Page 38 of Happily Ever Witch
He’d stirred at some ungodly hour and sensed that Esmeralda was missing. He wasn’t sure how he knew it, given the mountain of pillows she’d erected between them, but he’d opened his eyes and known she wasn’t in the bed with him.
Instantly, he’d been wide awake.
He’d sat bolt upright, his head swiveling around to scan the empty place where she was supposed to be andwasn’t. Women didn’t leave his bed. Not that he’d ever slept beside one before. He always left after sex. Always. But if hehadslept beside another woman, she would have been there when he woke up. So why wasn’t Esmeralda?
More importantlywherewas Esmeralda?
Something hot and cold and slimy had slid through his stomach, as he realized the witch was wandering around without him.
The infinite list of Trevelyan’s enemies had scrolled through his mind. All the monsters who hated him and who would be cackling with glee to get their hands on his Good little wicked witch. Inside of him, the dragon went on alert.
Trevelyan had never in his life feared for another person safety, so he refused to believethatwas the emotion that crawled through his gut. It was probably just some extreme form of irritation that he was stuck with a True Love who was an early riser. Anyone sensible would be devastated to learn that horrific news.
He’d gotten out of bed and gone looking for her, because he wasirritated. With her, and with the dawn, and with the rain which continued to pour down. He’d never thought much about storms, but now they pissed him off. Once he got his powers back, Trevelyan was putting an impenetrable protection spell on Esmeralda, whether she liked it or not. At least until he figured out how to control the weather.
After fifteen minutes of searching up and down heart-patterned corridors, the witch had still been missing. By thatpoint, Trevelyan had been gettingveryirritated. Where the fuckwasshe? Dragons loved a good chase, but only when two people were playing. It seemed like he was the sole participant and that Esmeralda had vaporized into thin air.
The dragon had been going wild. It wanted the witch found.Now.
So did the rest of Trevelyan.
He’d been all but running, when he reached the kitchen and finally saw the mass of black curls. Trevelyan had skidded to a stop, his heart hammering with… irritation. He braced a palm on the doorframe, trying to calm down and speculating on if the wolf had sent Esmeralda to drive him purposefully insane. At the moment, he was leaning towards “yes.”
“Hey Trev.” She said cheerily, her back to the door. She just seemed to know he was there, the same way he’d known she was missing when he’d woken up. “I made coffee.”
The dragon eased at the sound of her voice.
The rest of Trevelyan didn’t.
“There are some fancy smoothies in the fridge, too.” She went on. “They all say “drink me” though, so I’m pretty sure they’re poison. Why else would you want some random person to drink your stuff, unless you were testing a poison?”
He had to agree with that analysis. He spared a brief look at the refrigerator, where someone had pinned up some useless daily affirmation that read, “Believe six impossible things before breakfast!”
“Dear God… If you wrote something that adorable, I’m going to kill myself.” He muttered.
“Ididn’twrite it, as a matter of fact. But I don’t think it’s adorable. I think it’s a dare.”
“A dare?” He read the words again, suddenly seeing the challenge in them.
“Sure. You say you don’t believe in anything you can’t see and smell and hear, right? Well, this is daring you to believe in somethingimpossible.” She smirked. “It knows you can’t do it.”
“I could do it, if I wanted to.” Dragons could do anything. Their DNA was magical. Literally.
“No, you could not. If you had aweek,you couldn’t do it.”
“In a week, I’m certain I could…” He stopped and rubbed at his forehead.
What was he doing?
He should bellow at her for almostirritatinghim half-to-death, or demand to know what she’d been thinking wandering away the minute he closed his eyes, or stalk forward and seal his mouth over hers, kissing her until she was begging to climb back into bed with him.
(He Badly wanted to kiss her, probably because she was refusing to allow it. Kissing itself had always struck him as juvenile and unnecessary. He wanted Esmeralda’s lips against his, though, and he was pretty sure he could convince her to accept his own.)
But all of that would have revealed more than he was comfortable revealing. Or feeling. Because he wasn’t feelinganythingexcept irritation. And now a lot of it was directed at himself.
What had just happened to him? Why had he reacted so strongly to the idea of her being gone?
The woman could take care of herself. She’d told him so. It had been an immense relief when Esmeralda suggested that they skip all the tedious bits where they protected each other. After all, it would surely behimprotectingherand why should he bother? She wasn’t loyal to him. She’d sided with her precious “family,” not Trevelyan.
