Magical Midlife Love (Leveling Up #4) - K.F. Breene Page 0,98
I saw a wraparound one up there.”
“I do, yes. Would you like to sit up there?”
“Yes, please.”
Austin nodded and opened a fresh bottle of wine. Apparently Kingsley would be drinking the rest of the other one. Grabbing two glasses, Austin guided me upstairs.
“There is a second living room up here, for overflow or if people want to get away from each other. Then a few guestrooms.” Austin stopped next to the living room, similar to the one downstairs but without a fireplace.
“Your room?”
A wave of heat and nervousness washed back and forth across the link, both of us feeling the same heady combination.
“This way, please, milady.” He gestured me down the hall.
I started forward with a dopey grin. “It’s so corny when you call me milady, and I love it so much.”
I chuckled as we reached a flat storm-gray wall with a plant standing in front of it and a large painting of the deep woods, with moss-covered rocks and swooping branches. He looked down at me, as though waiting for me to comment on it.
“Really lovely. It reminds me of Ivy House.”
With a smile, he stepped around the plant and disappeared behind the wall.
“What the…” I put out my hands and stepped forward, draping the wall with magic to see if I could decipher the spell. Upon closer inspection, though, there wasn’t a spell. It was a trick of the eye. The oversized painting clung to the edge of a wall that ended, the plant positioned in such a way that it further masked the opening. A small hallway beyond it led to a door, which opened into a spacious room at the back of the house. The setup was very similar to my bedroom in Ivy House. Instead of a table by the window, though, he had a love seat and a table set off to the side around the fireplace.
“No TV?” I followed him to the veranda, where a table was set up to look out over the darkness. The sky stretched out above us, the sea of stars infinite and breathtaking.
“I don’t actually watch much TV.”
“Hence why you are so good at your hobbies.”
He set the glasses and bottle onto the table and pulled out a chair for me. He pulled a wine opener from his pocket and sat before opening the bottle.
“Is the hidden doorway in case someone tries to attack?” I asked, leaning back and sighing.
“Yes. The wraparound porch gives me a range of places to jump down if I need to escape. I never trust wards. Mages put them up—they can pull them down.”
“Too bad you don’t have a magical house to protect you.”
“Yes. Too bad.”
He poured our wine and then held his glass up. “To you finally getting to know my brother. I hope you don’t ghost me.”
I laughed and clinked my glass with his. “I like Kingsley, actually. I don’t think he’s as chill and balanced as you always said, but he’s good people.”
“He is chill and balanced for an alpha, trust me.”
“Not as much as you.”
He frowned at me. “That’s probably because I’ve always allowed myself to smile with you. To laugh. I’m only newly an alpha.”
“Yeah, why is that? You never gave me that hard alpha shtick—even the hard shifter shtick—like Kingsley and all his people do. Like you do to most of the people in your bar.”
He was quiet for a long while. “Probably because I knew, even then.”
“Knew what?”
His gaze was heavy on me. “I haven’t wanted to smile and laugh for…so long. Since I met Destiny, but before that, too. The stigma of my father has always hung over me. The bad apple. The black sheep. I’ve always feared that I’d become the thing my mother dreaded. Even when I was a kid, I was too rough with play, too aggressive. At one point, I thought power was the only answer for taming my beast. After I left home, I decided it was solitude.
“Then you walked in the door that day, a Jane in a magical world, starting over and facing an uncertain future with a broken smile… It touched me. It blew something sweet and soft into a hard, desolate place. Your fresh take on the world, your courage, your insight—it revived me. I think I knew then that I’d care for you more than I’ve ever cared for anyone. That I’d want to protect you in a way that felt wholesome and good. That felt—feels—like what I’m designed for. You make my world make