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“Okay, I’m here, I have my trunks, and I’m still super confused, little sexy,” Winter said with a chuckle.

I took his hand and led him towards the master suite, already having cleared it with Tracey to use her bathroom for my plans. Winter had been helping me—and us—out left and right. He was getting his friends to cover shifts while we hired more people. He was doing the same while having his own job and a super packed class load and calendar.

So after a bit of finagling, I worked it so he had Friday night off and planned something fun for him. Hopefully us.

And it started with him getting mostly naked.

Yes. Please.

Winter Green was a very, very handsome man. Six-six and built like that frame should be. Maybe even a bit bigger just for the enjoyment of everyone but not over the top and definitely natural. He was a man who lifted and took care of himself but also knew life was tough and had done hard labor for those muscles.

Plus, he was the outdoorsy type who took vacations and day trips with his polar bear familiar.

He’d lost a bet and had grayish-blue hair when we met that was now faded, but I’d talked him into recoloring it the same way. That sounded ridiculous, but I was not the only woman on campus who agreed it worked for him. With his ice-blue eyes… Yeah, him recoloring it would make a lot of people happy.

“Trunks under the jeans like I asked for?” I checked.

“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled. “I’m stripping down to them upstairs?”

“You’ll see,” I sang and ran up the stairs. I chuckled as he gave chase. I smiled when he snuck a kiss and then I let him inside the master suite before the bathroom to show him what I had set up. “We’re having a spa night. Strip down to the trunks.”

Several emotions raced over his face at once, but then he seemed to shrug. “That’s a cool date. I’m digging it.”

I hoped he might.

He was really into it when I took off my clothes and showed I had a bikini on underneath. “I have had fantasies like this.”

“Goof,” I chuckled. “How hot do you like your soaks?”

“I’m a fragile one so not too hot,” he joked, messing with the controls when I showed him how. He smiled when I had an array of bath bombs for him to choose from and smell. “You are too much, Bev. I love this.”

I shrugged. “Everyone needs a good spa/self-care night and you’ve been really pushing to help me. I appreciate it. It’s not just the guy who should do sweet stuff and put in effort. Even I know that.” That got me another kiss, and I was glad he saw the gesture for what it was.

He picked and chuckled when it made the water all pretty. Then he hopped in and dunked under when I told him to. I had sparkling water for him and got him settled on the pillow. Then I put cucumbers over his eyes.

I frowned when I turned to get the scalp scrub that I loved and heard a crunch. “Did you just eat the cucumber?”

“A bath needs snacks,” he mumbled… Before crunching again.

I died. Seriously, I laughed so hard I almost slipped on the towel I had down for my knees. I ended up giving him the bowl of cucumbers I’d cut for us to use and let him eat them.

Life was better with Winter in it. For real.

“Oh fuck, this is—I will do whatever you want for this treatment,” he groaned after I started the massage with the rosemary scalp exfoliator with salt and spa goodness. “Shit, no wonder women love the spa.”

“Yeah, this is the good stuff,” I chuckled. “You can only do it once a week, and it’s hard to do on yourself, but I thought it would be amazing for someone else to apply it and handle.”

“You were right. You’re a smart one,” he mumbled with a sigh. “I’ll do it for you if you teach me how. It can be our spoiling secret.”

I didn’t say anything but sort of mentally nodded. I got it. He wanted it to be our thing when he would have to share me. I thought that was fair? But it also seemed rude because then others couldn’t do it with me?

I really didn’t know the answer most days on what was right.

While that was tingling his scalp, I put a face mask on him which made him chuckle. Then I opened the jar of body scrub that would make his skin glow since it had all of the good stuff and even a bit of magic. Jasmine had hooked me up with this one saying it was her favorite even if it was a bit pricey for her.

Probably not anymore with what we were paying her as our in-house counsel. But I knew what she meant.

I put some on my hands and started rubbing his shoulders, chuckling when he groaned deeply.

He angled his neck so our faces were a breath apart which normally would be seductive, but it was silly with the face mask on. “We’re going to do this fully nakie someday soon, right?”

