the next few days. Ordering in room service. Ignoring the stop we made at Atlantis to instead cuddle.
I believed that everything was perfect. It never even occurred to me to speak of the future. There would be time enough when we reached land. Except I found myself stunned when I woke to find the ship already docked at our final port, the bed beside me empty, the note she left me maddening.
Thanks for all your help. You really are amazing, but you deserve better than being forced to love a witch because of a spell. I took the locket. You’re free.
~Jane Davey
No. No. Oh hell fucking no. She didn’t.
I jumped from the bed and took time to only throw on some pants, but by the time I made it to the topmost deck, Jane was already gone.
And my very loud roar made the morning news.
18
Jane: Love spells suck.
I left. I had to. Despite all the pretty words and epic sex, I knew deep down that Oz didn’t really want me. It was the spell in the locket making him do it. Ignoring the fact that magic didn’t work on shifters; apparently, the love kind did. Had to be. No way could a guy like Oz love me.
It made me ridiculously sad. Especially since I’d gotten a taste of what love could be. I missed him the moment I left.
I cried as I took the locket I’d brought home with me and soaked it in a brine of vinegar and holy water. It would dissolve any lingering infatuation on his part. Pity, it couldn’t do anything about my heart.
It still wanted Oz. Wanted to hear his laughter as he played a naughty prank on his sister. Then his chuckle as he played with my body.
I missed the way he sprawled across the bed and forced me to snuggle him. Such a chore. Despite his devil-may-care attitude, he was actually an intelligent man who’d taken his family’s fortune from the brink of middle class and turned it into an empire for…hair products. Mousse. Shampoo. Hairdryers. Once I got over laughing, we actually spent some time discussing ingredients. It seemed that witches did have something to offer a shapeshifter, an intimate knowledge of herbs. Especially a combination I knew that could help reverse balding.
But we’d never collaborate on the revolutionary Janey Tonic. Because I’d left.
Not because I didn’t love him. I did with more heart than I thought I had. But that same love wouldn’t let me hold on to him because of a spell.
I did the right thing. Which got me a nasty-gram from Lucifer in Hell.
You’ve just been demoted from the third circle to the fifth. Grow a pair.
~Your Dark Overlord.
PS. Do you have a spell that makes a baby sleep long enough that I can diddle my wife?
I moped.
Alone, I might add. Grandma had apparently rekindled things with Shax. So she was off making my mom a baby sister and me a new aunt. I was sure my therapist could help me bleach that concept from my mind. Eventually.
Since sitting around the house sucked, and I needed a job, I was working on a spell to re-write my ex-boss’s memories so I could at least get a decent reference. I neglected my garden due to the downpours. It hadn’t stopped raining in Seattle since my return, and probably wouldn’t for years to come considering my heavy heart.
A knock on the door had me frowning, especially since I felt that strange quickening of my pulse. Impossible. The spell on the amulet was dead. I glanced over at the bucket just in case.
Nothing from it, and yet I was being tugged in the direction of the door. I approached it, and my palms hovered over the thick wood.
“Who is it?”
“Your mate.”
The deep timbre of Oz’s voice had me blinking. “How did you find me?”
“I followed my nose.”
Flinging open the door, I confronted him. “No way you followed it to me here.”
“It helps that I have connections. Although, it wasn’t easy. You’re unlisted.” He loomed in the doorway.
I couldn’t help but step back, overwhelmed by the sight and scent of him. Pure perfection. Longing rose in me, and a faint euphoria that he’d come. Then reality settled in. Remnants of the spell obviously still drove him.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“Funny, because I was going to say the same to you.”
He stalked into my home, and it filled with his presence.
“Whatever you think you’re feeling, it will fade. Soon I would guess since I’ve dismantled