I wanted her.Desperately. I wanted to feed from her, to pleasure her. I wanted to explore every inch of her—to learn where she found pleasure, what made her laugh, what soothed her when the world weighed too heavily. I wanted to knowallof her.
My stomach gurgled as I dropped the noodles into the water.
Caitlyn was right for me in every way. The longer I watched her, the easier it was to picture the life stretching out ahead of us. I could see her standing over cauldrons in the back of a shop while I served customers out front. I could see long nights packing sweets into boxes, fulfilling Witchmart orders and teleporting them across the world. I could see us reconciling with Creep, convincing her to let us do a little DIY to leave our own mark on the house. We’d spend our evenings curled up by the fire, reruns ofHexes at Noonplaying softly in the background.
I could see us making love into the wee hours.
I could see her belly rounded.
I could see our children terrorizing Creep.
I could see us gray and withered, sitting side by side on the front porch, reminiscing about a life filled with warmth and magic and love.
But no matter how hard I tried to will it away, there was the shadow of another threaded through every one of those daydreams.
Snap.
I gritted my teeth, rubbing at the almost-raw skin of my wrist.
There might still be a part of me held by another, but I was working on getting that back. In the meantime, the rest of me belonged to Caitlyn, to do with as she wished.
With the noodles ready, I rose to summon my mate. The air was thick with layered aromas from her potions—sweet and sharp, soft and spicy, floral and citrus—and every one of them made my mouth water. Caitlyn stood lost in thought, brows furrowed as she stared into the distance, arms crossed, a wooden spoon tapping absently against her chin.
“Ready for food?” I asked.
Her stomach gurgled at the mention of sustenance, and her body sagged as though she’d finally surrendered the fight to find whatever answer she’d been chasing. She slipped her hand into mine, and I guided her carefully around the cauldrons and over to the fire.
“You looked deep in thought,” I said, handing her a bowl of noodles.
“Just stuck on a missing ingredient,” she replied. “Maybe if we talk about something else, it’ll come to me.”
“How about a Q and A while you eat?”
She nodded, then said through a mouthful of noodles, “You ask first.”
I tapped a finger against my chin, giving her time to finish chewing before asking, “Favorite food?”
She shot me anisn’t-it-obviouslook.
“Candy. Of course,” I answered for her.
“It’s like kryptonite for a Myers witch,” she said. Then, with a fresh forkful of noodles hovering near her mouth, she asked, “Favorite music?”
The questions went back and forth until Caitlyn had finished both her bowl of noodles and mine. In that time, I learned she loved individual songs but wasn’t loyal to any one musician or genre. To my surprise, given that she was part succubus,her favorite books weren’t romance at all, but horror. Her favorite color was all of them, and her favorite board game was Monopoly—though no one would play with her anymore because she was, by her own admission, extremely aggressive.
She adored brewing potions but hated cooking, and she practically squealed with delight when I puffed out my chest and declared that I would cook for her from now on. In a whisper, she confessed she’d probably forgive Creep eventually—but mostly because she wanted to see me in the kitchen, showing off my culinary skills. She also didn’t own a single matching pair of socks, had an unhealthy obsession with Butterfingers, and dreamed of getting a cat someday.
With every question answered, warmth unfurled in my stomach. Not just desire—though there was plenty of that—but a deep, steady certainty that she was the perfect match for me.
The questions only stopped when my stomach let out a loud gurgle, and Caitlyn’s cheeks flushed.
“Have you remembered the missing ingredient yet?” I asked.
She shook her head.
“Anything else I can do to help?”
The flush crept from her cheeks down her neck, but she still shook her head.
