his chest. “I’ve sought out Romanian TV before, and sometimes I can understand it. Kind of. Basic words.”
He blinked. “Romanian?”
“Oh yeah, didn’t I tell you? The twins found me in an orphanage. Most of the kids they adopted were from down the hill in Denver, but a friend of a friend forwarded my case, and they came and got me.”
“How did they know you were a witch?”
“They didn’t, but the nuns and priests running the orphanage were convinced I was demon-possessed because I kept talking about the future, and it kept coming true. Normally, witches develop their talent in their teens, but I started young. Something about trauma and not having a coven? Blah blah blah. I didn’t know what was happening, obviously.”
Trauma and blah blah blah? He ached for that tiny child.
She sniffed. “Anyway, the priests were trying exorcisms. On the off chance the visions were real, the twins hauled themselves overseas.”
He liked the two old ladies more than he had at any other time in their acquaintance. He had never been to Romania in his life. If she hadn’t gotten out, he would never have met her. He cringed at his own selfish thought. If she hadn’t gotten out, there was a good chance she wouldn’t have made it to adulthood.
“Thank god you’re here,” he said, meaning it on every level as he put his arms around her to squish her closer.
“So now god is real?”
“Thank the twins, too, or the crab in the sky. I’m not picky.” When she pulled her head up to look at him, he frowned. “One of them is a crab, right?”
“Yeah, Cancer. They’re considered a water sign, vulnerable and sweet.”
“Wait. I just have to…” He shuffled her so he could see her clearly. “You’re saying that the collection of stars that everyone thought looked like a crustacean with a claw and a hard shell is named Cancer, the horrible, endless growth of malignant cellsthat kills people, and the people born when that sign in the sky aresweet?”
She laughed. “It’s not the sign in the sky, actually. Thesunis in that part of the sky when you’re born, so it’s the only constellation that’s invisible the day of your birth.”
“Right, thus the ecliptic. That’s why.” A piece of astrology made sense for the first time. But no, it made even less sense. “And those people are soft and squishy and nice and watery?”
“When you put it like that…”
He knew well that many beliefs of many countries made little sense to anyone outside of them and that having a ritual was more important than accuracy, but astrology hurt his head.
“You’re such a Capricorn,” she said, and he just laughed, genuinely not wanting to know more.
He pulled her face back to hers and kissed her as he fiddled at the hem of her shirt until he could get his hands on her skin, hot and burning and perfect.
He didn’t want to stop kissing her, but he also had to see all of her. He had to be skin to skin here in this house with light streaming in the windows and not in the dark under a dozen blankets in the middle of a blizzard.
He helped her pull off her shirt as she undid the buttons of his. He reached for his glasses, and she shook her head.
“What?”
“You have no idea how hot you are.”
He laughed and took them off. “I’m glad you think so, but if I break those, I don’t have another pair in the state.”
She pouted as he hauled her closer. She was thin with surprising muscles, and her breasts were perfect, petite with dark nipples that contrasted vividly with her pale skin.
Her gaze darted all over his form, feeling like a brand. She’d seen a lot more of him every time he shifted, but it felt like she was looking for the first time. She dragged her hands over hispecs and down the ridges of his stomach with a groan that had him pulling her toward him.
After that, they were lost in a frenzy of pants, skirt, and underwear, squeaks, and blankets until he was laid out again on bare sheets, gritting his teeth and clenching every muscle he could physically control as she rolled the condom over him.
“Mountain size,” she said, sounding a little nervous.
“We fit together,”he insisted, terrified she would balk. They had already fit together.
She glanced up at him and swung her leg over. He helped her rise over him and fit him to her so she could sink down. He wanted to spend much more time preparing, but she was right; they didn’t have any time.
