for waffles, only he took it a step farther and pulled out bacon, eggs, and hash browns. Casually, he tossed a dish towel over his shoulder without knowing how utterly sexy he looked, shirtless in the kitchen, cooking her breakfast.
“It's not rude, honey. You can ask me anything. I'm a Short Nose. We're pretty much extinct and mostly by our own doing. Too much emphasis put on breeding with our own kind way back in the day and not enough concern about what that would mean long term. What type of witch are you?”
The sweetness of the berry in her mouth soured, but Ivy figured she should have been expecting that question. “Technically, I'm a Green Witch, but it's just a fancy title where I'm concerned. I can't actually perform any magical feats or rituals, which is why I must smell human to you.”
Ivy threw up her hand when he opened his mouth, certain she knew what he was going to say. “Please don't ask me if I've tried this or that or practiced hard enough. I went to the best school there is to learn my craft, did all the training, but the most I can do is keep plants alive and grow a bitchin’ garden.”
Uriah put down his bowl of waffle mix and came around the counter to stand in front of her. His hand was almost too hot when he curled his palm around her throat, his thumb brushing back and forth over her lips. His bright eyes bored into hers, like he could read what was written on the pages of her soul.
“I wasn't going to ask if you'd tried hard enough. I was going to say that humans smell funny, like fake perfume and aftershave layered over body odor.” He picked up her arm with his free hand, turning her wrist to his nose, inhaling until his lashes fluttered and a hazy look of bliss warmed his cheeks.
His voice roughened to a bestial rumble, and his lips brushed across her skin with every word he spoke, making her belly clench with arousal. “You smell like honeysuckle vines and orange blossoms. It's intoxicating. And I was going to say, I don't care what magic you can or can't do, it doesn't make you any less special to me.”
Ivy was glad she was sitting down because she might have fallen back on her ass otherwise. No one had ever spoken to her like that. Not even the choice Rowena and the others had made to create the coven to ensure she wasn’t alone came close to this feeling.
“Uriah?”
“Hmm?”
“Waffles sound really yummy, and the blackberries are delicious, but I suddenly have a rabid craving for bear.”
Uriah blinked, but he didn't ask her to repeat herself. A deep growl rattled in his chest, and suddenly they were kissing. Uriah didn't ease her into it, she said she wanted some bear, and by the Goddess, she was getting some.
He lifted her from the stool to the counter, so he didn't have to bend down, wrapping her up in his huge arms, so there wasn't an inch of space between them.
Ivy wound herself around Uriah like her namesake, and when she widened her knees to hitch her legs around his waist, he fed her a snarl. She gasped, giving him the perfect opportunity to slip his tongue between her lips.
Uriah kissed her with a skill and patience that turned her into a quivering mess. Just when she thought she'd run out of breath, Uriah trailed his kisses across her cheek and down her neck, his hands massaging down her back and up under her tank top.
His teeth scraped over her throat at the same moment his palms contacted the bare skin of her waist. With a snap, her entire body felt as though she'd been hit with a spell. Tingling, melting, unraveling with the dedicated attention lavished upon her.
Earlier, after having survived another one of Callie's explosions, Ivy had been stressed and fearful of what her future might bring. This turn of events was most definitely a surprise. A wicked, wonderful surprise.
“Two years,” Uriah groaned, rubbing one whiskery cheek, then the other over her throat, deliciously chaffing her soft skin. “Since the first moment I saw you, I've wanted you here. Right here.”
There was no mistaking the raw sincerity in his voice. Ivy tried to think of all the times she'd secretly checked him out whenever he came into the shop, and how she'd always assumed Uriah was gruff and grumbly,