Page 50 of Tail, Dark and Handsome: Celestial Mates
“A little,” she conceded. Furnishing the apartment together felt like a dream. Each item was a promise toward the future they were building together. Tomas insisted on spoiling her and dumping all her old secondhand items for new ones. It was theirhome. He told her not to worry about the expense. He’d take care of it, and she believed him.
She believed all of it.
“Fuck.” She banged the back of her head against the wall. “How does he keep finding ways to hurt me?”
“More chicken?” He offered her the last piece.
“I don’t need to eat my emotions.” Still, she took the last piece.
“Good thing you’re not staying here. Mom will want to smudge the place with sage. Probably still will.”
She nodded. Her life was a hot mess. Her apartment was a bigger mess. All she owned was a set of dishes, boxes of tea—why did she have so much tea?—and her entire wardrobe dumped in a pile on the floor.
Hot. Mess.
“Hey, this isn’t a bad thing,” Joseph said.
“How?” She waved a hand, indicating the enormity of everything. “Mom told you about the moneylender, right? So I’ve got that to deal with.”
Winter had given her an advance on payment for the job, which she immediately sent to Nox. Hopefully, that would be enough to keep him from harassing Valerian and Joseph.
“Mom mentioned that, but I was thinking that you’ve got a big heart and you care about people. That makes you vulnerable to certain butt-faced star-sucking voidholes,” Joseph said.
“Are you trying to make me feel better? I honestly can’t tell.”
“I mean, just because a bad person took advantage of your good nature, doesn’t mean…fuck. I don’t know. Don’t beat yourself up because you wanted to believe in love and heart eyes and all that shit.”
Joseph’s words pulled a reluctant laugh from her. “Such a poet. We should pack,” she said.
“Screw packing. Let’s shovel your shit into bags.”
“I need to find enough for the trip to Corra.”
“Fine. Point me to a pile and I’ll box it up and send it to Mom’s,” Joseph said.
Before the warm buzz of the wine left, they cleared the pile, and she had a bag packed. Amazing how fast it went when she didn’t have to worry about moving furniture or packing a few dozen boxes of junk.
By the time she curled up on her sad little mattress on the floor, she was ready to move on from the lies and half-truths of Tomas. A final confrontation and giving him a piece of her mind would be great for closure, but watching their life being dismantled one lounge chair at a time drove the point home. It was over, and she was glad to be done with it.
As she drifted off to sleep, her thoughts turned to Winter. Mr. Growly Claws, as Joseph named him.
A slow smile spread on her face.
He was an insensitive jerk, unquestionably, but not to the people he cared about. He had fought to defend her honor, as old-fashioned as that sounded. It was sweet, in an uncivilized, toxic way, but endearing nonetheless.
Winter couldn’t be interested in her. Not really. She wasn’t special. She was convenient. He said as much. Attractive enough and tolerable.
He mistook Joseph for Tomas and went for him, not because he felt territorial or protective of her; that was simply the kind of guy he was. She saw it first-hand with how he rearranged his life for his son.
His marriage proposal was an offer of convenience. Nothing more.
So what if she liked looking at his cute butt? She had plenty of reasons why getting involved with Winter was a bad idea. First, she was not ready for a romantic relationship. Second, the kid. If she and Winter acted on their attraction, it’d burn hot and bright for a minute, then die out. They’d be hurting more than themselves when it ended.
No. Better to keep it professional. The Caynes needed a friend. She could do that.Justthat.
Winter
He noticed the male immediately, leaning against the corridor wall, dressed in a ludicrously complicated outfit with far too many buttons and preening like a fool. His tail swished from side to side, somehow being insolent.
