Chapter 20

Kate

Robin Madsen tries her best to detain us, but the boys are brutal with their silence. When she tries to make conversation with them, and they’re done talking to her, they just … stop. It’s painful. They’ll move around her like she doesn’t exist, leaving me to pick up the pieces.

“There was a vase in the room last night that was …” She hesitates and looks nervously in the direction of her beautiful pink house. The sky is, as always, gray and blotchy behind it. The ocean sounds annoyed with the very idea of a nice summer day, crashing against the shore just one block over. “ Floating. ”

I toss a bucket into the back of my truck, one that’s filled with paintbrushes that’ve seen better days. RIP. The men are hard on the equipment, but that’s fine. We have magic. And brawn. Yeah, yeah, an excess amount of brawn.

“A floating vase?” I ask, thinking about the ghost and wondering how dangerous it really is, what it might do to this woman. Brooks is right though—gag, I hate admitting that. We have to close the gate before we deal with anything else. That’s it. No more time. We need the Hag gone yesterday.

I can’t let anything happen to my friends.

I also can’t pretend like the words I like you very much aren’t stuck in my head. They’ve dislodged the ones that echoed I don’t think I would, if it was you, and I wonder if this is what it’s going to be like living with and fucking and romancing three different people.

Tanner appears beside me with the ladder. Sometimes, homeowners have storage rooms or garages or sheds where I can store my stuff for the duration of the job. Not Mrs. Madsen. Also, I’m not at that level yet where I can afford a nice trailer.

I wonder how much cash we could really make out of leaves? Launder it through my business and—

Wow.

These men are infecting my psyche with their bullshit. Launder money? Really, Kate?

Tanner slides the ladder into the truck bed, arm muscles rippling. Shirtless. Dripping sweat. The cone of his hat is curled to one side in a little spiral, his wolf ears half-cocked.

My eyes narrow.

“You are not permitted to take your shirt off until the business day has officially ended. Put it back on.” My voice is Boss Kate’s voice, not … mewling, writhing, moaning Kate’s voice. Tanner blinks at me like he can’t believe what he just heard. He’s wearing brown suede gloves and jeans that hug his hips and thighs.

“Did you really just tell me to put a shirt on ?” he retorts, as if Mrs. Madsen isn’t there at all. “Oh hell no, Kate. Not going to happen.”

“Excuse him,” I say to our employer, grabbing Tanner by his sizable bicep and dragging him off to one side. He immediately goes in for the kill, flashing this bold, sassy smile. Black and gold hair stuck to his forehead. Scar silver and shiny in the sunlight.

Yeah. I was right. It’s unlikely this man was ever denied anything in life, not looking the way he does. It’s hard not to get caught up in him.

I make myself drop my hand and Tanner looks at it like I’ve betrayed him.

“It’s not easy for me to focus on my work when you’re walking around like …” I inhale and gesture at him loosely. “Well, like that. Besides, I think Mrs. Madsen has a crush on you and has been checking you out all day.”

Also, social media. He doesn’t seem to take those threats seriously—none of these men do—so I don’t bother bringing it up. My other reasons are valid.

“Well, look at that. So you didn’t actually want me to put a shirt on.” He sounds sooo goddamn cocky. I could scream.

“It’s not professional to thirst trap your client,” I tell him, but I can’t move. He smells good, flexing gloved hands on either side of his body. Unflexing them. Smiling.

“Is it professional to fuck my boss?” It’s asked as if it were truly a question and not a flash of snark.

“No,” I respond, but my voice is shaky.

“Well then.” His voice is breathy with laughter. “I guess I’m not professional because I’m about three seconds away from taking my superior against the freshly painted wall.”

“If you try to fuck me outside, I’ll cut your balls off while you’re sleeping.” I take a step back from him, and it’s there again. Betrayal. He’s upset with me, but he won’t say why. It felt like we were getting somewhere real this morning, but Tanner used Georgia as his excuse to halt the conversation.

Mrs. Madsen waits nearby, fidgeting in the grass. She’s so upset about the ghost that she isn’t ready to leave me alone yet, like she’s convinced herself that the guys and I can help her. She isn’t necessarily wrong, but her haunting will have to wait.

