21. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

Garrick

T an's party had gone a lot better than I'd expected. It had been fun, to tell the truth. Which surprised me. It had been so long since I'd held or been to a party that I'd thought it'd be a nightmare. Turned out, I kind of missed the whole socializing thing.

It made me want to have his friends over again sometime soon. Especially because it'd made my sweet witch happy.

I glanced down at my sleeping viramore. His head was in my lap, so I started running my fingers through his brown hair, delighting in the small touch and the softness of it.

When I'd asked Tan to watch a movie last night, I'd really been asking him to sleep on the couch with me. Or at least, that had been my hope, although I doubt Tan knew it. I was glad it'd worked out in my favor.

I was in the corner of the sectional with my legs straight out in front of me. I had a pillow under my lower back so I could lean back on an angle—that made the position slightly more comfortable. But I'd sleep in any position if it meant Tan was beside me and touching me.

He was sprawled out on the couch with his head in my lap again, facing me and curled up on his side, and I loved it more than he could possibly know. I'd covered him with a blanket last night, so hopefully he was warm enough. I knew I put off a lot of heat, but only his head was near me. Luckily, Orangelica was sleeping on Tan's hip. She was probably helping keep him warm too.

Keeping one hand in Tan's hair, I reached over to give her a few scratches since she peeked her eye out to check on me. She gave a loud purr, then closed her eyes to settle back in for sleep.

I didn't think I could fall back asleep, but that was okay because I was happy to sit here and bask in my Tan for a few more hours while the two of them slept in.

It didn't end up lasting that long, but I was happy I'd gotten an extra forty-five minutes of Tan-basking in before he woke up.

His eyes blinked open, and he froze for a moment before he relaxed and sort of snuggled down into my leg, closing his eyes again. Without opening them, he murmured, "Good morning."

I ran my hand through his hair. "Good morning, little pretty."

He let out a puff of air that sounded like a small laugh as he snuggled in again. "I don't want to get up."

"Then don't. We have nothing on the schedule for today."

"You don't mind being a pillow for a little while longer?"

"Not even a little bit."

He hummed in contentment and pressed his forehead against my hip. My cock twitched from his nearness, but hopefully he didn't notice. If he did, he did a valiant job of ignoring it.

He dozed for a little while, and I sat there, my heart filling with every passing moment.

When he woke again, he smiled up at me and whispered, "Good morning… again."

I felt my lips quirk up, and I ran my thumb across his cheek. "Good morning, little pretty."

Orangelica meowed a good morning to us.

I gave her a few pets, murmuring, "Hey, sweet kitty cat."

She yawned, stretched, gave me a quick head butt, and hopped off the couch, trotting off to who knew where to do who knew what.

Tan smiled at me. "You're good with her."

I shrugged. "She makes it easy." I brushed some hair off his forehead and met his gorgeous silver eyes.

His eyes searched mine for a long moment before he lifted up off my leg. For a moment, I thought he was simply sitting up, but his eyes never left mine as he closed the distance. He stopped moving when his lips were only an inch away, his eyes flicking back and forth between mine.

My breath was stuck, frozen.

My viramore was going to kiss me.

Right?

He wanted to kiss me. He had to. I could see it in his eyes.

I could feel it in my chest.

I wanted to close that distance, but I wasn't sure I could. My heart was in my throat.

And Tan proved how much braver he was than me because he moved closer and pressed his lips to mine, and I felt like my heart might burst into flames of happiness. I didn't hesitate to pull him closer to me and hold him there as I hummed in approval against his lips.

Inside, my dragon roared in triumph, finally, finally getting what he wanted. My skin prickled, wanting to shift but unable to.

I brushed my tongue against his lips, and he opened for me, letting out the sweetest whimper as our tongues touched for the first time. I cupped the back of his head with my palm, and Tan crawled onto my lap, straddling my thighs as our tongues dueled.

I had never tasted anything sweeter, felt anything more pleasurable, wanted anything more. Scales, I wanted him. So damn badly.

My heart raced in excitement and pleasure, and I felt the moment my magic sprang to life, wanting to get in on the Tan action.

Tan gasped and pressed closer to me, his hands coming up to cup my face, touching me so gently. I honestly couldn't remember the last time someone was gentle with me like this. Most of my bed partners wanted it rough—assuming that was what I wanted, probably due to my physique—which I liked sometimes, but I also craved this.

This sweet tenderness that was all Tan.

I honestly wasn't sure I'd ever had this, and fuck, was it remarkable.

Every soft touch sent electric shocks across my skin and through my body.

And straight into my heart.

Fuck, I'd never felt sensations like this before.

I ran my hands over his back, and we both groaned, and this time, Tan's magic reacted.

I felt it flare around us, and Tan froze, then leaned back, looking horrified.

"Holy shit, did my magic… did I hurt you?"

Even though I hated that he'd broken our kiss, his kindness more than made up for it. I brushed some of his hair back, tucking it behind his ear. "Of course you didn't, baby."

"You sure?"

That made me smile and shake my head. "Trust me, little pretty, the last thing in the world I'm feeling right now is hurt." I leaned up to press a quick kiss to his lips. Scales, I could live here, pressed against him this way until the end of eternity. "That kiss far exceeded my expectations."

"You've thought about it?"

"Pretty much constantly."

