Page 83 of Shifting Winds
I didn’t move for a moment. “You’re not going to make this weird, are you?”
He grinned, a sly, sexy thing that made me laugh. “Only if you want me to.”
Deciding to hell with it, I scooted closer and turned, settling in between Rowan’s legs, my back resting against his chest.
I felt an immediate sense of relief. “Shit,” I muttered.
“Yeah,” Rowan agreed.
“Why don’t I feel like this with Caelan?”
“Probably because you two are constantly having sex.”
I swatted his arm.
Rowan chuckled. “I’m serious. You two haven’t settled into anything yet. You aren’t quite friends, and even though you’re intimate, you don’t consider him a bonded lover.”
“And you?”
“I’m a friend, and I care about you, and you care about me. We have no complications. You and Caelan are a tangle of complications.”
“Is it really that easy?” I muttered.
“And that hard,” Rowan said.
“Would it have been easier if you and I had gotten together?”
I liked Rowan. He never made me want to kill him like Caelan did.
He toyed with my hair. “Maybe? I’m different from Caelan. All the Lords are different. But we all have a mega possessive streak when it comes to things or people we see as ours. Why? Would you want that?”
“I don’t know what I want. None of this is Caelan’s fault.”
Rowan snorted.
“Not completely,” I amended. “I’m a hot mess all on my own. I didn’t need his help.”
“You’re keeping a lot of secrets, Evie. It makes Caelan crazy.”
“He knows most of them,” I muttered.
“And you didn’t want him to. That also makes him crazy, FYI.”
“I don’t think we would have worked. You’re far too logical.”
Rowan tugged a lock of hair. “Hush. I’m lying with a beautiful woman giving her advice when I should be ravishing her.”
“Are you a big ravisher?”
He sighed. “Not really. I like plants. It doesn’t attract the ladies.”
“Then you’re looking for the wrong ladies. A lot of women love a guy who gets his hands dirty.” I thought of Gianna, my heart tugging at her loss. “It’s all the power you Lords collect. That attracts a certain kind of woman.”
“Women not like you.”
I grunted. “I almost ran, you know.”
“From Caelan?”
