Did he really not feel this? That pull as he sucked me into his orbit? That humming of something primal pulsing between us?
It was Blaise’s turn to look thrown. His mouth opened, closed, then opened again before he finally managed, “But... you didn’t summon me.”
My thoughts exactly.
“Yeah, no shit,” I blurted out, and then immediately regretted it. It wasn’t his fault.
We stood there in silence, staring at each other while my mind tried and failed to make sense of the situation. Of all the ways Fate could’ve introduced us, I’d accidentally employed my mate and met him in the middle of a field, after a nine-hour road trip, probably dusted in roadside snack debris, wearing mytattiestclothes, and facing down the very real prospect of sharing a two-person tent with him for the next three weeks.
What a romantic meet-cute, a sardonic voice in my head observed.
My gaze drifted back to Blaise. Instead of looking dazed or awestruck like a demon who had just found the one person on this earth that could complete his soul, he was biting his bottom lip, staring somewhere over my shoulder, brows drawn tight, like someone locked in an internal war with himself.
“I... um... I mean, I can always cancel the job if you’d prefer to wait until next Samhain to get to know one another?” I said, instantly regretting it.
No. Absolutely not. Now that I’d met him and seen his face, my body was already rebelling. I wanted answers to all the questions that had haunted me for years. What would it feel like to kiss him for the first time? Did he have any kinks? What did his shadow form look like? Did he like candy?
Blaise took a slow breath before finally meeting my gaze. “No. Of course not,” he said, his features softening just a little. “I’m just...” He paused, clearly choosing his words with care. “... working through something in my personal life at the moment.”
His lips pressed together, like he was holding back far more than he was willing to say right now.
Okay. So my mate had some personal shit going on that he wasn’t ready to open up about. That was... fine. I guessed. I mean, I was practically an open book, but I’d grown up in acoven of friends and family—there weren’t really any secrets to keep. Blaise, on the other hand, had spent the last nine years out in the big wide world on his own. And judging by the edge of that scar I’d glimpsed on his neck, it hadn’t been a walk in the park.
Guilt hollowed out my stomach.
He’d had to do that because of me. Because I’d chosen stupid candy over summoning him.
My gaze flicked back to him, and this time I noticed the other scars. Fine, spiderweb-thin lines crisscrossing his skin, only visible where the setting sun caught them just right.
All your fault, Caitlyn, I thought.
“You don’t have to tell me right away,” I blurted out, the words tumbling over each other. I wasn’t sure I was ready to hear exactly what I’d put him through just yet.
Relief flickered across his face.
“And we can take things as slow as you want to,” I added.
Something complicated crossed his expression, like slow was exactly what heneeded, even if it seemed as though slow wasn’t what he wanted. But after a moment, he nodded, his shoulders easing as some of the tension drained from him.
Silence stretched between us, long and awkward and charged.
Then Blaise cleared his throat. “You gonna explain why we’re standing in an empty field?”
My brain short-circuited. I lurched forward without thinking and promptly smacked my head on the door frame as I attempted to retrieve my phone in a panic. It seemed to knock some sense into me, because I remembered that, after Blaise had called, I’d been so flustered by the way he’d said“It’s fine, Caitlyn”that I’d forgotten to put my phone back into its dock and had instead slipped it into my pocket.
“I... um...” I started, fingers fumbling uselessly through the ridiculously overstuffed front pocket of my overalls. I movedaside candy wrappers, lint, and something sticky until finally my fingers closed around my phone, and I let out a breath of relief. “Just—just give me a minute to try and coax the house here.”
“Coaxthe house here?” he repeated, watching me carefully as I edged away from the car and took a few tentative steps into the field.
“Um. Yeah. You’ll see in a minute,” I said, then added under my breath, “Hopefully.”
I typed in my landline number, hit call, and waited. It rang and rang, then rolled straight to voicemail. Teeth clenched, I shot a glance at Blaise, whose brows were drawn together in clear confusion.
I tried again.
This time, Creep picked up. The only sound on the line was the low crackle of the living room fire.
“Um, Creep?” I said, keeping my voice carefully neutral. “Were you, uh, planning on joining me?”
