Page 36 of Snowed In with an Incubus

Jaz stared at him in disbelief. She didn’t know why she’d thought he could come up with something better than that.

She took a deep breath. Then she bent down, squatting to get right in his hopeful little face.

“I really fucking don’t,” she whispered. “And you don’t, either.”

“Babe,” Brandon said defensively. “I know you’re upset—”

She squashed his lips together with her thumb and forefinger.

“Still talking,” she hissed. “You don’t love me. No, don’t shake your head, I’ll pinch even tighter. You love the idea of me, maybe. You love that I get you out of the house. You love having a hot, fun girlfriend. But you hate it when I startconversations with strangers. You can’t be bothered to even pretend to care when I pick up a new hobby. You say I look stupid when I laugh! Lilian was fucking right about you the whole time. You’re an asshole.”

“Az’min,” Brandon said, muffled through her fingers.

“I deserve someone who likes me for me,” she told him. “And who doesn’t! Fuck! My! Coworkers!”

She let go of his lips, punctuating the end of her sentence with a small slap. Then she stood, shivering. Her jacket was stillon the coat rack. Sam’s coat. Would he still be down there? Or would she leave and find his coat gone, her suitcase waiting under the coat rack instead?She had said she would stay at the inn. If he was getting hungry again, he’d go straight home for another dose of potion. He wouldn’trisk shifting in front of all these people. Not after she’d revealed that he took too much from her, even if it was only fora second.

Wherever Sam was, it wouldn’t matter tomorrow. It would be a new year, and Jaz was destined for Chicago.

She ripped the bathroom door open. Her arm twinged, and she tried not to think about all the delicious marks Sam had lefton her skin fading to nothing except that bright, swirling sun.

Chapter 13

Sam watched Jaz drag her ex up the stairs, her hand clamped around his arm so hard that Reg winced in sympathy beside him.

“Shit,” Reg said as the couple vanished onto the second floor. “You doing okay, bro?”

“I’m fine,” Sam said, strained. His wings shuddered inside him, wanting freedom. Someone cheered back in the living room,and he flinched. He couldn’t let people see him like this, sweaty and seconds away from shifting.

He staggered toward the front door.

Reg dragged him back. “Like hell you are. What happened?”

“What happened?” Sam laughed humorlessly. “I took too much, that’s what happened! I hurt her!”

Reg frowned. “Whoa, what? When?”

“Earlier! I don’t know! She said it was just a second, like that matters.”

“Uhhh,” Reg said. “Yeah? That does matter, dude. You didn’t actually cause any damage. You’d have to put some real effort in to actually hurt her, and you neverwould.”

“But I could!”

“Okay, let’s get off the world’s dumbest merry-go-round,” Reg said flatly. “You really like this girl, huh? When you’re notfeeding on her, I mean.”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Sam snapped, still reeling with guilt.

Reg rolled his eyes and pulled him beside the staircase, out of the way. “Remember when I was nineteen and completely goneover Sheila Herring? No holds barred, full freefall.”

“I’m not—” Sam squeezed his eyes shut against the pulsing fire threatening to burst through. “I’ve known her a day. Maybe two.”

Reg sighed. His beer-glazed expression was suddenly sharp, his tone uncharacteristically serious as he continued. “All I’msaying is that kind of thing can trigger … changes in us. Especially if you’ve been holding back on it.”

“I’ve had girlfriends,” Sam protested. He wiped his sweaty forehead, trying to focus on the pounding music, the chatter ofthe party, and the front door opening and closing on the other side of the stairs. Anything but the shifting under his skin,all his monster parts trying so hard to squirm free. He could still smell Jaz, the heavy, bitter sadness that had been radiatingoff of her when she’d tried to leave.

“You held back,” Reg said. “With all of them, you never let them in. Looks like someone made it through.”

He tweaked Sam’s hair, right over the bulges where his horns were trying to break through.