I thought about that as I kept focused on my task. “No, I kinda like that we’re keeping this PG. We deserve this spa time and to not get distracted. We can have enough other things and reasons for that. Spa time is swimsuits and PG.”

“Unless on Valentine’s Day. Then I’m jumping your sexy ass,” he grumbled. “Or my birthday.”

I lost it. I laughed, and when I calmed down, agreed that yes, he could jump me on the spa day for his birthday. That seemed more than fair.

I scrubbed his chest, shoulders, arms, back, and abs before having him dunk under and rinsed the scalp treatment as well. Then I applied a conditioning mask to his hair and put on the same face mask before letting him just chill a bit.

“Not doing my legs?” he teased.

“Some of this is self-care,” I reminded him. I sighed when he chuckled. “I know my limits and I’m not that coordinated.” I frowned when he snorted and I was glad when he explained.

“I’ve seen you fly over terrain on your long runs. You’re way more coordinated than I am. You’re part fucking gazelle. It’s impressive.”

“Thanks.” I appreciated him saying that because… Well, I hadn’t gotten a lot of compliments in my life. Now people were giving them to me, but it was always about my magic or the weird stuff I could do.

Never really about me?

Or me as a person but my magic. Well, no, my beauty, but that was superficial. I shouldn’t want that to be mentally healthy. I didn’t think so.

“Stop thinking so hard and hop in to relax,” he mumbled.

“How did you know?” I asked, snapping out of my racing thoughts.

“I can practically smell the smoke coming out of your ears. Plus, I know you.”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat and got in the tub.

“Dunk under and I’ll apply that stuff to your scalp.”

I frowned. “No, this is to spoil you.”

“Getting to spoil you spoils me too, Bev,” he said gently. “We’re having this time for us . That’s the spoiling.” He took off the mask and smiled at me when I frowned. He gestured around at the lavish bathroom. “All of this is spoiling. Taking the night for self-care. You aced spoiling me. Really.”

“Okay, so just enjoy it,” I pushed. “I’m good.”

“I want to.” He frowned when I didn’t budge. “What’s going on?”

I looked away and down at my knees. “Clare’s right and I really am dense. I don’t get what’s going on here and I’m getting emotional again. I want to cry that you’re not enjoying my gift. You just said you are, and then I hear Kelton say I should go talk to someone which isn’t fair. I don’t want you to have to always take care of me. I wanted to take care of you tonight.”

He hugged me and kissed my hair. “Bev, you have to give yourself a break. I don’t like telling people they need to do stuff or they have to—normally, I say I wish they would or I hope they do. I don’t like being pushy. But you have to . You are being too hard on yourself. You are doing so, so well given what has happened. Please, please hear me.”

“You want to change my plan to spoil you and I’m ready to have a panic attack that I failed,” I admitted so quietly I barely heard myself. “That’s not doing well, Winter.”

“Yeah, it is. When you look at what’s happened to you, it really is.” He kissed my hair again but was silent a minute. “You were almost raped, your first time pleasurable but somewhat traumatic and crazy. But you still let people touch you. You can still engage. A lot of people can’t after they were sexually assaulted, and he did touch you.”

I thought about that. “It’s the library. It’s that place more than what was done to me.” I frowned. “No, and men touching my drinks. I can’t have strange men hand me drinks or—I have to see my drinks even if I know it wasn’t the barista’s fault. It was more how it all hit me after and when I met Kelton.”

“The fact you’ve identified your triggers already is amazing. I took much longer to identify mine. And you can talk about it. That one trauma and you are handling it so well. You’ve had multiple. Please, you are doing well. Keep going, Bev. Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“I’m sorry I turned tonight into all about me,” I whispered. “I didn’t want that. I wanted to spoil you.”

“I’m spoiled. I’m very spoiled,” he promised. “You’ve been doing—Bev, all you’ve been doing for Teddy and helping us—I’m not scared every day about what happens to us after graduation. You have no idea how—that fear was starting to eat me. You saved me from that. Even if we don’t work out, I know we’re going to be okay, and that’s all because of you.”

