Page 47 of Love’s a Witch (The Scottish Charms #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Sloane

Waking up in Knox’s bed was as delightful as I remembered.

Particularly when his hands roamed down my body before he was even fully awake.

Well, one part of him was.

Desire bloomed inside of me, and I slipped across his chest, straddling him and taking him deep inside me, my lips against his.

“Good morning,” I whispered into his mouth as he speared up, his hips lifting me as he came fully awake. Knox laughed into my kiss.

“Nice try, witchling.” He flipped me so easily, while still staying inside me, that I gasped into his mouth, marveling at his singular strength.

He covered me, one hand sliding up to pin my wrists over my head, and bit lightly at my collarbone.

I hummed out a soft cry of need, arching against him, as pleasure heated inside me, long and liquid and lovely.

It was both thrilling and easier than I had imagined, this being together .

For all the aggravation he’d brought me at the beginning, there was now an ease to our relationship that made me feel safe.

It was as though he’d seen all the worst sides of me, and even when I showed him the scary bits, he hadn’t been turned off.

It was an incredibly exhilarating place to be in with someone.

Not to mention someone as ridiculously handsome as he was.

Not that I planned to feed his ego too much.

He teased me with long, lingering strokes, and I arched my back, rolling my hips to meet him, as he hummed against my lips.

“Mine.”

“You’re so controlling.” I laughed into his mouth.

“Only here, witchling. Only here.”

And when we crested together, soft and easy, on a quiet morning with no snow battering the windows, my heart was full.

“I’ve dreamt of this, you know,” Knox said, after, as he carried me to a massive shower.

“Dumping me under a shower when I’ve already told you that I wanted coffee first—”

I glared at him as he pushed me under the warm spray, and then followed me into the shower, closing the glass door behind us. Puffs of steam billowed around us, and I swiped my hair out of my face, annoyed with him.

“I don’t have any of my hair products here,” I griped.

“And this is a problem… why?” Knox slicked his hair back under the spray, and I momentarily lost all meaningful thought as I watched water sluice down the expansive muscles of his chest.

“Um.”

Knox grinned and braced a hand on the wall over my head in the shower. I should hate when he did that, I really should. But there was something about a strong man caging me in against a wall that, apparently, seemed to get me excited. I licked my bottom lip as he angled his head closer.

“What’s the issue, Sloane?” Knox nipped at my lower lip and I groaned. In this moment, I couldn’t quite seem to remember what I was so fussed about, as his hard body pressed against mine.

“Nice, um, shower,” I gasped out as he found the soap and ran his hands down my body.

“I renovated the bathroom myself. I wanted something that fit me. Scotland is too cold for me to be ducking to fit under a tiny stream of water. I wanted dual showerheads, full steam, and lots of room. There’s nothing better after a long day in the cold to come in and warm up like this.”

I had to agree. The dual showerhead was quite nice, the water warm against my back, as Knox took careful attention to soaping my breasts.

“I’m quite sure they’re clean now.” I gasped, laughing as his mouth found mine again for a slippery kiss.

“Better safe than sorry.”

Laughter burst out.

And so did my magick.

I grabbed Knox, pulling him to one side of the shower, surprise causing me to freeze.

“Do you… do you see that?” I asked, squeezing his arm tightly as we stared.

A perfect sphere of fire hovered in midair.

Directly beneath the rainfall showerhead.

And it was not extinguished by the water.

“I do. My, my, Sloane. You do continue to impress, don’t you?”

“But how can this be?” My heart hammered in my chest. “I’ve already had fire. If I’m meant to have different magick every day, wouldn’t I not get fire again? Unless…”

“Unless we fixed your magick.” Knox grinned down at me as I gaped up at him.

“Do you think so? What if we did? I mean, this could be different fire from the first fire, right?” Excitement made me do a little shimmy in the shower, taking care not to touch the flame.

“Och, lass, I guess we’ll need to try to find out.” Knox tapped a finger on my nose.

Focusing on the ball of flame, I reached for my magick, and to my complete delight, the ball of fire disappeared. “I did it! I shut it off.”

“You did. And if you’re what I think you are, then you just might be a very powerful witch indeed. Come on, let’s dry off and go find Henry. He’s just the man you need for this situation.”

“He is?” I blinked up at Knox as he wrapped a luxurious bath sheet around me.

I had to admire a man who invested in good towels.

None of those little bath towels that barely fit around my body.

No, these were quality, and I felt instantly cozy as my feet touched the heated floor.