I refocus on Tanner, but he’s leaving. He’s walking away.

No. Nope.

I chase after him and grab onto his arm, fingers digging into hard muscle. He stops on the front walk, the house a looming pink nightmare behind him. The ghost is screaming in the upstairs window, and the sound gives me goose bumps.

“If you’re upset, I need you to tell me.” I frown up at him, trying to ascertain his mood from his wolf ears. They’re very expressive. One is folded, the other perked.

“Upset?” Tanner makes a joke out of it. “Because me without a shirt on is enough to distract you from your favorite activity on planet earth? Painting old houses. ” He smiles as he briefly removes his hat and tugs his shirt on, catching the fabric on his lips as he drags it down and doesn’t quite pull it flush to his waistband. A strip of taut stomach shows between the shirt and the pants, and it takes effort not to look. “Definitely not upset about that.”

“Pretending like you’re not upset makes it feel like you’re lying to me.” If I’m honest first, we can move past this and be done with it. What if something happens while we’re trying to bind the gate? What if the Hag gets out ? I might as well be bold now, while I have the chance.

While there’s sunshine. Blue sky. Beautiful old houses. The ocean. A taste of salt and fog.

“Looks like your nice guy bullshit isn’t working on Kate,” Marlowe quips as he passes by, and I could freaking throttle him. Can’t he see that Tanner is most definitely not in the mood for that today? There’s a tightness around his eyes, and this way that he licks his lip that tells me he’s pissed.

“Guess not.” Tanner looks up at Lo, causing the other man to pause. It feels like they’re about to fight with each other, and I sense that this has little to do with me and everything to do with their history. Marlowe can’t stand Tanner, but he also can’t bear to be separated from him. Hatred and coven, competing worldviews. “Maybe I should break Kate’s hand like you did? Get her to fall for me, too.”

Marlowe looks from him to me, like he’s trying to make sense of Tanner’s statement. A joke? An insult? And if it is an insult, is it directed at Marlowe or … at both of us?

I blanch, dragging Tanner away from Marlowe and around the corner of the house before it gets ugly. East and West need not engage in a bloody brawl on our employer’s front lawn. Better I handle this than Brooks gets involved.

We move to stand in the cool, quiet shadows of the redwoods, the house at my back. I make myself look up to meet Tanner’s eyes. It’s not easy.

His stare is inscrutable, another stark reminder that we’re still strangers.

“Are you upset about Brooks and Marlowe?” I ask, frowning as I think of the dozen times in the past few days that he’s just turned around and walked off. “ You have been avoiding me.”

“No.” Tanner steps forward, forcing me back. My eyes go wide when the back of my navy T-shirt hits the freshly painted wall. I’m dousing myself in pink. And also ruining the scalloped siding that I just touched up. “I’ve been watching you, an impulse that occurs more often than the unconscious need to breathe . That’s how frequently I look for you, Kate.”

I can barely find the words to respond to that. Remember: when in doubt, think logically.

“Because you’re worried about the Hag Wytch.” Damn it. I said that as long as the men weren’t worried about the Witchwoods, then I wouldn’t be worried either.

Tanner is worried. That means I am, too. His wolf ears flatten as the silence stretches between us. My hat—yes, my hat —swallows nervously around my head, like the cone portion is the mouth this time. Lovely.

“You think that’s the only reason why?” he retorts, his shadow slinking around behind me. I can feel it on the wall at my back, a paper-thin nightmare. “Avoiding you? No. Stepping aside to make room for Brooks and Marlowe, sure. You’re doing exactly what you should be doing, Kate. I’m not angry. I’m not upset.”

He sounds fucking pissed.

I want to see what he’ll do if I take his gloved hand in mine. He lets me squeeze it, lets me curl our fingers together. Smiles.

Still, he’s fucking pissed.

“Why are you hiding your feelings from me?” I ask. “You’re so mad right now, and I have no idea what I’m doing wrong or why you won’t just tell—”

“Kate.” Tanner grips my arm like a blood pressure cuff, pinning me against the wall. Pinning me against his shadow.

