He points at me.
“…you.”
The applause is rowdy and appreciative as he takes a bow and jumps off the stage to walk toward me.
What has he done? I gulp and my gaze bounces around the table. Cassie and Joe are beaming. Felise and Magan too, all of them clapping wildly. Felise sticks her fingers in her mouth and emits an earsplitting whistle.
My mind is in a spin cycle, my heart hammering wildly. I rub tears off my face, shaking everywhere, inside and outside.
Trace stops in front of me and drops to a crouch. “I love you, Romy.”
My eyes are ready to pop out of their sockets. “What are you doing?” I whisper, jerking my head toward the others at the table.
He grins. Grins! “They already know I’m crazy about you.”
“Whaaaat!” My head shakes no; my mouth is dangling open. “But…”
“It’s okay. They’re good. Now you need to know. I love you.”
I gaze at him helplessly, so confused. “You do?”
“I do.”
“This is unbelievable. I c-can’t believe you did that.”
He smiles. “I did it for you.”
“Oh, Trace.” More water spills from my eyes. I need to get a grip. My mom would be horrified at this public display of emotion.
The rest of the family pushes their chairs back and stand. “We’ll leave you two alone,” Cassie says, her smile as big and bright as a full moon.
“That was epic, Trace!” Felise says.
He rolls his eyes.
I smile. “It really was.”
“Good. Because I was an epic asshole.”
My family vanishes out the door.
Trace uses his thumb to erase some of the tears on my cheek. “I’m sorry I let you end things between us because I was a selfish bastard. I thought maybe you were right. Maybe I’d have a better chance of convincing the board to let me try a portal I found.”
“You found a portal?”
“Yeah. But it doesn’t matter now. Can you forgive me?” He stares intently into my eyes.
I can’t breathe. “Wait. Did you know about the Triad Energy?”
“I suspected.”
My heart pounds painfully. “Was that why you wanted to teach me? So I could do that for you?”
“No!” His eyes bug out and his chin jerks down. “Hell no! I suspected your powers, and I told Joe about it, but I never even imagined that would be something you could do. That was Joe’s idea.”
I slump and nearly fall off my chair in relief. “Oh.”
“Truly, Romy. It was when you agreed to do that for me, I realized everything I’d be giving up.” He swallows. “I love you. And I’m sorry I was too chickenshit to admit it.”
I hold my bottom lip between my teeth briefly. “You kind of were.”
He laughs. “Yeah. Always be honest with me, my little purpose-driven, save-the-world warrior princess. I love your courage. Your intelligence. I love your sense of right and wrong and fairness. I love how you feel comforted by the moon, how you paint beautiful pictures. How you inspire people.”
“Oh.” Emotion swirls in my chest, filling me with warmth. “I love you too. So much.” I hiccup. “And I wanted to make you happy, more than anything. Even if… you’d be gone.”
“You have no idea how much that meant to me.” His voice chokes up, and he cups my face, leans over, and kisses me. “But I’m not leaving you. Ever.”
I fight back the tears, not wanting to disintegrate here in the Singing Horse. Relief flows through me like a waterfall, weakening my muscles.
Trace brushes more moisture off my cheeks. “It’s okay, sweet thing. It’s going to be okay. In fact… it’s going to be great.”
He tells me about going to talk to the family about his feelings for me and how he screwed things up and why he was so afraid that he couldn’t have both of us.
“I told them if they didn’t like it, they could fire me and kick me out of the family, but I’d still choose you.”
“Oh God. Trace.” I touch his face. “That’s ridiculous.” But I love it.
“In my mind, it was real. It scared the crap out of me.” He tells me how they reassured him that they love him, and how, when he asked them for help to set this up tonight, they were all in.
“That means so much to me.” I’m going to break into tears again.
“We need to get out of here.”
I nod, smiling, crying, shaking. I’m a mess, but I don’t care.
27
Trace
We go back to her place.
I carry Romy to her bed where I lay her down gently, reverently, as if she’s fragile and precious. She is precious. With a flick of my finger, we’re both naked, and I join her on the bed, my gaze wandering over her sweet curves and smooth skin. “My gorgeous girl,” I whisper.
She reaches up to push my hair back off my forehead, letting her fingers trail over my cheek and jaw. The tenderness of her gesture makes me feel like a fist is squeezing my heart.
“I love you, Trace.”
“I love you, Romy.”
I hold myself above her on my arms and kiss her, my tongue sliding into her mouth. She tastes so damn sweet. Fire lights up every nerve ending in my body, and I lift my mouth from hers and kiss her bare shoulder, sliding my open mouth over her skin. Her soft moan inflames my senses even more.
I kiss her throat and lick my way down between her pretty tits. Her back arches, and I close my mouth over one nipple, loving the sweetness, the feel of it on my tongue, the soft, resilient flesh pressed to my lips.
Heat pours over my body, liquid pleasure running through my veins.
We roll and twist together, mouths fused in long, deep kisses. I worship her with my mouth, my tongue, my hands, everywhere I can reach. I slip my hand between her legs, find her velvety wet center, and circle my thumb over her clit until she vibrates.
