A Little Green Magic (The Little Coven #1) - Isabel Wroth Page 0,15

trying to reason with my bear that you were human, and that meant we couldn't have you.

“It was the most hellish torment imaginable, but I couldn't stay away. Then, I happened to overhear you talking about vision boards with one of your customers, and I went full-on stalker, following you on Pinterest just so I could see the stuff you saved. I even let myself message you and—”

By now, Ivy was gaping at Uriah in shock, not sure if she was angry or flattered.

“SNBear872. That was you?” Uriah's cheeks mottled with heat, and he winced as though in pain, but he nodded.

Ivy knew more about Uriah than she thought.

Those conversations via the messaging app on Pinterest, she'd spent hours going back and forth with her online pen-pal, discussing pins she'd saved, why she'd saved them, her interests regarding building a home that was entirely self-sustaining, and her faceless friend told her all about actually creating all the things she'd only ever dreamed about.

He even advised her on how to set up her self-watering systems for her garden, breaking down all the plumbing supplies she would need, and how she could utilize the snowmelt and rainwater to feed her garden, so she really never had to water the plants.

Ivy had gone so far as to discuss trying to figure out a way to recycle the gray water generated from the house, but with the manor's ancient plumbing, SNBear872 warned her the pipes might have crud built up inside, which would contaminate her more delicate plants. Ivy loved their conversations, but never in her wildest dreams would she have ever thought SNBear872 was Uriah.

“I needed some way to connect with you. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been able to stay away,” he confessed softly.

Still not sure how she felt about all this, Ivy frowned at him. “Is there more?”

Uriah took a moment to consider his words, curling a lock of her hair around his thick fingers, brushing an errant strand from her forehead with the gentlest of touches. “Yes.”

She laced her fingers behind his neck, holding on as much for herself as to keep him from pulling away. She felt... weird. Not so uncomfortable as to want to be far away from him, but definitely unsettled. Ivy found it rather odd that instead of wanting space, it helped steady her to have him close.

“Tell me.”

His chest expanded with the depth of his breath, and along the insides of her wrists, Ivy could feel the pounding of his pulse increase. “I can finish breakfast and talk—”

“Nope. I've got you right where I want you, mister. Spill it,” she ordered.

A grin immediately split his handsome face, and the kiss he touched to the corner of her mouth was tender and sweet, but all too soon, he was back to frowning.

“I’m not always the sharpest spoon in the shed, but eventually, I figured it out you were friends with Rowena. I'd seen the two of you having coffee together or lunch in town; you seemed close, but I never got the same heebies from you that I did from Rowena.”

At her look of confusion, Uriah gave a shrug of his powerful shoulders, and Ivy couldn't have stopped herself from petting the huge muscles there if she'd tried.

“Every other witch I've come across over the years smells like burnt incense and just being around them makes it feel like my fur getting rubbed the wrong way.

“Kerrigan and Juliet gave off the same smell and gave me huge heebies—though that could have been from the eye-fucking they gave me—but I never felt that way around you. I never smelled that distinctive smell. Just flowers and green growing things.

“I knew where Rowena lived just because she'd heard on the grapevine I did custom building jobs, and she wanted me to come out and remodel the little strip center at the frontage road there, but I didn't have any openings in my building schedule so I referred her to a human guy in town who I knew would treat her right. Do you know much about shifter laws?”

Ivy shook her head, still petting him. “Enough to know humans and shifters aren't allowed to mix in a romantic fashion.”

“That's about as PG as you could put it,” Uriah told her ruefully. “Shifters aren't allowed to mate with humans, period. Part of it is because if we went furry and murdered a human on accident, there would be human investigators involved, and if found guilty by the human courts, a shifter would