“Okay, so let’s relax,” I forced myself to say when the worst of it passed. I was so annoyed with myself that I was ruining something so simple and nice.

He leaned away and booped my nose. “You didn’t ruin anything. You gave me a moment to be your knight again, and I like those moments. Don’t take them away from me. I don’t take the ones away from you when you help me.”

“I don’t feel like I ever help anyone,” I sighed.

“Because you’re drowning. You are. I promise,” he said gently.

I accepted that because Winter wouldn’t lie to me. Not about something as important as this.

I let him win, and luckily his arms were long enough so we didn’t have to get out to grab the scalp scrub that I’d left on the floor. I dunked under and then explained how to apply it, showing him how I did a section in the front. He was a bit too gentle at first and I couldn’t help but smile. It was so like him and his familiar.

Gentle giants… Unless they were provoked. Then I would bet both of them could be fucking scary. But never towards the ones they cared about.

“Talking things out is hard,” he said as he got the hang of it. “There’s lots I’ve wanted to talk about and never known how or who I could trust.”

“You could tell me anything,” I promised.

“You’re the first—well, not the first I knew I could trust. I could trust my friends. But some of them went through the same and have the same burden,” he mumbled. “Sometimes you need to talk to someone outside of the situation to hear that you’re not crazy.”

“Yeah, I know that well,” I agreed. “But also, Clare being here has helped. Sometimes everyone looks at me like I’m too paranoid about my family, but she completely understands.”

“ Exactly . That’s exactly it with my friends. But you feel validated with your friends and us now seeing it, right?” he checked.

“Totally. It’s like a level of relief that you guys are saying it’s an extreme level of fucked up helps me understand life better,” I agreed, understanding there was more going on. “I won’t tell, Winter.”

“I know. You’re the first I’ve met outside our circle that I’ve really felt that with. I know—you never teased me with others about what I did—masturbating in your bed about you. You were so quick to save me any embarrassment even if it was small because you didn’t know me well yet, and—people aren’t normally that careful with the feelings of others.”

“Really?” I hedged.

“No. They brush off too much. I do it too. Unintentionally. It’s not even being mean, but—you see things in your own frame of reference. I’m pretty chill and I don’t get upset easily. So I assume others are like that. But others are more sensitive or not so chill. I’ve accidentally hurt people and needed to work on that. You come with that software loaded.”

I opened my mouth but then closed it, frowning.

“What?” he asked quietly after a few moments.

“I think it’s hearing animals,” I admitted. “The familiars mostly. They feel what their witches and warlocks do and would never admit. But the familiars do and all talk. I am dense, but I would hear how easily people could be hurt and upset. How even little jokes or comments would make people not trust each other or put up their armor.”

“Bev, you’re not dense. You just have a different perspective. I talked with Mrs. Reid about—I want to be in the session when she talks magical theory with you on Sunday. I figured out what she did. You are not dense. You’re actually advanced. You’re gifted. You see things from like ten steps to the left of the rest of us. Please try to understand that.”

“Thanks, Winter,” I whispered, truly touched. I tilted my head back when he was squirting more of the stuff on his hand so it was safe to. “What did you want to tell me? Clearly, I touched on something that made you want to offload. I’m here for you too.”

He kissed my forehead. “I know, and that’s why I think this is something real even if I never saw myself in this sort of relationship with a goddess or sharing a partner.” He tilted my head forward so he could get the next areas, checking that it wouldn’t run into my eyes. “Teddy told you how he got his name, right?”

I flinched. “Not specifics, but just you were scared of the guy who helped you find him. That it made you laugh, and you didn’t have much to laugh about in that orphanage.”

“That’s pretty much the story,” he said quietly as he gently rubbed in the scalp treatment, seeming to get lost in the repetition. “There are witches and warlocks who specialize in finding familiars—sensing them. There are whole firms that scour the planet to find them and coordinate working with young warlocks and wizards to match them up.”