I use a tree limb and a sharp burst of magic to slap him in the face with a low-hanging bough. Tanner’s wolf ears swivel toward me, and my hat growls like it wants to bite him. I know that I certainly do.

“Cute. I like it when you fight me. Makes it more exciting to get inside of you.”

“Stop.” My refusal makes him furious , but he lets go and steps back. Still. Smiling. I’m not though. Definitely frowning.

“Stop what ?” Tanner asks, very gently. It’s probably his last straw. Yeah, I really like him. He’s patient. But also fake. He’s putting on a show, and I want to see the person underneath.

“The flirting and the sweet-talking, it worked on lots of women in the past, didn’t it?” I challenge, and he just stares at me like I’m crazy.

“Sure. But why be an asshole if you can be nice with the same results?” Tanner looks like he regrets saying that almost immediately, reaching up to adjust his hat brim and frowning down at me.

“The man that none of those women ever saw, I want to get to know him. Not an illusion of a person, the real Tanner Skye. If you’re thinking horrible things about me, you should say them aloud so I know who you are.” I huff and reach up to adjust my own hat, earning a stab wound from one of its fangs in the process.

Tanner doesn’t hesitate to catch my wrist, lifting my injured hand to his lips and … oh. He licks the blood while maintaining eye contact with me. My pulse picks up, and my skin turns pink.

No. Don’t let him hide behind the sex thing.

“Why would you want me to say horrible things about you, Kate?” he murmurs.

“Obviously, I’d hope you were only thinking good thoughts.” I inhale and brace myself for what I know is coming. I’m pushing him to the breaking point on purpose. Might hurt a little. “But I need you to be honest, no matter what.”

That does it. I see him snap like a dry bone, closing his eyes, forcing a slow exhale.

“What the fuck do you think I’ve been doing?” he growls, and it’s so low that it vibrates through me. Tanner opens his eyes, but he doesn’t move. Doesn’t tighten his grip on my wrist. Doesn’t clean the blood from his lower lip. “Why do you think I’ve been treating you so well? Because that’s exactly what I’m trying to do. I’m making every choice in opposition to my past. Staying is being honest.” He stands up straight and even takes a small step away from me.

“You make me feel like …” I sigh, and hope like hell that I won’t regret saying this. “Like I want to be loved by you. I want it so badly, in a way I’ve never wanted anything before.” I look right at him. “ Nothing, Tanner.”

He’s panting, adjusting his hat and smearing pink paint across the black brim. It looks ridiculous, and I have to hold back a smile.

Tanner stands there for a long time. So long that it gets awkward. I knew I shouldn’t have said that.

My horned shadow runs away into the woods, and I only wish I could join her. His … his chases.

“Never mind.” I reach out and grab a handful of Tanner’s shirt, yanking on it and trying to get him to step forward. It works. He’s right there, pressing me up against the side of the house. It’s fine if we just fuck. Why did I push so hard against someone who was treating me so well, pleasing me whenever I wanted? Why complain?

“No, it’s fine, Kate. Let’s talk about it.” Tanner puts his gloved hands on my waist, forcing his breathing to slow. Our hat brims are crushed together, and mine is trying to lick his neck.

Correction: is licking his neck. I can taste his sweat.

Can taste his emotions, too. Nervousness. Frustration. Determination.

“It’s not fine. I only want the truth, Tanner. Otherwise, we don’t need to talk.” I put my arms around his neck, but he pushes me off.

He gets mad, which he’s never done. He’s kept calm this entire time.

“Fine.” Tanner laughs, tearing his hat off so that he can run his fingers through his hair. Still smiling though. Can’t shake that one. “You want me to tell you all these hurtful things that I don’t want to say, that nobody wants to hear? Yeah, Kate. I’m doing what I always do. Sorry, it’s easy. You like me for my body like anyone else.”

I’m speechless. Pretty sure my mouth is hanging open. But okay. We’re getting somewhere.

His words are mean, but they’re … making me like him even more. I was building stuff up in my head, making it worse than it actually was. All he’s doing is confirming what I already knew.

