Neve (Silver Skates #3) - Helen Scott Page 0,26
committed to doing this right than I had been before.
As I walked to the bakery, with the directions pulled up on my phone because I would get lost otherwise, I tried to learn landmarks so I wouldn’t have to use my phone next time. I turned the corner and was trying to remember that I turned right at the building with the red door to get to Buttercup’s Bakery or whatever it was called, when I ran smack into the middle of what felt like a wall.
I stumbled backward and had to catch myself before I fell, only I didn’t, since someone grabbed my arms. The wall I thought I’d run into turned out to be a guy—a freaking gorgeous guy. Gorgeous enough that I just let him hold me by the arms as he righted me instead of taking the initiative myself.
His eyes were a dark green, a color I’d never seen on a person before. It made me immediately think of the forest, of thick pine trees and mossy oaks. The color was only enhanced by the flame red hair that covered the top of his head like a wave of pure fire. Even the tips of the little peaks of hair were darker than the hair closer to his head.
“Sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going,” he said, his voice washing over me and making every hair on my body stand on end and demand that I get closer to him. The urge was the same as the one I felt toward Rory and Seren.
It was enough to snap me out of my dazed state and have me withdraw my arms from his grasp. “Thanks for catching me, and it wasn’t just you. I wasn’t looking where I was going either.”
“We’re both distracted, huh?”
“It would appear that way, though I was just trying to remember a landmark so I knew how to get to the bakery again.” The tone of my voice asked the question the words didn’t.
“I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck.
“Everything okay?” I asked. Normally, I wouldn’t care, but the idea of this guy just walking off made my stomach turn.
He chewed on his lower lip for a moment, and if we had been in any other situation, I might have hit on him, but it was clear he was distressed by something, so I tried to push my vagina’s needs from my mind. Hadn’t Rory been enough?
Finally, he blurted, “The woman that owns the bakery is my half-sister and I’ve been trying to introduce myself to her for months.”
“Oh!” I hadn’t been expecting that. “Her name is Buttercup, right? That’s the bakery I was trying to find my way to.”
“Yeah, she has no idea who I am, and for some reason, I can’t help but think she’d dislike me if I ever introduced myself.”
“Why? You seem like a nice guy to me,” I said, trying to keep the flirtatious tone to a minimum.
“Our father isn’t exactly the greatest example of being a decent person, or demon for that matter.”
I was sure my eyes rounded to a ridiculous degree with the way he looked embarrassed. “Your father is a demon?”
He nodded. “Mom was human. Dad seduced her, and when she got knocked up with yours truly, he ran off and I assume met Buttercup’s mom, although there could have been other women between the two. An incubus doesn’t exactly keep it in his pants.”
“How do you know I’m not human?”
“Because you have that witchy glow about you.”
“I do? I’m barely a witch, and my powers hardly ever work.” I shook my head and wanted to deny it even further, but I couldn’t. I did have powers and they did sort of work sometimes.
“It’s enough for me to recognize that you’re not human,” he replied with a shrug, as though that explanation was all I needed.
Why couldn’t I sense other people as supernatural beings though? It seemed like everyone else could. This wasn’t about me though, or at least that wasn’t how this conversation had started. “So you’re scared to introduce yourself to your sister because you’re half demon? If she’s your half-sister, then she’s part demon too, right?”
He nodded.
“So if you’re both half demons, what is there to be scared of?”
He forcefully blew out a breath before he said, “I don’t know. Maybe she doesn’t know? Maybe she hates that side of herself and I’d just be a representation of that?”
“Or