Sympathy for the Demons (Promised to the Demons #1) - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,41

more and more convinced that he liked me as much as I liked him. And I think what I liked most of all about Bevan was that he wasn’t naive at all. He seemed to know so much, and have such confidence in what he knew, and whenever he was near me, I felt like I had a rock to shelter against.

My mind flashed through scenarios of his hands steadying my body as we balanced over the rocks on the creek, and then he would catch me in both arms and draw me close, and I could put my hands in his hair, which I wanted so much to touch…

Oh wow. Where had that fantasy come from all of a sudden?

“It’s actually hot today for fall,” Bevan commented as the path opened up a little more and the forest gave way to some little farmsteads. He waved a hand across his face and made sunglasses.

“You should’ve been a cat because you’re so cool,” I said, grinning.

“Bats are even cooler than cats.”

“It’s a tossup. You can fly and hunt with radar, but cats can purr and are less likely to have rabies…”

“You know I don’t have rabies.”

“They’re both cooler than toads, so what do I know?”

“Not everything has to be cool.”

“You can’t even pretend toads are cool?”

“In baking terms, you’re like a ginger snap,” he said. “They’re humble and brown and old-fashioned, but also warm and very—“ He stopped.

“Tasty?”

“Well…”

“You haven’t tasted me, but you’ve tasted my food.”

“You’re a natural flirt,” Bevan said, “for a naive girl.”

“A flirt!” Maybe I had gone too far. I bit my knuckles. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Oh, yes you did.” Bevan caught my hand. “And that’s where the snap comes in. You’re not just a sheltered toad familiar. There’s something about you that’s…”

I caught my breath. “It’s—it’s because you bring something out in me.”

My wrist was in his fingers, the touch like a bolt of lightning that had frozen mid-strike. I had drawn in to face him, and he drew a little closer. Before I knew it, his other hand was at my waist, just like I’d imagined.

And then his lips were on mine, warm and soft and gentle at first. My first kiss. I knew that was a big deal for human girls, but I’d never thought I would have a kiss at all. When I shut my eyes, sinking under his touch, he kissed a little harder, our mouths opening a little wider. I think I was aware of the exact moment that it went from feeling surprising and sweet to feeling naughty and exciting, and that was when I drew back a little. Not because I really wanted to stop, more because the feelings couldn’t help but seem off-limits to me.

My face was burning and a quivering smile tugged at my mouth. “I didn’t think…”

“It was my first kiss too,” he said, his voice low and just-for-me.

“Really?”

He nodded. “I’d always thought that proper familiars didn’t have those feelings, to be honest. That was the common wisdom and I have always prided myself on being a very disciplined person. But when I saw the truth of your life, and the other familiars, how you had been betrayed by your warlock, it all fell away, and I realized I had also been lied to. Not by Helena, but by all of wizard-kind. Every day that passes, I find myself wanting more of the life I was denied.”

“I’m happy to be a part of it.”

“It’s all thanks to you. You dropped into my life like a meteor. Nursing you back to health…it did something to me I couldn’t explain. I wanted a different life from that moment.”

I couldn’t stop beaming. I finally put my hand on his head and touched his soft, dark curls. They felt as nice as I imagined. “Me too,” I whispered.

We walked to the market hand in hand. I could hardly keep my feet on the ground. I felt like I was bouncing on the solid earth, like I was the center of someone else’s world as he was the center of mine, and we were spinning together in each other’s orbit until we were dizzy.

Chapter Twenty

Bevan

Every day I spent with Jenny, my feelings for her seemed to grow fiercer and sharper, like tempering steel into a blade. She was so cute and sweet and good that I wanted to protect her against anything that might ever hurt her, and I also knew she had been hurt. All of her life,