“I’m sorry I made you feel that way.” My words are soft. He doesn’t expect that.

“I really like you, Kate. I do. You surprise me over and over. But I’ve only known you for two weeks. This is me trying.” He doesn’t move any closer to me. He doesn’t scoot away either.

“I don’t need you to confess your undying love. All I want is for you to tell the truth from now on. I’m doing the same.” I shrug and swipe my paint-covered hands on the front of my overalls. “I want you to like me for me. Doesn’t mean you have to love me yet.”

“You think I haven’t told every goddamn girl I put my dick in I love you ?” he says that like it might be shocking, but I already assumed as much. “That being said, I’m all in. We’re never breaking up. You’re not going anywhere. If you try to run from me, I’ll chase you wherever you go—even into the Witchwoods. I’ll tell you everything you need to know with my actions. ”

“Just be yourself, Tanner.” I don’t smile when I say that, so maybe he takes it the wrong way. I was trying to be encouraging, but it came out sounding snarky. “I want to know if you’re the type of guy who’d leave peacefully if I asked him, or a creep who can’t take no for an answer.”

He loves that, throwing his head back in a wild laugh. Dropping his chin. Taking his hat off and raking his fingers through the waves of his hair. Another purposeful act. He tosses the hat back on, cockeyed and sexy.

“Okay. I should just be myself?” Tanner grabs me by the shoulders and spins me around, pushing my breasts into the wet paint on the side of the house. I gasp, curling my fingers against the siding and closing my eyes. “I shouldn’t put anybody else first?” He kisses the side of my throat. “Not my coven. Not you. Just me, me, me, and what I want.” He laughs against my skin, and I shiver. “Fine. I don’t want you to touch goddamn Marlowe or Brooks.”

“Thank you,” I pant. “That’s what I fucking wanted: honesty. I’ve said it with words like fifty times.”

He leans down and smirks at me.

“I see. You like assholes then.” Tanner tears one overall strap down my shoulder and then flicks the button on the other side, sending the denim to puddle at my ankles. He maneuvers my wrists above my head, smearing paint everywhere.

“Not who you think I want, but who you are,” I repeat, and he scoffs against my neck, using his other hand to shove his pants down. My panties are jerked to one side, and I feel the hot head of him breaching my swollen body. I’m so moist that my own arousal is on my thighs. I can feel the breeze against it. The breeze. We’re outside.

In view of the street.

“I don’t even fucking know who I am, Kate. I don’t know how to interact with women other than wetting their goddamn panties. This usually works. ” He shoves so deep into me that if he hadn’t also gripped my mouth with a gloved hand, I would’ve screamed.

I don’t want him to stop, but I should. We could be seen. I’d lose my entire business and everything I’ve worked hard for. Hell, we’re already so viral that … imagine a sex tape getting out?

A sex tape. After everything. What could be worse than that? That is the worst.

“You guys have got to be kidding me,” Marlowe hisses out from somewhere to my right. “Two cops incoming.”

Wait.

Did he just say …?

I jerk back, but Tanner doesn’t let me get very far, using his body to hold me in place. His hips move, pushing in as far as he can go.

“Tell a€?em to wait. We’re not doing anything illegal.” He grins from above me. I don’t look, but I can hear it in his voice. “Not that I’d give a shit if we were.” Tanner turns back to me, but I keep my gaze fixed on the pink wall. “What do you think, kitten? Want to make it illegal?”

He draws his hips back, nearly slipping out of me. Instead, his crown pushes against my ass, slick with my lube and his pre-cum.

I’m not doing this with people around—let alone police officers.

Tanner doesn’t let me go when I struggle, locking me down with that incredible grip.

But he doesn’t enter me, just slicks his shaft against the outside of my body, the head of him rubbing my clit. One gloved hand holds my mouth while the other presses my wrists to the wet wall.

“What the hell?” I hear an unfamiliar voice, what can only be one of the police officers. “What the … fuck is happening here?”

“Told you,” Marlowe growls—quite a beautiful sound, definitely something he picked up in the woods.