Honestly, I could get used to this luxe life.

“He might be. Henry has great depths, you see.” Knox picked up a towel and rubbed it over my hair.

When his hands came away, I gaped in shock at my dry hair in the mirror.

“How the hell did you do that?” I asked, reaching up to touch my dry strands. Screw fire, I wanted beauty magick. This would make life so much easier.

“Didn’t I tell you? My strengths lie in elemental magick. Your hair was wet, and water is an element. I just asked it to move on.”

“You asked the water in my hair to move on.” I shook my head, my dry hair flying around my shoulders, amazed at this new life full of magick I could now study.

Where once I’d shunned it because I was scared I’d end up like my parents, I now found that I was genuinely interested in approaching magick with an open and curious mind.

There was just so much to learn. “Then why didn’t you ask the snow to move on? ”

“Even my magick has its limits, witchling.” Knox tugged a lock of my hair.

Pulling on my leggings from yesterday, Knox’s oversized jumper, and thick fuzzy socks of his, I followed him down to the library, where Henry had laid out breakfast on the table near the desk.

The room was quiet, the large windows cracked open to a soft autumn breeze, and sunlight dappled the trees, a few amber leaves dotting their branches.

Until pandemonium broke loose.

In the form of three very chaotic familiars bursting through the doors. Blue swooped above Oswald, who streaked through the door, his eyes wide in a panic, while Haggis brought up the rear, his wheelchair rocketing across the soft rug in the library.

“Halt!” Knox shouted, holding up a hand, and they all skidded to a stop. “That’s enough. Play outside. We’re trying to have a nice breakfast here.”

Cheese? Blue drifted to me, and I caught him for a cuddle.

“Morning, buddy. Did you have a nice night?”

I did. I love it here. Haggis and Oswald are fun. Can we stay?

“Mmm, we’ll see.” I didn’t want to bring up the subject of moving in with Knox. As far as I saw it, we were still in a trial period of sorts.

Henry says if we stayed, I could have the entire garden to play in. With my new friends. I might even meet some of my ancestors.

I hadn’t thought about Blue being lonely, and I tilted my head to look down into his sweet eyes.

“More emberwolves?”

No. Dragons. My ancestors.

“And Henry thinks they’ll come here?”

He said they have the space for them. Dragons are curious by nature, so they may come by to check on things. Please, can we stay?

“Blue, sweetie, I don’t know. That’s a lot to ask.” I tried to keep my voice low, but the library was quiet, and Knox was standing close, petting Oswald, who had hopped up on top of the desk.

“What does the lad want?” Knox looked at me, but before I could answer, Oswald bumped his head against Knox’s hand. “Ah, he wants to stay here.”

“Och, right. The three of them can communicate, can’t they?” Here I was trying to be quiet when Haggis and Oswald were listening to everything Blue said.

“Aye, lass. And with the right magick, I think we can swing it that we can hear all of them. If they become a pack.”

“Really?” Intrigued, I stepped forward to scratch behind Haggis’s ears. The mini coo smiled up at me.

“Really.” Knox moved forward and stepped close, running a hand over Blue’s head before cupping a finger under my chin and tilting my face up to look at him. My breath caught. “What do you say, Sloane? Would you like to move in here? On a trial basis, of course.”

My heart fluttered in my chest, my pulse beating like a hummingbird at my throat, and I swallowed. “Um, but what about Broca and my sisters? They need me.”

“Do they?”

“Of course they do.” Didn’t they?

“Or do they need some space to grow?”

“Are you implying that I smother them?”

“I’m not, but you could start to, now that you’re in one spot.” I opened my mouth to argue with Knox.

He’s right. Let them grow.

I looked down at Blue, who turned and swiped his tongue across my cheek.

I like happy Sloane.

Blue was right. I was happy. And I also needed to stop seeing my sisters as people I needed to take care of.

They were already incredible women, but they still defaulted to looking to me for leadership.

And though it chafed a bit to think about letting go of those reins, I also knew it wasn’t healthy to hold so tightly to them.

I knew I’d hated it when my mum had made all the decisions for me until we were able to get out from under her thumb.

The last thing I wanted was for my sisters to end up resenting me.

“Fine, I suppose I’ll move in here. On a trial basis, naturally.” I affected a snobby accent.

“Naturally. Only if it meets with your approval.” Knox grinned, and then his lips were on mine.

“Ahem, good morning, sir.” We turned to find Henry at the door, a tray of tea in his hands.