Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 34989 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34989 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 175(@200wpm)___ 140(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Help! Call a doctor! Call the police!
Nolan was melting him into useless goo. Sky was a racing heart and whimpering libido.
“It wasn’t for no reason. You’re totally hot.” Sky had to make a joke, or he’d be in danger of blurting out a marriage proposal.
“I’m not that hot, Sky.” Nolan sounded as though he were about to laugh.
“You are sooooo hot. You’re that rare, slightly grungy, grumpy, feral hot.”
“Like a stray cat you find in a dumpster?”
Sky dissolved into wild cackles, falling over so that he was now lying across Nolan’s lap. “No! I don’t have an insane need to feed and fuck stray cats.”
His new bed shook with muffled chuckles, and he blinked up at Nolan to find him smiling at last. “That’s good to know.”
Nolan reached down and caught a few strands of Sky’s hair, pushing them from his forehead. “While I appreciate all you’ve done for me, my biggest fear is becoming dependent on you. If I walked into a grocery store, I’d freak out over every person, wondering if they’re a witch or vampire. How do I learn to not live in fear? How do I protect myself? I don’t want to keep running to you.”
It was on the tip of Sky’s tongue to say that he was happy to protect Nolan for the rest of their days, but that wasn’t what Nolan wanted. He didn’t want someone acting as his magical bodyguard. The man was an author and ran his own publishing business. He was accustomed to being independent and self-reliant. The best way Sky could help him was to get him comfortably on his feet.
Sky lay on his back, feeling pretty catlike as he enjoyed Nolan playing with his hair. “You’ll get there. Remember, you’ve been walking past shifters, vampires, and witches all your life, and they never bothered you before. You’ll get to that point again. Right now, you’re still stuck in the shock and horror phase.”
“How many phases are there?”
Sky shrugged. “No clue. I’m totally making this up as I go. But there’s probably an anger phase and a hiding phase. Then acceptance where all the stuff that frightened you slips into the mundane.”
Nolan stared at him without speaking for a couple of seconds, his expression thoughtful as his lips thinned. “What about you?”
Sky jolted in Nolan’s lap and blinked at him. “What about me?”
“Don’t regular humans scare you? Don’t you worry about them finding out that you’re a witch?”
Goo.
He would never be able to return to his non-goo form. From now on, he was going to be a puddle of human pudding. How could this man go from being worried about his forever-changed life to worried about Sky’s well-being in barely the span of a heartbeat?
“I’m thinking you should just marry me.”
“Sky,” Nolan chided, but Sky pushed on.
“I’m serious. If you’re going to keep delivering these sweet shocks to my system, I’m not going to ever recover. Take responsibility.” Nolan lightly flicked him in the middle of his forehead. “Okay, okay. I’ll be serious. I don’t worry about it much. If I’d walked over to your house a year ago, knocked on the door, and said, ‘Hi, I’m your neighbor Sky Wallace and I’m a witch,’ you would have rolled your eyes and closed the door in my face. Most people don’t believe witches exist. A high percentage of people who pay me for my help don’t actually believe magic exists. And they’re paying me.” He paused in his story, pointed at the spot Nolan thumped, and stuck his bottom lip out in a pouty expression.
With a soft smile, Nolan kissed the tip of his finger and touched the place where he’d flicked Sky. That was a good start. They’d move on to better kisses later. Hopefully.
“Still, you aren’t exactly forthcoming about it. I didn’t know you were a witch until you told me.”
“Nah. I don’t go blasting it out. If someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them I design greeting cards.”
One corner of Nolan’s mouth quirked higher. “How many dates before you tell a guy?”
Sky groaned and covered his face with both hands. “Lots. Tons. Sometimes never.” He immediately lowered his hands and stared up at Nolan. “Not like I’d never tell him, but more like we’d never get to the point where I felt comfortable telling him. Everything falls apart prior to that stage.”
“Dating sucks,” Nolan huffed.
“Tell me about it.” Sky stretched out his legs, tucking his toes under the throw pillow stuffed in the corner. “It’s hard enough to find a person who’s attractive, funny, compassionate, smart, patient, and interesting. But when I get to where I think it’s someone I want to be with for a long time, I have to drop this weird and heavy bomb on them. Not only can I do magic, but all that creepy shit they think isn’t real, actually is.”