Page 31 of Snowed In with an Incubus

The car was warm. Sam couldn’t tell much of a difference with his naturally hot blood, but Jaz started taking off the jackethe’d loaned her halfway through the ten-minute drive.

He reached for the heater. “Do you want me to turn it off?”

“Hmm? Oh. Not yet.” She draped the jacket around her shoulders, shooting him the same big surprised smile she’d given himwhen he slid it over her arms back at the house. She often did that when he did something nice for her. Like she kept expectinghim to pull back.

In her defense, that was always his first instinct. But something about Jaz made it easy to swallow that instinct and puthis jacket around her shoulders. Invite her on a walk. Tell her yes, she can stay with him, don’t go to the inn.

It was so easy, being with Jaz. In one day, she’d pried things out of him that he hadn’t talked about with anyone. Even Reg, who had beenhounding him to just talk about his feelings for once in his goddamn life, hadn’t been able to get as much out of him as Jaz. Knowing she was leavingsoon made him almost as sad as he was relieved. Without her around, he could return to repressing everything. He was …kind of looking forward to it. Familiarity was comforting, even if it wasn’t always good.

Sam squeezed the steering wheel. They were almost at the house. It was now or never.

“Sorry I snapped at you earlier,” he blurted.

Jaz looked up from her phone, where she had just finished posting something on her Instagram stories.

“With the soup?” Jaz frowned. “I wouldn’t call that snapping. Besides, I did almost pour that dirty dishwater—”

“No, when we were walking Xena. It was weird. I was weird.”

He’d suggested they go and ask about dragon flying, but she’d told him not to worry about it. But Jaz, being Jaz, couldn’tdo a poker face to save her life. She wore her emotions on her sleeve. Not like him. Jaz was so easy to read. If there wassomething on her mind, she’d say it. If something wasn’t okay, she wouldn’t insist it was.

“I get it,” Jaz said, tucking her phone away. “Not everyone’s comfy with every part of themselves. I shouldn’t have pushed.”

“I’m not ashamed,” he said, mind racing through every argument he’d had about it with Reg since puberty. “I’m just responsible.I could hurt someone. Hurt you.”

“By walking around with horns?”

“No, I just—” Sam’s hands squeaked against the steering wheel. He was sweating again. He never had to explain himself aboutthis, except in those short-lived arguments with Reg. Everyone else either didn’t know he was an incubus or knew not to bringit up. How could he explain something that was baked in him so deep?

“My dad,” he started. “He always said to just … take the potion. Try to be normal.”

“Oookay. And how’s he doing?”

“I don’t know. Haven’t talked to him in a while.” Sam hesitated. He could just leave it at that. But Jaz had already seenhis wings, she’d seen him feed. What was one more naked truth?

“He cheated on my mom,” he admitted. “A lot, apparently.”

“Ew.” Jaz’s disgust quickly turned to realization. “Did he feed from them?”

“Yeah.” He snorted. “Hypocrite. When it finally came out, after all the shit he told me growing up, he said … he said he couldn’t help it. That it was just who he was.”

“Sounds like an asshole.”

“Yeah. In the end, yeah.” Sam swallowed, eyes on the dark road ahead, desperately trying to think of something to change thesubject. Something to make him feel less like an idiot. This was ancient history, so why was he bringing it up? He didn’ttalk about this; why was he talking about this?

“So,” Jaz said, cutting into his internal spiral. “Is this a dancing party?”

“It’s Reg’s party. So yeah, there will be a designated dance floor in the living room.”

“Are we going to be on it?”

Sam didn’t dance. But he was sure Jaz could tease it out of him.

“I could be persuaded,” he said.

Jaz sighed in relief as they ducked inside, hanging her borrowed jacket on the overflowing coat rack. “I was worried it wouldbe cold,” she said. “You hot-blooded monsters must save so much on power!”

“We do,” he said. “I think even if Reg didn’t have the heater on, we’d be okay.”