Her body ripples under my hands, and I’m swept away in sensation, in the almost unbearable sweetness and erotic pleasure, but also in the emotion of it, something powerful and huge swelling inside me.
I deal with the condom. Maybe we can get rid of these now. We’ll talk.
I lift her thigh and push into her body, watching her face. Her lips part, her eyes gazing up at me, her hands on my chest. Our gazes hold while heat builds and shimmers around us. The love and devotion in her eyes is my own reflected back at me, and my heart beats in a slow, heavy rhythm against my ribs. “I feel so lucky right now,” I whisper.
She gives me a tremulous smile back. “Me too.”
Slowly I slide in and out of her slick heat as she squeezes around me, her hands pressed to my chest. Sensation coils inside me, heavy and hot.
“Trace.”
I gaze down at her, riveted by the sight of her beautiful face as I thrust deeper, harder. She lifts into me, and I watch her eyelids drift closed and her mouth open. Hot little whimpers and soft sighs escape her lips, building as she gets closer, and closer. Her fingernails dig into my pecs. Then her body tightens and her pussy ripples around me, her cries exquisitely beautiful in my ears.
“Watching you come is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” I fall over her, bury my face in the side of her neck and breathe in the familiar vanilla scent of her. My chest clenches at the perfection of it, the overwhelming intensity of it, the rush of emotion inside me so strong.
Yes, it’s sex. But it’s also love. And home.
And magic.
My thighs quake and my balls tighten, the tension at the small of my back sizzling painfully. Electricity tingles up my spine, singeing every nerve ending in my body and I come, my cock jerking inside her in almost painful, wrenching spasms.
She wraps her arms around my back and holds on tight. My face buried in her hair, I draw in long, ragged breaths.
“Oh, Romy.” I move on her, lifting my head so I can kiss her. A long, tender kiss of devotion and promise. “Romy.”
I make the condom disappear, an
d we curl up together under the covers, wrapped in a delicious warm afterglow. I run my hand down her sleek back to cup her ass and gently squeeze.
“I still can’t believe you did that,” she mumbles against my chest. “We are totally singing duets next time we go to the Singing Horse.”
“Ha. I survived it once, I guess I can do it again.”
“I love that song.”
“We danced to it at the wedding.”
“You remember.”
“Yeah. I like that it’s about flying to the moon. I know you love the moon. And I imagine flying to the moon feels like how I feel, loving you. Flying among the stars. You’re all I long for.” She tips her head back and I kiss her mouth. “All I worship.” Another soft kiss. “All I adore.”
She makes a noise, like a soft, tiny sob. “You’re going to make me cry again.”
“It’s okay if you cry, baby. Don’t ever be afraid to cry in front of me.”
“Oh God. Here we go.” She sniffles.
I press her head to my chest and hold her snug.
Moments later, she mumbles, “I did some shadow work.”
“Yeah? Was it hard?”
“It was. But it was worth it to figure out what’s been holding me back in my witchcraft. I realized I’ve been feeling guilty about doing something my mom would have disapproved of. And all my life, all I wanted was her approval.”
I caress her back and shoulder. “Makes sense.”
“It was hard remembering some of the times I felt I let her down. Or wasn’t good enough.” She hesitates. “And I hate feeling like that, so I was terrified of letting you down. And Dad and Cassie. Everyone.”
I note that she calls Joe “Dad,” and a spark of warm happiness flares in my chest. “And I totally understand that, because I was terrified of that too.”
“I know.” She smooths her palm over my biceps. “Dad talked to me. We had a deep, what-is-the-meaning-of-life conversation.”
“Jesus.”
I feel her smile and she traces her fingertips over my shoulder. “Yeah. So I thought about what kind of person I want to be. What kind of witch I want to be. And I guess nobody has all the answers to why we’re here and what our purpose is, but figuring out who and what is important to me is a start.”
“Yeah.”
She lifts her head. “You’re important to me.”
That heat in my chest glows again. I love hearing that from her. “And you’re important to me. The most important.” I lay a soft smooch on her lips. “You’re not giving up your powers.”
“No. I’m going to keep working on them. I’m going to accept them as part of who I am and do the best things I can with them.”
“Don’t just accept them. Embrace them.”
After a beat, she says, “Yes. You’re right. I’m embracing them. And… you are too.”
“Yeah.” I close my eyes briefly. “Working with you was the best thing for me. Thanks to Joe. He knew.”
“I hate that you felt so discouraged with magic that you gave it up. At first I thought it was me you were angry with.”
“I’m sorry.” I clasp her fingers and bring them to my lips. “Another way I was an asshole. Your unique way of thinking about things aggravated me at first, but you made me think. You made me see things differently. You reawakened the magic in me. So thank you.” I kiss her fingers again.
Her eyes shine. “I love you.”
“I love you too. I can’t tell you how much it meant to me that you would send me back in time so I could be with my family again.” My voice cracks on the word family. “Although I did wonder if it was because you were pissed at me and wanted to get rid of me.”
She snort-laughs. “Oh my god, Trace.”
“I know, I’m a fuckwit. Anyway, the fact that Felise and Magan would do it too, and Joe had the idea, it made me realize… how much love I have in my life. How I already have family. And home.”
