I get out and stop by her window. My beautiful mate looks furious. She sits there with her arms folded across her chest and a tight scowl on her face. Because she won’t look at me through the driver’s window, I lean over the hood to get directly in front of her face. And the anger blazing at me through the windshield from those blue eyes? She’s really pissed. And her eyes are nearly luminescent with her anger. Darker. Almost glowing.
“C’mon inside. I’ll make breakfast.”
She flips me the middle finger, eyes continuing to shoot dark blue fire my way.
She then picks up her phone from the passenger seat and turns it on before making a call.
“Yo, baby. Be smart,” I warn.
I wait patiently, straining to listen and hear her sister’s voicemail greeting before she puts the phone down and again her forehead rests against the steering wheel.
“We’ll make plans for you to see your sister. Soon,” I offer.
“How soon?” she demands through clenched teeth.
“As soon as Tyson and I work it out.”
“Anything longer than right now is too long.”
“Why? So you can get in her ear to try to convince her it’s time for you two to try to finagle a way out of your marriages? Because that’s not okay, baby.”
“What did the witches say?” she demands.
“Come in the house and I’ll tell you.”
She shoots me another dirty look.
I smile. “You’re beautiful when you’re angry.”
Her eyes roll and she dials on her phone again. Ivy’s voicemail. And then she ends the call and stuffs her keys and phone into her bag, puts her bag over herself cross body, and then she comes out of the car, stomps past me, and goes inside.
I reach into the back seat and pull out her luggage, spotting a large pink travel mug on the floor back there. I snicker at the words on it.
Nurses. We can’t fix stupid, but at least we can sedate it
I nab that to bring it inside, too.
“I’m not staying,” she says, spinning to face me as I drop the bags on the bottom step going upstairs.
“Oh yeah you are,” I volley.
“What happened with the witches yesterday?”
“Sit down, I’ll make some coffee.” I take her mug to the sink and start washing it.
She glares at me, looking ready to argue, but then her eyes hit the coffee machine and I read the need in her for her obvious addiction to caffeine.
***
She’s curled up on the couch, cross-legged with eyes aimed at the lake when I bring the steaming mugs over, one of them: her travel mug. After setting them down, I stretch out on the couch, pulling her backwards onto me, bracketing her legs with mine. Of course she’s stiff, emanating anger.
“Why do you keep running? Do you really want away from me this much?”
I feel her flinch. I know that what Amelia is running from, truly, is her feelings. And I’m pretty sure what I’m feeling from her right now is a shot of guilt.
“You’re not being very sweet to me, are you? And I’m tryin’ to be all sorts of sweet to you, wildberry…”
She scoffs. “Oh, it’s sweet to keep me here against my will? To chase me when I try to go? Hide my phone and keys, hire babysitters and have your friends block me from leaving? That’s sweet, is it? You’re not the boss of me, you’re not in charge of me and even if this thing with us were real, your alpha ways would not be acceptable to me.”
I kiss her cheekbone and wrap my arms tighter around her. “I want to give you everything, Amie. But I know why you’re tryin’ to run, and it goes against my instinct to allow it.”
“It goes against your instinct to let me see my fucking sister too, evidently. To have my phone. To have any control over my life?”
I sigh.
“This is not fucking okay and if you think that trapping me here is the key to making me give in, you’re in for a rude awakening. I left this morning to go see my sister and I did it because you have no right to keep me here.”
“I have every right, baby, but we’ll get to that in a second. About your sister… I had a conversation with Ty yesterday. He needs time with her. I need time with you. You two, definitely you, don’t need to get together and make a ploy to-”
“A ploy to undo this witchcraft against us? To give you free will over who you get to be with?”
I blink in surprise as she leans out of my embrace to fetch her mug, open the lid, blow on it, and then she takes a sip. She pulls the lid off before setting it back down.
I pull her back against my front again, kissing her temple.