100% That Witch - Celia Kyle Page 0,52

eyebrow at Mr. De Marnac, who answered with a coy smile.

“One or two, sir.”

“Well, then,” Nero flipped open his menu and flashed a smile at Tiffany over the top. “We’re all set.”

When Alaric slipped away to let them peruse the food selection, she rocked forward in her seat and whispered, almost ashamed. “Nero, I’m not sure I can afford this.”

“I invited you,” he said with a hint of surprise. “It’s my treat.”

She leaned back in her chair, almost breathless, and watched as he read the menu with practiced ease. The torches and candles glowed, the menu beckoned her, and the wine still lingered on her lips. All of it felt deliciously close to a date—if only he wasn’t already taken.

“Hmm, I wonder if he has any more of that free-range venison blood he had last time I was here,” he mused and then glanced at her with those soft brown eyes that always made her heart skip a beat. “I hear the wild-caught trout is to die for.”

Twenty

What’s going on with me?

Tiffany’s stomach had been doing somersaults from the moment she got behind the wheel. Days had passed since her not-a-date with Nero, yet she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind. As she drove out to the Weeping Woods, he pervaded every corner of her mind.

It was bad enough that she thought about him every waking moment, but he had even become a fixture in her dreams. Not exactly a welcome one, given his unavailability. As she was about to see him for the first time since he had dropped her off at her door, she wondered how she would keep it a secret from him.

After all, he seemed to know her so well, she wouldn’t have been surprised to learn he could see into her dreams.

Don’t be ridiculous, she chided herself. Calm down.

Far from the way Rhys had behaved, Nero had strolled with her all the way back to Hollow House. They’d even continued chatting on the porch for a while, sitting on the steps and enjoying the mild evening. Tiffany just hoped Nero enjoyed spending time with her. But those were dangerous thoughts. What might have started as an easy, safe crush had started to morph into something else, and she pulled back against it with all her might.

No way would she make the same mistake twice. After making such a gigantic fool of herself over Rhys, was she really going to turn around and pull the same stunt again? Why did she have this habit of falling for men who were emotionally unavailable?

“You know what? No,” she said aloud to herself as she wound down the dark, bumpy lane that seemed to almost be swallowed by trees on either side. “You’re not doing this again. You hear me, Tiffany?” She glared at her own eyes in the rearview mirror. “You deserve more than that. You deserve someone who loves you for all your quirks, not in spite of them.”

That’s just what Nero would say, she cooed to herself.

“Stop it!”

But it was true.

She would never have dreamed of telling herself that she deserved better before he’d come into her life and helped her realize her own worth. Now that she was able to see herself with clearer eyes, it was plain. The old Tiffany would have kept running after Rhys like an insecure teen, accepting his mediocre treatment of her until he finally settled down with a woman he truly loved.

Which wasn’t her.

Funny, that admission didn’t sting as much as it might have even a week before. The tall, oddly vain necromancer had lost whatever cutting allure he had once held for her. At least, there was one victory in all of this.

More than one really. She looked down at the red and white, punk rock baseball tee she was wearing. A logo for The Righteous Indignation blazed across the front in almost lurid detail.

One of the tiny indulgences she had allowed herself was adding a bit of color to her wardrobe. Strangely, it made her feel even more at home in her own skin. And since the color wasn’t pilfered from Aurora’s closet, she felt herself flowering in it.

Not that black wasn’t still her staple—it would cost too much to replace her entire wardrobe on a fixed budget, even if she wanted to—but she liked what shedding some of it did for her. If she was given to congratulating herself, she might have done a bit more of it. After all, she was