Chapter 7
XANDER
Once clothed in my new jeans and sweatshirt, I ambled around the witch’s cottage so I could distract my mind from what I really wanted to do.
It took everything in me not to sweep Monique up into my arms and carry her somewhere I could make love to her. Hell, even that wooden kitchen table looked pretty good right about now.
“Your home is really cool,” Kyle said, filling the silence with words when I didn’t.
“Thanks,” Monique said. “I built it myself. Most of us do that once we graduate and become fully-fledged witches... or warlocks.”
“And when was that?” I asked, finally managing to get my vocal cords working.
“When we turn twenty-one, which for me, was a few months ago.”
I nodded, holding in a crazed laugh.
Good. At least she’s legal.
“So, you all live separately, in individual houses you build yourselves? Are there guidelines you have to abide by, when you build? I mean, this place... it kind of looks like some kind of wonderland. Everything is very... pretty.”
“A wonderland? You mean, like, amagicalwonderland?” Her lips quirked and I realized she was teasing me a little.
“Okay. Touché. Itisa wonderland.” I grinned back at her. “But where are your parents? Your siblings? If you have any brothers and sisters, that is?”
I’d loved moving out of my parents’ home into my own place, but I’d lived with Kyle from the start. I couldn’t imagine living alone.
Monique’s smile faded and her gaze dropped. “My parents died years ago and I’m an only child, so...”
Shit! I looked over at Kyle, panic walloping me in the chest at my giant foot-in-mouth moment. How did I respond to that, especially when there was a wealth of emotion in her tone?
“We’re sorry to hear that,” Kyle said, for both of us. “That must have been tough.”
She nodded, then wandered over to a door on the other side of the open plan living and dining area.
“Come through here. I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping.” She frowned. “Though I might need to do an extension there, too.”
Inside the bedroom, located at the end of a short hallway, there was one large bed and pretty pink pillows scattered across the mattress.
I grinned at her. “Nice.”
She giggled a little. “Yeah... give me a minute.”
She waved her hands around, muttering. Before our eyes, the room enlarged. The walls moved out, and then the bed shifted to the left. A second bed appeared next to the first one.
Then with a snap of her fingers, everything turned from pink to blue.
My jaw dropped.
That is cool.
“That’s freaking insane.” I wasn’t sure how else to explain my awe.
“Thanks.” She shrugged. “Do you guys need anything? More clothes? Food?”
Kyle wandered across to the bed on the left, running his fingers over the silver and blue coverlet. “We ate at that warlock’s place,” he said. “I might catch a few z’s. Last night wasn’t the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had, I can tell you.”
Monique’s gaze stayed on Kyle as he tugged off his sweater and pulled back the covers. There was a sudden hunger in her gaze, and I averted my eyes. I didn’t want her looking at Kyle like that. I wanted her to look at me in that way.