Page 32 of Enchanted

“Good,” I said. Ethan’s life was going to be anything but short now I was here, but that was no reason for him to start giving a shit about the opinions of those who didn’t deserve to breathe the same air as him. “Couldn’t agree more. Did you study it at uni?”

“Nah, I took accounting.”

My brows shot up. “Really?”

He smirked at me over his camera. “What? Can’t picture me behind a desk sorting debits from credits?”

“Not really. I don’t know you, obviously, but you just seem so…alive with a camera in your hand. Like you need it to see the world properly. It’s hard to imagine you being happy in something so…lacking in creativity.”

Ethan stared at me for so long that I dropped my arm.

“Fuck. Did I say something wrong?”

“No.” He shook himself before giving me a small smile. “That was an oddly insightful comment. You’re right. I wouldn’t have been happy in accounting.”

“Oddly? How so?”

“Just unexpected, that’s all.” I waited for him to continue, but he just raised his camera. “Pop your arm back up for me. That’s brilliant.”

We fell back into the rhythm of the shoot. Ethan called out various expressions and I did my best to mimic them, grateful that I had years of experience in subterfuge to draw on. Being a supe in a unit like the Seraphim meant we were all good at acting, to a certain extent. You had to be when your very existence was hidden from those around you.

The whole time, I turned what Ethan had said over in my mind, focusing on his choice of words. Why was what I’d said unexpected? Why odd?

I was no closer to unpicking it when Ethan caught me off guard. “Can you do yearning?”

“Yearning?”

“Like you’re staring at something you want desperately but can’t have,” Ethan said, distracted by his camera. “Can you give me that?”

If it wouldn’t have freaked Ethan out, I would’ve laughed hysterically at the irony. “Yeah, Ethan. I can do that.”

It was a relief to not have to hide for a few moments. To let every feeling play out on my face as I stared, not at the camera, but at Ethan.

My chest ached. Maybe this was a bad idea. I might’ve been better off not reminding myself of the precise timbre of his voice. Of the sixteen freckles over the bridge of his nose. Of the shade of green in his eyes that seemed to glimmer when he chuckled.

His gaze went to the little screen as his fingers clicked on a button. “Beautiful. Just beautiful.”

The clouds outside cleared and sunlight streamed through the window. My heart stilled in my chest as it caught the red in Ethan’s hair.

Beautiful indeed.

How I wished he were mine.

This might have been a bad idea, but that didn’t change anything. I’d give everything I had just to relive this moment over and over again.

A knock on the door had both our heads snapping around. It cracked open a few inches before Sam’s face appeared. “Only me!”

“Come on in,” Ethan said, that polite smile reappearing. “Everyone’s decent.”

More’s the pity.

I narrowed my eyes as Ez appeared over Sam’s shoulder. I couldn’t blame him, I supposed. I remembered all too well how excited we’d been to meet Sam when Ez finally brought him home.

He nodded at me, leaning against the doorframe. Some of the tension in me melted away. Ez might be nosy, but he too remembered what it was like bringing Sam here. How overwhelming it’d been. Made sense that he didn’t want to subject Ethan to that. Ez might like to think he was nothing more than a surly fucker with a mean temper, but I knew better. He was one of the most caring and thoughtful beings I’d ever met.

Who was also surly with a mean temper.

“Just wanted to let you know that we’re all set up in the garden whenever you’re ready,” Sam said. “Zeke can help carry your equipment if you like.”