‘If I’d been in Savannah last night, I wouldn’t have been hanging around in any square. I’d have been here with you.’
And just as surely as I knew how to breathe, I knew he was telling the truth.
‘Maybe it was part of the vision,’ I said, shaking my head as I tucked my hair behind my ears. ‘It’s hard to know what’s real and what isn’t right now.’
‘Vision?’ he replied, fresh concern on his face. ‘I don’t like the sound of that. And I don’t like the sound of someone lurking around Bell House in the middle of the night. Y’all don’t have security cameras?’
When I couldn’t stop myself from laughing out loud, his lips twitched upwards.
‘Yeah, OK, that was pretty dumb,’ he conceded. ‘Even if you weren’t a witch, I would pity the poor soul who tried to break in and found Ashley waiting for him.’
‘Exactly,’ I said, placing my hand on his chest. At the gentle thud of his heart beating against my palm, all my fears were replaced by hope.
‘Well, well, well, look who it is.’
Ashley entered through the back door, gardening gloves tucked into the waistband of her denim shorts and an unimpressed scowl on her face.
‘Emily, I thought I warned you about letting the dog on the furniture.’
She dumped a pair of gleaming, sharp secateurs on the table and picked up my glass of lemonade, taking a long and thirsty sip.
‘That is so good,’ she said, smacking her lips with delight. ‘Oh right, because I made it. So, how’s tricks, Rover? Made it through the full moon without destroying any chew toys?’
‘Good to see you too, Miss Ashley,’ he said, his smile steady and strong. ‘I hope you’ve been well.’
‘Still alive. Can’t complain.’
‘OK, let’s go,’ I grabbed Wyn’s wrist, pulling him from his stool. ‘This has been fun, so glad the two of you had a chance to catch up.’
Ashley’s smirk grew as I hauled him away. We had too much to talk about to make time for her constant quips. Plus it was at least two minutes since he’d last kissed me and I didn’t know if I could go two minutes more.
‘Y’all leave that bedroom door open,’ she called as she refilled her glass.
I stopped at the kitchen door, looking back at her in disbelief.
‘Seriously?’
‘No. You know I don’t care what y’all do but try to be safe at least. I’m not fixing to be a great-aunt any time soon.’
Wyn grinned when I coloured up, the tops of my ears burning with embarrassment.
‘I swear, Emily, keeping track of your gentleman callers is a full-time job,’ Ashley said with a sigh. ‘We need to get a calendar, stick it to the fridge. I’ll colour code it for you, if you’d like?’
Wyn’s grin disappeared.
‘Gentleman callers?’
‘You didn’t know?’ Ashley asked with mock surprise. ‘Interesting.’
‘Ignore her,’ I said, dragging him down the hallway, the roses on the windowsill wilting as we went.
Chapter Sixteen
The door to my room wasn’t even all the way closed when Wyn’s body crashed against mine. His strong, hard chest pressed against my back, lips on my neck and hands on my hips, while his soft moans sent me flying out of my body. There was something different about his kisses, more confidence, more certainty, but it was still blissful just to be in his arms. All the hours I’d spent dreaming about this didn’t compare in the slightest.
‘I missed you,’ he said, his teeth nipping at my ear in between the words. ‘I missed you so much.’
‘I missed you too,’ I replied, twisting in his arms until our mouths found each other. Just for a second, I pulled back, taking a beat to return to myself. We’d both been through a lot in the last forty-eight hours, I wanted to savour every moment with him. Who knew how long we had together this time.