He snorted, and the tension in his body released. "I don't know why my magic did that. I'm really sorry. That's never happened to me before."

I opened my mouth to confess that I knew exactly why it'd done that, but his phone chose that exact moment to ring.

He shot me an apologetic smile. "I can ignore it."

"You don't have to."

He shrugged and made a little, " Mm ," sound as he leaned back in and captured my lips again. I certainly wasn't going to complain about that.

But then his phone rang again, and he sighed as he broke away. "I need to see who that is. Most people don't call twice in a row unless it's an emergency."

"Go ahead, baby."

He swallowed hard, then pecked my lips and hopped off my lap to grab his phone from the kitchen where he'd plugged it in to charge last night. I took a little smug satisfaction in seeing him have to adjust himself and knowing I was the reason.

I pressed on my hard cock for a moment, praying that it'd go down. Closing my eyes, I took a few deep breaths while my witch spoke to someone on the phone—Bel, from what I could hear.

Tan came back in a few minutes later with a look of disappointment in his expression, and my heart sank as I stood.

He worried his bottom lip before he started talking. "I'm so sorry, Gar, but I have to go. Ker and the girls all woke up in the middle of the night with fevers, and they can't seem to get them down with medication. Remi's running to Brinnswick real quick to grab some healing tonics. Apparently, Gemma hurt her leg or something last week, so they're all out of them. Anyway, so Bel called because the urgent care place is really packed, and the wait there is like over five hours or something, I dunno. Bel's freaking out because he doesn't really get sick being fae and all, so he has no idea how to deal with his cousins. But they're half-human, so apparently, they can get human illnesses too. I don't know, but he's panicking, so I need to go help and—"

"Tan," I said, cutting him off. I was disappointed, of course I was, but I also understood. So much for spending the entire day with him.

He snapped his jaw shut and winced. "Sorry."

"Don't be. I just wanted you to stop panicking."

He huffed. "Thanks. I'm good."

I gave him a nod. "Good. Let me grab you something quick to eat on your way."

"You don't have to—"

"I know, but I want to. You need to eat and keep up your strength, especially if you're going to be racing off to use your magic on five other people."

"Thank you." He sighed. "I'll call Roman and make sure he can come up here."

For a moment there, I'd forgotten all about needing a bodyguard.

I gave his cheek a kiss and headed into the kitchen while he finished gathering his stuff and talking to Roman on the phone. He didn't even have that much stuff here, but somehow, it was all over the condo. I secretly really liked him leaving his mark inside my den.

When he walked into the kitchen, I was almost finished making him a breakfast burrito—luckily, I'd had some good leftovers to use—and a thought came to me. "Did you say Remi was running back to Brinnswick really quick? He's really taking a flight all the way there to get some tonics? Surely we have some available for purchase in Sedoba? A trip to Brinnswick is going to take him an entire day and a half, minimum."

"Oh." His eyes were wide. "I, um, didn't realize… you, uh…didn't know…"

I lifted a brow. Whatever was going to come out of his mouth right now was sure to be good.

"So, uh, Delaro, one of Remi's brothers, built this portal thing in Rem's backyard garage that takes us right to his family's land."

I couldn't help but stare at him in disbelief.

He grimaced. "I swear it's heavily warded and a guarded secret. Only family and close friends know about it, so you don't have to worry about someone going through by mistake or anything like that."

"That's not… Tan, I'm not worried about that. I know how seriously you and Remi take security. I just… I didn't realize it was even possible to open a portal like that."

He shrugged. "Del's an inventor. He creates all kinds of amazing things. He's actually the one who helped Remi and me figure out how to implement magic into our security systems. And he's the one who created all of the emergency personal shield things I've given you."

"Wow."

He nodded.

Roman walked in less than a minute later, and after a quick hello, Tan turned to me. "I'm really sorry, but I need to get going. Bel's never called me to ask me for help like this. It's kind of a big deal that he trusts me." He sent me a small smile. "And I want to get there as soon as I can because Bel's acting like the whole family's on their deathbeds. I'm sure they're fine. I'd like to think that Ker would've called me himself if it was that bad."

I put his burrito on a plate and handed it over to him. "Please eat. Take it for the car ride."

"Thank you. I'll bring back the plate tomorrow."

I waved that away. Who cared about a plate? "No rush."

He smiled a little, then stepped close to kiss me again. It was deep, sensual, and lasted a long time, yet not nearly long enough.

When we finally parted, I asked, "Text me when you're finished so I know you're okay?"

"Of course." He frowned. "I'm sorry I have to leave. I really, really don't want to."

"I don't want you to either, but I understand. Don't worry about it, little pretty."

"Bye, Roman," Tan said. "Thanks for getting here so quickly."

"Anytime, Tan. Be safe."

"Will do."

After one more brush of his lips to mine, I walked him to the door and watched him—and Orangelica—walk down the spiral staircase.

When I could no longer see or hear him, I closed the door and rested my forehead against it for a long moment, wishing I could leave the tower and help him and his friends.

Not for the first time, I prayed with all my might that I could get rid of this fucking curse once and for all. But deep down, I knew I'd have to live with it for the rest of my life.

After all, it'd been twenty-five years. What were the chances of us not only finding Oakley but getting him to come here and somehow care about me?

Yeah, not likely.