"Who the fuck sold you their soul?" I asked, meeting her at the car and dragging my gaze over the swirling magical tattoo that covered herentireleft leg.
"That's the news. Surprise." Her lips quirked upward in a smile. "You were right. I'm not Jonah's mate."
Of course she wasn't.
She was mine. I'd been saying that forever.
"What did he ask for? That's a fucking huge bargain." I lifted her leg, looking around the front and back to see how far the mark stretched. It seemed to go a little past her ankle, and I followed it up her thigh.
Maybe it shouldn't have bothered me, but I was having a difficult time coping with the fact that my female suddenly had a massive, swirling marking on her body that connected her soul to another man's.
"It's a long story. Kind of feels like I sold my soul to him, rather than the other way around, but I'll recover. The point is, I'm not fated to him. Can I at least get a congratulations or something?"
She pushed my hand away when I tried to pull the leg of her shorts up so I could find the end of the tattoo. The waistband went nearly to her belly button, so I couldn't see enough of her skin.
"Easy, tiger." She glanced up and down the street. "I can show you the mark if we go somewhere private, but there are people around. You get pissy when I strip in front of anyone other than you."
"My apartment's across the street."
"You finally bribed Old Man Wallace to leave?"
Old Man Wallace was what she'd called the grumpy male spellcaster who lived across the street from my studio. He was probably younger than we were, but he was a grouch. "I did."
"Wait." Liv opened the trunk of her car and grabbed a stack of canvases that had been wrapped the way I'd taught her to doit years ago, with paper, protection on the corners, and bubble wrap. Her wrapping was messy, but effective.
I took the large stack from her, knowing damn well that she was likely to drop them and break both herself and the paintings. "I don't think returning my paintings qualifies as a peace offering."
"Those aremypaintings. I'm not returning them. And they aren't the peace offering."
The possessiveness in her tone nearly did me in. "Then why did you bring them back?"
"Reasons. And you aren't nearly enthusiastic enough about the fact that Jonah's not my mate," she said, leading me toward the apartment she had never been inside.
"I knew you weren't fated to him."
She typed the code into the door, smoothly adapting to the fact that I was still using the same password I always did. I'd never wanted to keep her out.
"You can't have known that," she said.
"You're fated tome." I grabbed the handle with my free hand, opening the door and waving her inside. "So yeah, I did."
The roll of her eyes made my lips curve. "As you pointed out, no one can know that until they've made a bargain."
"No one other than me, maybe." I put a hand on her lower back and propelled her into my apartment, taking in the sexy curve of her ass in those tiny shorts. "You forgot to get dressed this morning."
"I forgot how possessive you are this morning," she corrected.
"You'd never forget that." I shut the apartment door behind us and carried my paintings to the table.
"It looks bigger on the inside," Liv remarked, heading to the couch like she planned to stay.
"It doesn't. It's tiny."
"I'm surprised you picked this place. You like having space."
"It's temporary," I said.
"How many years, temporary?"