“For a price,” I commented.

He froze. “That sounded a bit judgy when you also charge for your wares, and I’ve pushed you to always remember you should and value yourself.”

I went to pull away, but he grabbed my shoulder and moved me against his chest, hugging me to him.

“What did I say wrong?” he whispered. “Talk to me, Bev.”

“I will, but can I face you? I feel…” I felt better when he let me go and I could turn to him. I actually took the stuff from his hand to continue and have something to do. “People should be paid for their time and effort. Keeping the familiars and feeding them is time-consuming. That should all be paid back and people compensated.”

“Okay then—”

“I think I have more than shown that I value people’s time and compensate people well,” I continued. “That was why I wanted to pull away. You didn’t sound like you were being fair to me to jump to me… I pay my employees better than average. You know. You’ve picked up shifts, and now some of your friends work for me.”

“You’re right.” He moved his hand under my chin and pushed until I relented and let him lift my head so we looked at each other. “I’m sorry if it sounded judgmental or I was jumping on you. That’s not what I was feeling. I was confused. I should have said it better and asked what I was missing. Clearly, I’m missing something.”

I let out a slow breath. “Thank you for that.” I worried my lower lip and handed back the bottle to him. “Sorry. I think I’m going to need that—everything was always so volatile. Everything still is. I just brace for being torn down, being dense. It’s hard to…”

“Yeah, it is,” he agreed. He leaned in and gave me a soft kiss. “You need a gentle touch for now. I get it. I’m glad I can give you that.” He let out a shaky breath. “I didn’t think I could, so honestly it’s helped me feel better about myself to see that I’m not such a dipshit.”

I chuckled when he did and moved back to the original spot, putting my head back down again. Then I answered what he’d wondered. “Those companies are owned by top-tier families. I know more because I’ve talked to and rejected familiars. Yes, Teddy is the perfect fit for you, but it could have been another familiar too, Winter.”

“Oh, whoa , that’s a lot to think about.” He swore under his breath. “They rig it and—yeah, okay, I get you. I guess I didn’t think cynically enough for a service that helps people.”

I snorted. “You should have seen how they handled me and showed up demanding gobs of money promising they’d find me a familiar and fix me with their vast selection. It was worse than every movie with cliché gross used car salesman. That’s my issue. They’ve perverted something sacred—the top-tier families always do.”

“I thought it was just at the orphanage,” he whispered as he got back to work. “Because we were vulnerable. I’ve heard from others that it was a wholesome experience. How humans talk about going to see Santa at the mall with their parents.”

“Yeah, it can be like that too. There are two different places like that in the magical mall where Familiar Treasures is. They’re a bit too pushy from what Woodchuck tells me, and they’re not always familiars they try to match but animals. They use their status to shut down any criticism or negative feedback, so it pisses me off.”

“Wow, yeah, that’s totally valid.” He moved us so he could kiss my cheek. “Thanks for explaining. I’m glad I know.”

“I’m always here to share the dirty secrets of this world and scare you with the underbelly of darkness people don’t know about,” I drawled, feeling bad for always bursting their bubbles. Then again, Sergey and Wyatt were pretty well in the know given their circumstances. Winter wasn’t na?ve either.

Kelton was the one that I always felt like I was pulling back the curtain with.

“There was a man who came with familiars and I found out later he wasn’t with one of the companies. They were upset to see him and—I don’t know. I got the feeling the official people wanted to block him. It was shady. He was shady,” Winter told me, his voice sounding more like the scared kid he’d been instead of the huge man he was now. “He kept coming back to check on me and others he found familiars for.

“Even after I left the orphanage. He came to find me last year and reminded me that I owed him because he’d given me my familiar. I told him to pound sand basically. The orphanage handled all of that, but he said they never paid him and he could take Teddy back. Legally. I checked and he can’t, but it was all really unsettling, and I keep trying to think of what to do.”

“What else?” I hedged.

