Page 70 of Tricky Magic
“Has Ellea seen you like this?” he asked, grabbing the cups and standing.
“We all have our secrets,” she said without standing. “I’ll be keeping an eye on things. I’ve always done so.”
Ros only nodded and slowly turned to leave. He chanced a glance back at her, but she was already gone.
40
Ellea
Ellea waved as Devon and Sam drove down her driveway. She and Devon had woken up on her large couch about thirty minutes ago. She couldn’t recall when they had fallen asleep, only that it was during their replay of “Half-Blood Prince.” Ellea closed the door, ready for some coffee. She paused her steps when the loud noise of Sam’s truck sounded outside of the cabin. Confused, she turned and opened the door to see not Sam’s truck, but Ros’. She caught him grumbling to himself as he stepped out of the large vehicle. He was holding two coffee cups in his hands, and she groaned at the sight.
“Oh, I could kiss you,” she said, walking across her porch to meet him.
“Don’t say that yet,” he said with such a sad look on his face. “I…so…I’m sorry.”
“What’s wrong?” Her heart dropped as too many possibilities flashed through her head. Did he regret sleeping with her? Was this an “I’m sorry, I’m not interested” coffee?
“So you see,” he muttered, “I drank yours instead of mine. I didn’t mean to!”
He paused, holding the cups close to his chest. “I took a sip of yours by accident, and then one thing led to another…” He trailed off.
“It’s okay.” She laughed nervously, scolding herself for jumping to conclusions too fast. “I’ll drink yours.” She reached for his, and he tried to take it away from her, but she was quicker. She stuck her tongue out at him before bringing the heavy cup to her lips. She quickly spit it out. “What the fuck is this?”
Ros closed his eyes. “I had a plan.” He groaned. “This was supposed to go differently.”
“What plan?” she questioned.
He stepped closer to her. “I don’t know, something like ‘here’s a coffee and a reason to talk about the other night’.”
Ellea’s mouth opened and closed. “Oh.”
“Yeah,” he replied.
She searched his face, and what greeted her wasn’t regret or harshness.
Was he nervous?
She smiled up at him. “Let’s go inside, and I’ll make myself a coffee. Maybe I’ll even make you one.”
His eyes seemed to glint at the offer, and her stomach turned. It flipped the other way as he stepped toward her. With his free hand, he stroked her chin with his thumb and moved his fingers to grip the base of her neck. He tilted her head back gently and brought his lips to hers for a whisper of a kiss.
He slowly pulled away and whispered above her mouth, “Good morning, princess.”
She rolled her eyes and glowered at him. His hazel eyes heated with her defiance, and her mouth dried. Clearing her throat, she directed him to the door, and he followed.
“I still don’t know why you call me that,” she called over her shoulder as she dumped the disgusting coffee down her kitchen sink. The dream she’d had about a mysterious man who also called her “princess” drifted to the surface. Had it been a vision?
“Because I can,” he teased. He sat at the kitchen table in the same chair he’d sat in after Belias had tried taking her. The same chair she had sucked his cock in. She licked her lips at the memory.
“So, this coffee?” she questioned. “What were you trying to say with it, and how did you know what kind to get me?”
“I had help. You didn’t seem too thrilled yesterday morning.”
It wasn’t that. She’d been more confused than anything else. And last night…She hadn’t had time to process that either. Ellea grabbed her coffee supplies from the fridge and placed them on the counter. She paused and leaned into it, searching for what to say and what to think.
“That morning had nothing to do with that night with you,” she said, distracting herself with working on their coffees. “And this morning with Devon—”
“What did you do with Devon?”