I put up another fight, and Tanner lets me get away from him, cursing as he snags a charm off his hat brim. One of the last. It’s shaped like a human finger bone. He crushes it to dust in his palm, and then blows the white powder into one of the approaching officer’s faces.

The guy collapses in a heap on the lawn and, as Mrs. Madsen sprints down the back steps to see what’s going on, Tanner blows the remainder of the powder at her. She, too, goes down.

“This is becoming ridiculous.” Brooks appears behind the second man, slamming one of those little glass vials against his chest. The dude drops like a sack of potatoes, crumbling to the grass.

Marlowe folds his arms and looks at Tanner with blatant disgust.

“You know better.” Brooks points at Tanner which only makes him park his hands on his hips, cock wet and defiant in the sun. He truly does not give a shit. “These memory charms are expensive to make. You’re going to take eight months’ worth and use them all in a few weeks? We need these for more important reasons than anal in the front yard.”

“You think there’s anything more important than anal in the front yard?” Tanner retorts, holding out a hand for me. “Get back over here, kitten.”

Ah. I see. We’re not done. Cops be damned. I’m tangled in my own overalls anyway and haven’t gotten very far. I’m hiding in the shadows of a rhododendron bush, brilliant with purple flowers and decorated in fuzzy honey bees.

Tanner waits for me to come to him and when I don’t, he comes for me.

I see my shadow being dragged from the trees by his, her nails clawing at the dirt, his claws wrapped around her ankle.

“Don’t you dare,” I start, but it’s too late. I opened this can of worms. Should’ve waited for some privacy to have this conversation, huh? There was no chance it wouldn’t devolve into sex.

It’s the language that Tanner knows best.

He wraps an arm around my waist, dragging me toward him and then taking us both down to our knees. He lays me on my back in the grass. His mouth finds my ear as I use my palms to push against him and end up molesting his abs instead.

“You’re avoiding me because you want me to love you?” Tanner’s emotions are hard to read, but he’s just knocked my hat off with a sweep of his hand. I can’t taste him to see what he’s feeling. “Kate, holy fuck. ”

“You guys aren’t seriously going to continue , are you?” Marlowe snaps, and oh shit. Tanner gives him a look that makes one of them a hunter and the other prey.

“If you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m gonna break your hand next.” Tanner looks back down at me, and I can only pray that Brooks has Lo handled. I can’t do anything but revel in the terrible glory of what I’ve just done.

I broke the shields of the asshole witch stalker, and this is my … reward? Punishment?

“Thank you for showing me the truth,” I whisper, putting a hand on the side of his face. He loves that, nuzzling into me like he wasn’t being an awful prick all of two seconds ago. “Was that so fucking hard?”

Tanner closes his eyes, like he’s dealing with some seriously intense emotions. They open to reveal an expression I’ve never seen, something raw and angry and so lonely that I could cry for him.

Marlowe knows what it means to be loved, even if his friends didn’t come through in the end. Brooks knows what it means to be loved, even if his family is long gone.

Tanner has no clue.

He has no idea what he’s doing here, or how to proceed.

But all he has to do is show up.

“I only have one rule, too,” I tell him, and he makes this face at me. Pained. Almost sorrowful. “If I show up for you then you show up for me.”

“God, Kate.” Tanner’s hot, hard body is in between my thighs, in the grass under a bush like the world doesn’t matter. We’re outside, but nobody will see us. I know that because Brooks has just powdered Tanner’s back with the leftovers from the disinterest spell.

Magic is incredible.

Tanner looks into my eyes, and I look right back. Then it’s my turn to knock his hat off, burying my fingers in his silky hair. My eyes close and our mouths slide together, tongues working through the truths that were so hard to speak.

He enters my pussy, nice and slow, like he’s changed his mind about testing taboos in public and has switched to a different tactic. Something far more terrifying. Trying. He’s trying, and I can’t fault him for that.

He rolls his body into mine like he’s trying to confuse me, trying to tell me that he doesn’t love me with words so that he can do it with his body. It’s not real. I know that.

I can’t help myself though. I like him. A lot.