“He asked me if I was working on anything to publish and what I was planning on doing for my master’s thesis. It was very—like he owned me.” He let out an awkward, scared chuckle. “It’s why I have an aversion to people with mustaches. Not facial hair but mustaches. Anytime I see a man with one, I think of his weird-ass silver mustache.”

“What did you say?” I asked, my whole body going cold.

“The guy has a weird silver mustache. The warlock,” he muttered, turning my head to get a spot right above my neck. “His hair is so light blond that it looks silver and so does his facial hair. He’s really creepy. His eyes are yellow too. They’re really piercing. They remind me of a predator bird who watches for the opportunity to pounce.”

“Watching for hurt prey,” I whispered.

“Yeah, exactly. That’s exactly what Danny said when he met him when he came to campus,” Winter agreed.

I pulled away too fast, sloshing water onto the floor and jumping out of the tub. I barely had enough room in my brain to grab a clip on my way out the door, ignoring Winter yelling after me. Flipping up my hair and forgetting spa night, I raced to where I remembered Clare was being a bum in the living room.

Her eyes went wide when she saw me. “What the—”

“If I told you creepy guy with a silver mustache and yellow beady eyes, who do you immediately think of?”

She instantly replied. “The right hand of the head of the Hughes family.” She shivered. “That guy is a freak. He would always make comments about me and Jean when Father stepped out of the room and the men we’d marry being so lucky and he was jealous of them. Like when we were under ten and then stopped when we got older. Gross.”

“That is a whole other reason to be horrified,” I mumbled, but stayed focused. “Do you know how to find a picture of him?”

She started to shake her head but then reached over to the coffee table and nodded. “Yeah, he was at an event I put together for a charity. Father put me on the committee because he thought it would up my value and get me better offers.” She swallowed loudly and then shook her head as if she was disappointed in herself.

Yeah, I understood that one. We’d let way too much go to survive that house and family. Maybe for her that she’d left her blinders on that she didn’t see how she was mistreated as badly as she’d thought?

I wasn’t really sure, but I accepted it was her pain to work through and I could just be supportive without being intrusive.

“Bevin, what is going on?” Winter asked as he caught up with me.

“Yeah, I’d like to know the same,” a man drawled from my right.

I turned to see Kelton standing off to the side with his brother Kevin and a few others. “We were having a spa night.” I shrugged. What did that really matter? Then I remembered I probably looked crazy and shrugged it off.

“Here,” Clare said and offered me her tablet.

“Thanks,” I muttered, grabbing it and holding it up to Winter after I enlarged the picture to focus on who I wanted. “Is this the man?”

Fear filled his eyes and he took a step back out of instinct. “Yes. You know him? He wouldn’t ever tell me his name.”

“Yeah, I just bet,” I mumbled.

“What’s going on, Bevin?” Clare asked.

I held up a finger to her and focused on Winter. “This is the right hand to the head of the Hughes family.” I nodded when he did a double take. “We both know him. He’s been to the Shaw house dozens of times.”

“So the Hughes are—” He started to say.

“Yes,” I cut in, darting a glance to others in the room. I handed Clare back her tablet. “I’ll tell you later.” I shook my head when she argued. “I think you have enough on your plate. Don’t you?” I gestured to the bottles of wine and mess my living room was.

She let out a slow breath. “Yeah. Fair.” She set it down and nodded but then flinched, looking at Winter. “Is he hurting Wes?”

“Maybe,” Winter hedged, glancing at me. “Wes is in the same boat as me.”

“We’ll loop you in,” I promised Clare. “Carefully. This is—I think we just found something big. For the future. Right now, we have enough to handle.”

“Yeah, you really do, baby sister,” she whispered and rubbed her face. “And I’m sorry to add to it, but I’ve decided.” She let out a slow breath. “Please let me join the Millen family. I want to be disowned and be your family. Officially. I want a new life.”

I gave her a sad smile and said the best thing I could think of in that moment. “Grandfather would be proud of you, Clare. Yeah, he would have loved that. I’ll approve it as the head of the Millen family.”