Page 42 of Just a Little Wicked (Wicked Sisters #2)

He sat beside her without invitation, and she hated that her body instinctively turned toward his.

It was only because he was warm, she told herself, and not because they shared a soul .

What a stupid concept soulmates was, anyway.

Her soul was hers . Her actions were hers .

There was something called free will, and she had it in spades.

“I’m sorry,” he repeated, his morning voice low and rough in a way that sent chills skittering across her skin, “for not telling you what I suspected.”

“You don’t have the right to make decisions for me, or to act like you’ve mastered your emotions while mine have to be delicately handled.”

He snorted, breath puffing from his nose and mouth.

“No one would ever accuse you of being delicate, Win. I blamed it on you by saying you weren’t ready to hear it, but the truth is I wasn’t ready to tell you because of my own emotions.

I knew you’d hate the idea of anything affecting your actions, even fate.

You’ve had enough of being jerked around by your Wickedness, and I was afraid you would reject me out of hand if you knew. ”

“This is still sounding like you’re making it a me problem,” she said, torn between her fury and curiosity to hear what he was fumbling to say.

He sighed in frustration. “I’m not doing this well.

I had no right to keep the information from you.

I’d begun to suspect we were soulmates, but I wasn’t certain until last night in the truck, when you told me you couldn’t see my future.

Then I knew, and I was afraid, Winter. I am afraid.

The idea of soulmates is huge and terrifying, like it’s too brilliant and otherworldly for me to even directly look at it.

It messes with me to know that we’ve gone round and round in other lives; that we’re on some ceaseless cosmic loop and don’t know how to stop it.

But more than anything, I was scared because it validated everything I was feeling for you. ”

She tugged her bottom lip with her teeth and passed him the mug.

It was a peace offering, a plea for him to keep talking in face of her silence.

He sipped and handed it back. “Okay, so this is the part where I really humble myself.” He took a deep breath.

“I asked in the truck if you were catching feelings, but the truth is I’ve had feelings for you a lot longer than I should have, a lot longer than even made sense.

I told you how, from the minute I spotted you in the muck last spring trying to save those trapped deer, that I wanted you, but I left out the part where it wasn’t just a physical want.

When I saw you, I felt like a sailor who’d spotted dry land after months of bleak seawater.

I felt like a man dying of thirst being handed a pitcher of water.

I felt like I was an unfinished puzzle, and you were the missing piece clicking into place to make me whole, and I didn’t understand why I felt like that, and I did everything I could to block it out.

Now I know it’s because my soul was recognizing yours.

“But—” he continued, holding up his hand when she would have spoken, “then I got to actually know you, and that was when I realized you were stubborn, fierce, and prickly.”

“Is this supposed to be an apology or a roast?” she demanded.

His lips quirked and he nudged her shoulder with his.

“I like those things about you, Win. Don’t you get it?

It doesn’t actually matter if you’re my soulmate, or if we’re on some reincarnation loop.

We still have free will. We still have to choose to pursue whatever this is between us.

And the thing is, I really fucking like you, and I would like you the exact same amount even if our souls weren’t wrapped up together.

I’d still ask you on a date. I’d still want to make my home between your thighs.

I’d still want you at my side in a fight. ”

She set the mug on the granite with a click and turned to him, her eyes meeting his solemn blue gaze.

He’d just bared his vulnerabilities to her when she was at her angriest. The fact that he’d done so, potentially exposing himself to hurtful words that she might not even mean, was an exquisite expression of trust.

“I like you too,” she admitted softly, “but I don’t like when other people make decisions for me, and you’ve done it twice now.”

“You’re right. I’m going to do better.”

She slid her hand into his, and his eyelashes lowered. “Okay.”

“Okay?” He gripped her fingers and brushed his lips across her knuckles.

“Yeah. Just be honest with me, Erikson.”

“I can do that. I will do that.” He kissed the back of her hand again, this time with a soft slip of tongue, and suddenly she wasn’t as cold as she’d been a moment earlier. “How’s this for honesty: I was afraid you might not forgive me.”

“I don’t hold grudges.” At his disbelieving look she laughed and said, “All right, sometimes I do.”

He pushed the cuff of her jacket up, exposing her bare wrist, and pressed his lips to the sensitive underside. “I’m afraid of what tomorrow will bring.”

“Me too,” she said on a shiver.

“I’m afraid I’m going to fail you. That I’ve been failing you for centuries.”

“Erikson, you can’t blame yourself for things that may or may not have happened hundreds of years ago.”

“Nevertheless, that’s my truth.” His free hand curled into the front of her jacket and he slowly dragged her closer, so that his face was inches from hers.

His pupils were dilated, his damp hair nearly frozen.

“You want to know something else?” When she nodded, he said, “I know you think I’m a playboy, but I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you.

It’s true that for me sex has always been just sex, but with you it’s different.

It’s an obsession. I can’t stop thinking about how you taste, or how you tremble when you come, and all I want is to strip you out of this jacket, out of your clothes, and bury myself inside you.

Hell, it’s not even a want anymore, it’s a need . I’m gasping for air without you.”

Winter inhaled sharply and gripped his arms. “I feel the same. I need you too. Right now.”

She didn’t need to explain her urgency; she knew he felt the same sense of “now or never” snapping at their heels.

She had no idea what tomorrow would bring, but today she was still in charge of her own life and her own decisions, and she wanted Erikson Grimm.

Not because their souls were supposedly mated, or because it had been so long since she’d had sex, but because he was Erikson .

He was unexpected in every way, and Winter hadn’t known until he’d come into her life how much she’d needed a surprise or two.

But where?

He must’ve been thinking the same thing, because he turned and looked at the house. “Your room?”

“No, everyone is home.”

The smile he gave her made her toes curl in her boots. “The barn?”

“We might get caught. Holly sometimes paints in the morning.”

He pressed a kiss beneath her jawline, then gently sucked, making her eyelashes flutter. “My truck.”

“Your truck,” she agreed.