Page 8 of Hand-Fasting and Other Hazards
They got in, buckled their seatbelts, and when he turned the key, the engine roared to life.
Lochlan hesitated.
Though they’d just met, he already knew the ache of losing Nia to an annulment would haunt him forever. He had finally mustered the courage to approach her before the liquor took over. What if he hadn’t been derailed by Nancy? Would he have woken up with a number in his phone and the possibility of getting to know Nia instead?
She turned to him with an awkward smile. He was taking too long to leave, but putting the truck in drive would begin the process of saying goodbye. What reason would she have to talk to him or seek him out when this was taken care of? It felt like so many experiences he’d had before, and he wanted something different. Something new.
But that was impossible. Unless…
“Lochlan,” she said, quiet and pleading.
He wouldn’t get what he wanted today.
But at least she would.
CHAPTER 4
Nia
“THE DUCHESS OF CHARITY MARRIES THE UNWANTED HEIR.” —THE STELLA RUNE GAZETTE
“You won’t be the only ones coming in today,” Vinny said.
He was a local Stella Rune lawyer who’d handled Ivy’s hasty annulment. An energy witch, Vinny could sense emotions in a way humans might call empathic. It probably made him an excellent lawyer, able to read people in ways they couldn’t even read themselves.
He sat behind a large mahogany desk, sorting through the paperwork to finalize the annulment.
“They should pass a bill pausing all marriages during equinox gatherings,” he muttered.
Nia flinched at the word marriage. She couldn’t believe she was sitting here. This wasn’t her.
It could be worse. As far as husbands went, Lochlan was hot—no denying that. He was the classic tall, dark, and handsome cliché, all sharp cheekbones, broad shoulders, and just the right amount of scruffy stubble. And, well… that ass.
She swallowed a groan.
He also seemed sweet, in a quiet, barely talking kind of way. But she had vowed to never be in this position, no matter what. Now she had to vow that it would never happen again. Maybe she should do a spell, or find a potion to help make it stick.
“How is your friend Ivy doing?” Vinny asked.
“She’s amazing, and happily unmarried,” Nia gave him a pointed look and then dropped her gaze to the papers in his hands.
“Right, right. I’ll just take these to the back, confirm the information, and get you out of here in time for brunch.”
Vinny walked away and when the door closed behind him, Nia bent over and rubbed her eyes. Once this was taken care of, she would have to make sure nothing leaked to the media. They loved following anything she did, for some absurd reason.
“Are you okay?” Lochlan asked.
She waved the question away. She wasn’t okay, but she would be, and either way it wasn’t any of his concern.
“You’ll be rid of me soon.”
Memories of the night before flickered through her mind like elusive flames, impossible to hold on to, yet they left her burning all the same. She had never enjoyed an equinox celebration so much, never danced so freely, never been so… carnal.
They hadn’t had sex. He wouldn’t let them. But they had been naked, tangled together, her legs spread over his thighs as she chased relief with desperate, breathless urgency. He’d held her through it but refused to take that final step, no matter how many times she’d begged. Her moans had pressed against his throat, her teeth had sunk into his skin. The marks she’d left were red and angry, and yet, she couldn’t bring herself to feel ashamed.
What would it feel like to have all of him? To feel him inside her, with nothing between them but heat and want? When they woke up, he’d been sweet and attentive, but he’d marked her as roughly as she’d marked him, and she wanted that side. That darker, hungrier part of him. The one that would leave her sore and aching in all the ways she craved.
She blew out a shaky breath, her cheeks flushing as the images swirled too vividly in her mind. Stop it. There was no good in dwelling on what couldn’t—wouldn’t—happen.