“There’s my girl,” he murmurs, almost tenderly. “You love the feel of me in your pussy, don’t you? See how hard you make me?”

I moan, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him to me. Squeezing my eyes shut and savoring the anticipation of what this could turn out to be. The chance we’re going to give it because we’re coven and we’re bound and—most importantly—Tanner is going to be honest.

He might also be a prick. That’s a possibility. If he isn’t trying so damn hard to please me, if he’s just being himself … will I like what I see?

Tanner’s hands are hot on my body, whispering across my skin and savoring me. Exploring me. Getting to know my curves the way I’m learning the shape of his back, the flex of his muscles, the sound of his moans.

“Open those eyes for me, kitten. I want to watch you when you come, and I want you to see what my face looks like when I’m spilling inside you.” His thumb brushes gently over one of my eyelids, forcing my attention back to him. “So much better.”

He adjusts himself so that he can look me in my eyes, and somehow he makes me forget where we are and what we’re supposed to be doing.

His orgasm is beautiful to watch, sunlight streaming over his face. His lips on my jaw. My hands in his hair. My own climax is slow and sticky and sweet, like the bees on the fragrant purple flowers above my head.

And … what are we doing right now?

We’re not fucking. Trust me: I’d know. That’s all we’ve been doing.

So what is this? We had a fight and then we … made love?

Our shadows are cuddled together nearby, Tanner’s double tails swaying in easy satisfaction.

The real Tanner braces himself above me on his forearms, and I slide an arm across my forehead. Panting breaths. Mingling scents. Tingling magic. We’re glowing, the matching sigils on our chests bright with color. His, green with my power. Mine, silver with his.

Earth and air. East and North. Our tattoos writhe across our skin, like they wish they could jump between us and trade hosts.

We’re both still for some time, like neither of us dares to move and break this sacred space.

“We should go,” he says finally, scrunching up his forehead like he wants to say something but isn’t sure he should.

I duck under his right arm and slip away from him, using the trunk of a tree to haul myself up. Fixing my overalls. Not looking at the two sleeping cops.

This is nice.

First time they come to question me, one of them goes missing with no trace. Second time, they’re both going to wake up and realize that they had the same fainting spell that the guy in the woods did. So, three spelled cops and two missing cops.

Is there a spell for not going to jail? If so, we’re going to need that.

Don’t think about Tanner. Don’t think about him. Don’t do it, Kate.

I realize that Brooks and Marlowe are nowhere to be seen, but that awareness of them doesn’t prickle. They’re close, even if I can’t see them. Tanner moves up to stand beside me, and his expression is weird. Like, pretty sure things are more awkward now than they were thirty minutes ago.

“Is there a jailbreak spell? If so, can you teach it to me?” My joke falls flat. It’s awkward as hell.

“Worst case scenario is that we live in the woods together.” Tanner shrugs and breezes past me, meeting up with the other two men as they come through the front gate. Both Brooks and Marlowe are looking at him with varying levels of disapproval, but neither says a word.

Must be something worse going on, as usual. Social media. Oh my God. What have I done?

“There was a woman trying to take pictures of the truck and a man attempting to scale the fence.” Brooks points in the general direction of the trees. “Chased a€?em both off.”

I hear a buzzing sound and look up, spotting a drone. When … did that get here? And does a spell of disinterest work on technology?

“Aw, fuck,” I groan as it zips away, and the men all stare up at it like it’s a remote control airplane or something. Please tell me it didn’t film us. Please, please please. “That drone—”

Ebon appears, letting out a battle shriek as she descends on the drone, knocking it out of the sky and sending it to the ground with a deafening crash.

“What the hell is that?” Marlowe asks, but I really don’t feel like explaining it at the moment. Oh, just a camera that floats like a helicopter. No, no, I’m sure it’s fine. I’m sure it wasn’t livestreaming or anything.

“Nothing.” I don’t touch him or Brooks or Tanner.

I knew better and I did it anyway. Every decision we make has consequences. Can’t wait to see the results of this one.

They’re making me wild, just like them. A Witchwoods woman.

I don’t hate that. Nah. I like it.