Spin the Shadows (Dark and Wicked Fae #1) - Cate Corvin Page 0,47
six months remaining on my visa. I know my mother still loves me, but… she also isn’t raring for me to come home, since I can’t do what a dryad is meant to do. There’s nothing for me in Emain Ablach but a lifetime of being an outcast. And… that’s why I took a bike courier job. Even working for Numa Purkiss felt like a real life compared to what I had there.”
“And that leads to you.” I finally looked up at him. There was no judgment in his eyes. “If I can’t return and tend the Grove, then I want to stay here, and there’s more to life than riding a bike. I want to do something useful, become someone worthwhile. When I call it ‘blackmail’, I’m just joking around. It was a golden opportunity for me to find my place in the world, and I believe I’m equal to the job.”
Robin finally smiled. “Of course you are. That’s why you’re still with me.”
“Would you have fired me if I’d screwed it all up?” I raised an eyebrow, but inside, I felt as light and free as a bird. Now someone else—besides Jack, who didn’t count— knew that I was a total failure as a dryad, and he wasn’t sneering at me.
“Not fired. But if you hadn’t taken to it with such alacrity, I would’ve let you go.” Robin’s fingers were so warm, lacing through mine. “I’m glad I didn’t.”
“Me, too.” I beamed at him. “I think this is where I’m meant to be.”
Robin looked down at his glass of wine. “If you don’t want to return to Emain Ablach, then you shouldn’t. Nobody would be upset to have you stay, but they’d miss you if you left.”
My heart thrummed in my chest.
I didn’t even notice what I was eating when the brownie named Rosetta brought us dinner, even though it was the most delicious mushroom pasta I’d ever had, because it was impossible to ignore that Robin had shifted his long legs under the table.
One of them was pressed against mine, and he didn’t pull away like he’d touched an open flame instead of my body.
We finished the bottle of wine, and Robin opened the door for me again. I shivered briefly when we stepped into the quickly-cooling night air of the city, and a moment later, he draped his own warm jacket around my shoulders.
I tried to say thanks, but my voice got stuck in my throat. There was a vivid, churning sensation in my abdomen that opening up to him had done far more than blur the lines; it’d washed over them like a wet brush through watercolors, completely dissipating the boundary until it was like it never existed at all.
Robin put an arm around my shoulders as we walked through Mothwing Falls. This time, there was no sign of the Ghosthand, no spooks, nothing to destroy the swirling in my stomach.
When we reached my home, my apartment porch light was off, and Carabosse’s shop was locked up and darkened. I fumbled for my keys in my pocket, quietly unlocking the door even though I knew the twins were out.
Robin paused on the top step like he meant to go back down, but I blurted out, “My roommates are gone. Want to come in for a drink?”
I thought he’d say goodnight and go home just like last time, slamming the door between us, and he had every right to put his foot down and keep things strictly professional between us.
I was about to mentally kick myself for asking when he smiled. “I’d love to.”
16
I swallowed hard and pushed the door open, belatedly remembering that the twins were slobs and the likelihood of tripping on a dirty sock right inside the door was fairly high.
Luckily, Robin didn’t step on anything gross. I closed the door, bolted it, and reached for the light switch.
My hand didn’t even make it that far. It ran into something hard and warm, and the next thing I knew, Robin had gripped it and had it pinned to the door above my head.
My heart slammed into a rapid beat, the dull thud filling my ears like music.
He didn’t hesitate this time, leaning down and capturing my mouth with his. His tongue, warm and slick, pushed between my parted lips and tangled around mine.
Kissing Robin was everything I’d dreamed of. His beard against my skin sent shivers through me, and his lips still tasted like wine.