Page 40 of Season of the Witch (Toil and Trouble #3)

twenty-six

“Okay, but you’re not giving me details.” Leah tapped the mirror glass, her frustration obvious. “I tell you everything.”

Tia smirked as she sat cross-legged on the bed the next day.

With help from Annaliese, she’d cast a linking spell between her compact and the large mirror that sat opposite.

It was easier to speak to both her friends this way, especially when this wouldn’t be a quick call.

She’d been dodging them for a few days, procrastinated all morning, but she knew she couldn’t avoid them any longer.

She’d survived the morning, just about, no thanks to Isabella.

Her revenge had been subtle, innocently pleading for Tia to entertain them all with a cocktail masterclass after dinner.

Yeah, it sounded great until you considered that this party wasn’t known for sipping their drinks.

They’d been trashed even before Mina had begun inventing drinks like a bartending alchemist. The last one had mixed three different spirits and a shot of espresso to boot.

Henry had fetched her bacon and ingredients for a hangover potion, securing himself a spot on her hero list.

It had been fun, at least. With Isabella and Mina leading her astray, she’d let go of the weight of her mom’s expectations.

She knew Gloria would hate that she’d swung the High daughter in a jig and drunkenly agreed with Mina that they could go into trade, brewing new cocktails for the masses.

Not Hightower behavior, but Tia couldn’t bring herself to care.

Apart from Griffith, who could bite her, they’d all let loose.

The last time she’d seen Siddeley, he’d had his ascot tied around his forehead and was swaying with Sawyer, who’d pleaded with her to help him. She liked them all.

A smile touched her lips. Who knew? Maybe she’d end up getting more out of this than she’d expected.

“Um, hello ?” Leah demanded, bringing Tia back. “Spill!”

Her friends were in the bar’s office, and considering it was early morning in Chicago, they must be at Toil and Trouble to accept deliveries. Both were dressed in jeans and bulky sweaters, Leah’s ever-present Cubs cap perched on her ponytail. Both looked much too interested in her sex life.

“Spill what?” Tia sidestepped, even though it was pointless. Leah was a human whetstone and wore everyone down eventually. “I already told you me and Henry were having sex.”

“Having sex, she says, as if that isn’t blowing my mind right now.” Leah turned to Emma with a can-you-believe-this-witch? expression. “You never even said how that started.”

“I think he put Marvin Gaye on.”

Emma laughed and then shrugged at Leah’s look. “What? It was funny.”

“Don’t encourage her.”

“You’re a little pervert,” Tia told her. “Why do you need to know who touched whose bits first? Gabriel not satisfying you?”

“Yeah, that’s the problem,” Leah deadpanned. “My super-hot, super-intense magical boyfriend suddenly lost the ability to give me multiple orgasms. Now I’m forced to live vicariously through you.”

Emma eyed her. “I think she’s avoiding because this isn’t just sex.”

“Ooooh.” Leah’s smile widened. “I like that.”

“No,” Tia protested. Ignoring the way her toes curled. “I just know what you two lovesick fools are gonna do.”

Both stared at her.

“Make this into more than it is,” she elaborated.

“Which is?”

Tia sighed. “Just. Sex.”

“I call bullshit,” Leah sang.

“Yeah, I’m gonna second that.” Emma pointed at her. “You have a look on your face.”

Shit. “Is it annoyance?”

“Maybe.” Emma grinned. “But that’s not all.”

“Just tell me this,” Leah interrupted, holding up a hand like a traffic cop. “Are you going to keep having hot, nasty sex when you come home?”

Her stomach twisted. “No.”

“So just boring missionary, then?”

“Funny. It’s vacation sex. It’s not real.”

“But it’s Henry.”

“Shut the fuck up, it is? I know it’s Henry.” Tia made sure her voice was exasperated and not at all conflicted. “That’s why it’s ending after we leave here. It’s too complicated.”

“Aha!” Triumph lit Leah’s face. “That means it’s not just sex.”

“T, just be real for a sec,” Emma said, dialing back the teasing before Tia threw a shoe at the mirror. “Seriously, why did you go back down that road? What changed?”

Like that was an easy question.

Obviously, Henry’s amnesia temporarily putting their issues on hold helped—not like she could hold a choice he didn’t remember making against him—but it wasn’t just that.

Being here with him, away from everyone, everything, that made them the Legacy witch and warlock at odds, it was easier somehow to… well, to be just them.

Just Tia and Henry.

But she couldn’t tell Emma and Leah that.

She hated lying, even by omission. The guilt fell like a slick layer of slime on her skin as her feet shifted on the duvet. “I told you. We were both horny and hate sex is hot. And then, we were stuck here so we figured…why not keep doing it?”

“So, there’s no possibility of exploring this back home at all?” Leah pressed.

“Why’re you so invested in this?”

“For one, because you didn’t keep your nose out of my business with Gabriel.” Leah smirked as Tia flipped her off. “Second, Gabe told me he thought Henry had a different vibe when he talked to him.”

Tia’s whole body froze, from muscles to heartbeat to lungs. It wasn’t until she felt pain from the lack of breath that she inhaled. “What? He said what?”

“Well, he didn’t say vibe . You know Gabriel.” Leah’s smile was affectionate as she toyed with the ends of her ponytail. “He’d have no clue what that meant. But he said Henry ‘gave the impression’ that it was more than sex.”