“I know how important those things are to you. So important you spend your life making homes for other people.”
I nod, my throat sealed shut.
“Joe told me that even if I decided not to be a witch, I’d still have unique talents. Magic, just a different kind. And I thought about it. And I thought about how I feel for you and how I could make you happy and… I realized the greatest magic of all is love.”
The next morning, waking up in Romy’s bed, I lay there and reflect on how at peace I feel. Now that I know what real happiness is, I realize how heavy the load of guilt I kept on my shoulders was.
Romy knows what happened. And she loves me anyway.
I feel like I’m home.
She stirs next to me, and I reach for her, and well, we can’t keep our hands off each other even though we’re probably both going to be late for work.
When we finally drag ourselves out of bed, I look around for my clothes. I was a little distracted when I got rid of my clothes with psychokinesis, and I’m not sure where they ended up. Hopefully somewhere here in Romy’s condo.
“They’re over here,” Romy says from across the room. She bends to pick up my jeans. “Oh, your talisman fell out.” She stoops again. When she straightens, she’s holding the small raven skull in her hand.
“You shouldn’t be able to pick that up,” I say slowly.
She looks down at her hand. “Oh. What does this mean?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I have a spell on it so I won’t lose it. Last time we tried this you almost were able to take it from me.” I walk closer to her. Her gaze moves from the object in her hand to me, tracking over my naked body. I stop in front of her.
She smiles. “Maybe it’s because you love me?”
I close my hand around hers and the talisman, feeling the heat of the object between us. A sense of wonder and rightness unfurls in my chest. I smile into her eyes. “It could definitely be that.”
28
Romy
“No family drama lately?” I ask as Kesha, Hannah, and I relax with glasses of Moscato in my living room.
“My family drama can’t compare to yours lately.” Kesha grins.
I laugh. “True.”
“You seem to be handling things pretty well,” Hannah says. “Who would have thought this is how things would turn out? Not only did you gain a family—and they’re all witches—you found a man!”
“Yes.” I give a little sigh of contentment. “Who would’ve thought?”
“Your whole life is different.” Kesha waves a hand. “Look at this place.”
I nod, sweeping my glance around the room at all the bright watercolor paintings on the walls, the new decor, the vase of fresh sunflowers. “It feels… like home.”
Like Trace told me the night we met. Home is more than shelter. It’s my sanctuary. It’s my gathering place for friends and family. It’s a center for my life.
“Like your home,” Kesha adds.
Trace’s love of home and family has definitely inspired me to make this place my own. I come home from work at Dream Homes, these days tired but in a good way because my day has been challenging and creative and fun, and walk into my safe haven. My comfort zone. And even more so when I’m joined by people I love—Trace. My family. And my best friends.
“I was afraid we would lose you as a friend because of your new family,” Hannah says.
My attention snaps to her. “What?”
She makes a face. “Your family is huge. Consuming. Plus they’re witches and I know there’s secrecy around it and we’re not part of that.”
“Oh no!” I stare at her in dismay, pressing my hand to my chest. “Don’t ever think that! I love you both! And I still need you!”
“Really?” Hannah tilts her head and looks at Kesha.
“Really! Truly! We have history and… and shared experiences. You two get me. You encouraged me to take that step, to find what was missing in my life. You knew.”
They smile and shrug. “Yeah, I guess we did,” Kesha says.
“I k
now it’s asking a lot for you to keep my secret. But you two are so important to me… if I had to choose between turning you into a potato or losing my powers, I would give up my powers in a heartbeat.”
They blink at me.
“Oh, Romy. You’ll never have to do that. We swear.” Kasha glances at Hannah, who nods vigorously.
“I know. I just want you to know that people are more important than powers. Though I do like doing good things with them. It’s very satisfying.”
“I need more wine.” Kesha lifts her glass.
I grin. With a twirl of my finger, her glass is full.
“That’s the best.” Kesha smiles.
“It’s a little thing. But it’s fun. Anyway, I’m grateful to both of you for encouraging me through this whole thing. Knowing I had you behind me helped me stay steady. And I’m so glad you like Trace.”
“Well.” Kesha purses her lips.
“What? I thought you liked him!”
“I do,” she says. “I’m just glad he got his shit figured out. But if he hurts you again, witch power or no, he’s going to have to answer to us.”
I laugh. “I’ll make sure he knows that.”
“Oh, he knows.” She arches an eyebrow. “I told him.”
“Of course you did.” I sip my wine, warmth filling my chest. “I’m glad he got his shit figured out too. He’ll probably always feel guilty about what happened, but I think he’s letting go of it.”
“You’re good for him too,” Hannah says.
I hope so. I love him so much. It’s a feeling that’s so big and powerful, more than I ever imagined being able to feel. I want him to be happy, and I’ll do anything to make that happen.
“So, we did have a little family drama the other day,” Kesha says. “Remember I said my cousin Darius keeps giving everybody plants?”
This makes me smile. I knew there’d be a story. “You got those nice succulents from him.”
“Yes. Well, he got arrested the other day. Turns out he’s been taking some weird drugs and getting high and breaking into people’s homes to steal their plants.”
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