Page 82 of Taken By the Blood God

I leaned forward, wanting so badly to touch her that it was a physical ache. But I kept my hands clenched in my lap.

“I am sorry I lied to you, Minerva. I’m even more sorry that I hurt you with my lies. I will spend the rest of my days, and there will be too many to count, making it up to you. Everything I am. Everything I have. It all belongs to you.”

She swallowed hard and leaned back in her chair. “I want to believe you, Tal, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that.”

I nodded. I understood. Minerva had spent so many years protecting herself, and the first time she’d let herself be vulnerable, I had hurt her.

“I understand,” I said. “You need time. And you need me to prove my words to you. I’ll be here every day. I’ll do everything I can to prove it to you. I’ll be here, waiting for you to let me back in or to tell me to leave you alone forever.”

She nodded. “And if it takes me a long time?”

“Then, I hope you don’t mind if I build myself a little cottage back here.”

The corners of her mouth quirked as though she wanted to smile, but the expression vanished quickly.

“Okay.”

I had to grip the sides of the chair when Minerva got to her feet and carried the tray back inside. Every instinct I possessed told me to follow her, but I knew it was the wrong thing to do.When she disappeared from my sight, I realized that I needed to do more than wait for her. I needed a plan on how to win her back.

Chapter

Thirty-Four

Minerva

Three days turned into a week and a week became two. Then, three. Then four. I missed Talant. So much. I hadn’t realized how lonely I was until my house was full of arrogant blood god. Even when Ally lived with me, I’d been lonely. Not for the company of another person. But for the kind of attention a woman received from her lover. I’d been starved to touch and be touched.

In the short time that Talant and I were together, I’d gotten used to having him there. To turning to him in the night. To the heat of his hand on my skin or his body against mine.

Every time I thought about going out into the backyard and talking to him again or just telling him to get his ass back in my house, I would remember how I felt when I realized he’d lied to me. The anger was almost gone, but the pain of his betrayal remained. I feared that it would never fade. I wanted to let it go, to forgive him, but I just…couldn’t.

Davian left five days after I released him from his vow to remain in Devil Springs. He texted me when he reached Dallas, to say that he’d gone to a few different cities but that he was going to stay there for a while. I was surprised that he not only had a cell phone but that he used it to text me. I was also gladhe’d found a place that he liked enough to settle down. I couldn’t believe he’d chosen such a big city. Then again, it was easier to get lost in a place as big as the DFW area.

The beginning of the fifth week, I was working in the shop alone. I’d followed Ally’s advice and suggestions and hired two young women to work for me. One was a shifter who’d just graduated high school, and the other was the daughter of one of my coven sisters. One of the few coven sisters I got along with. They were both intelligent and hardworking. They were still training and spending their shifts with me which meant I was at the store as much as I had always been, but I knew that it wouldn’t be long until I could leave the shop in their capable hands.

I was looking at the upcoming week, trying to figure out when each of them would work, when the bell over the door rang.

I looked up to find Talant standing just inside the shop. My mouth opened but no words came out.

He held an iced coffee in one hand and a small white bag from Marjorie’s bakery in the other. I didn’t move, staring at him in silence, as he walked over to the counter where I sat and set the coffee on the counter beside my arm. The bag went next to it and the scent of chocolate drifted out.

Finally, words came to me. “What’s this?” I asked.

“I brought you a little treat.”

“Um, thanks,” I murmured, looking down at cup and bag.

“Marjorie said that brownies were your favorite.”

I looked up at him and felt a blush rise in my cheeks when I saw the intense way he was watching me. “They are.”

“I won’t forget,” he said.

“Thank you.”

He walked out without another word. I drank the coffee and ate the brownie, thinking about him the entire time.

The next day he returned, this time with a rare book on magic. One that I had been wanting for my personal library for years. When I asked him where he got it, he merely shrugged and said that he had his sources.

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