Page 28 of Let Me Win You

This time, I was prepared. I’d spent almost the entire day on the highest level of my house, which was the look-out on the top tower, watching the town. Not that I could see much from this distance. The rows of town dwellings merged into a colorful ribbon with only a blue blotch for the teahouse. But I spotted the tiny brown dot heading in my direction the moment it separated from the ribbon of the town.

Was it Nicole?

Was she really coming?

Thrill rushed me with rings of tingles, reaching to the very tip of my tail and making my rattle tremble.

Soon, Nicole would be here, and I would hopefully get a chance to plead my case to her.

I slid down the pole from the look-out. Instead of the tail, I landed on the floor below with two feet, shifting into the form that Nicole would find more agreeable. I couldn’t risk scaring her away again. If she so wished, I was prepared to give up my horns and tail for good. Shifting from my natural form alwaysfelt uncomfortable, but I’d had more practice doing it than any of my brothers and could bear it better than any of them.

Would she stay for dinner?

I hadn’t spent enough time with Nicole to learn her favorite food, but I had a variety of dishes prepped and ready to cook. A new, sturdier table was set under the willow tree. I put the appetizers out—some greens and seafood. It called for white wine, which I had chilled. But I also put a bottle of red on the table because on the night I met Nicole, she was drinking red wine.

I circled the table, making sure everything was ready and in place.

Was she really coming?

What if the dot I’d spotted wasn’t her? Kindness wore brown too. Except that Kindness hardly ever came to visit me, which was best for both of us. I didn’t care about “keeping in touch” with the entire town through my sister. The less of the town gossip I heard, the better off I was.

What if it was Mother coming to talk again?

Mother preferred brighter colors, however. I couldn’t recall if I’d ever seen her taking that dull shade of brown that Kindness would’ve lent Nicole to wear. I had much lovelier clothes ready for her, if only she would accept them.

Anxious and impatient, I circled the table one more time and realized suddenly that I was no longerwalking. At some point, my legs had merged to form the tail again.

Fuck.

I couldn’t let that happen in Nicole’s presence. I had to focus and keep in control.

Shifting back to the form and size of a human, I rushed into the house to put on the clothes I wore the night I met Nicole. The restraining sensation of the fabric would hopefully serve as a reminder for me to stay in this shape throughout the evening.

“Um... Invi?” Nicole’s sweet voice called from the outside while I finished zipping up my pants behind a screen. “Are you there?”

She came.

Making sure I looked the way she was less likely to fear me, I stepped from behind the partition with the trunk where I kept my one and only set of human-sized clothes.

“I’m here,” I said from my main floor sitting room.

She stood on the lawn by the front entrance. But because my house had no walls, I could see her from almost anywhere, even while being inside.

She was dressed in one of Kindness’s demure dresses that was way too long for her. The top part of her thick, wavy hair was pinned up, the rest draped in lush waves down her back and shoulders. And she held my basket in her hands.

“Oh…” She cleared her throat. “Hi.”

“Hello.” I bowed my head, somehow remembering my manners while fighting the overwhelming need to take her in my arms. “I’m…honored to welcome you to my home.”

Mindful of every step I took and making sure that my feet remainedfeetinstead of turning into the tail again, I walked out onto the lawn to her.

“You…” She ran her gaze up and down my fully dressed figure that I made sure to be just a head or two taller than her. “You look different.”

“I’m trying to look as close as possible to the way I did when we met. I kept the clothes, and I can compress my size, get rid of the um…extra appendages.” I blew out a frustrated breath. “But I can’t have a real human body without the moonstone ring.”

“Did Avar take the ring back?”

“He did.”

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