“When…ah, when did he speak to him?”

“Gabriel called him yesterday. Why? You look worried.”

Double shit. She eased the creases out of her face until it was smooth and unconcerned. “Not worried. Weirded out, maybe, if Henry’s thinking it’s more than a holiday hookup.”

Her mind picked at that like a sore. No, not true. Couldn’t be. Not that they’d talked it to death but he knew where she stood on this. They were temporary; Lionel got closer to perfecting that potion every day. They were friendly now but everything would go back to normal soon.

“Do you still hate him?” Emma asked as if seeing the sharp ache the thought had created. She shook her head when Leah went to speak. For once, the human obeyed.

There was no one word for how she felt about Henry. He was exasperating, maddening, arrogant, even a little brutal sometimes. He put his own ambition and his dad before everything. She didn’t trust him.

But she’d forgotten how funny he could be.

How he could tease and charm her out of any mood.

How he listened. How he fucked, intense and playful and all consuming.

How when he smiled, just for her, only for her, she felt absolutely electric.

No matter if he was frustrating her or seducing her, she never felt more alive than when she was with him.

And it scared the crap out of her.

Ducking that truth, she shrugged. “It’s too exhausting to hate him. But that doesn’t mean anything else has changed.”

Emma’s gaze flickered. She said nothing, even as Leah sighed.

“Now,” Tia said, uncomfortable with the way her oldest friend watched her. “Can we drop it?”

“One detail,” Leah bargained, prompting a reluctant snort from Tia. She held up her hands like a dog begging. “Come on. I told you about Gabe ripping my dress at the charity dinner. One little dirty detail about you and the hot warlock. Please. Let me live vicariously.”

“I’m telling Gabriel you said that,” Emma noted.

Tia blew out a breath. “One,” she agreed. “And then we drop it.”

“Dropped,” Leah confirmed. “Just like your panties.”

Emma grumbled and put a hand to her forehead.

* * *

“Tell me the best date we ever had.”

Tia let out a snort, rolling her head on the pillow. “What, so I can pump your ego?”

“Feel free to pump something else.” Henry laughed as she shoved him in the side. He caught her hand, bringing it to his lips so he could nip the knuckles. “C’mon. Tell me.”

Honestly, she’d rather pump something else than go back to the past. Her conversation yesterday with her friends had left a stain behind, one that could spread if she wasn’t careful.

She’d much rather bury that, live in the now and enjoy the time she had left until his memories returned. And things changed.

“You know,” he mused, threading his fingers with hers. “You kind of have to tell me.”

“Enlighten me.”

“It’s one of my questions. I have eight left, remember?”

“Seven now.”

“That was rhetorical.”

“And the game is over.”

He bit the heel of her palm gently. “Nope.”

“Yep.”

“We never negotiated an end date. Ergo, I get my twenty questions.”

“Ergo?” She found her lips curling in amusement. “It’s too early for ergo.”

“It’s almost nine.”

“Maybe my body’s still on American time.”

“Come on.” His gold-tipped lashes swept down over his eyes as he gave her a pleading look. “Please?”

Better sense whispered in her ear but under his puppy-dog look, Tia let out a groan. “Ugh. Fine. Whatever.”

His grin lit his face up like a child on Christmas morning.

She took a moment, staring up at the ceiling.

Not for the memory; the answer was always with her, but she needed time for the right words.

“My eighteenth,” she said, not looking as he shifted beside her.

“Our best date was my eighteenth birthday. We… My parents insisted on throwing one of those soul-sucking society parties. You know, same people, same canapes, same shit. Except at eighteen, an adult, I got twice the lecture as usual about being a proper Hightower.”

“ That’s our best date?”

Tia nudged his shin with her bare foot, then kept it there, sliding along the crisp hairs. “We hadn’t been official that long, a few months maybe, but you said we could spend the day together, do the duty thing at night. Except…for your dad.”

She didn’t look at him but felt his gaze boring into her.

“I don’t know if it was on purpose, or if he just didn’t know, but he took you on a work trip. You were starting to learn the business and he was adamant you put that first. You messaged me, promising you’d make it back in time. So, I waited all day and nothing. Zip.”

His hand brushed her skin, almost petting her. Soothing her?

“Finally, I gave up and dressed for my mom’s thing, this red dress I bought for…

To make me feel good. I’d literally stepped into my shoes and you portaled in.

Before I could even start, you grabbed me, kissed me and told me to come with you.

” Emotion washed over her, surprisingly strong, enough that Tia took a steadying breath.

“We portaled to a beach in Cabo. You’d set up a blanket, candles, sodas, snacks.

Man, your dad was so pissed,” she said on a laugh, remembering.

“You’d pretended to go to the bathroom in a business meeting and never came back.

And my mom was furious that the guest of honor never showed.

But we didn’t care. We drank and ate hot Cheetos—my favorite—and we laughed and we kissed.

And…more.” Telekinesis released from her, unbidden, into the clothes she’d left on a chair.

She turned to see Henry watching her with an unreadable expression. “It was our first time.”

Henry squeezed her hand but said nothing. His expression was troubled, eyebrows drawn low.

She didn’t want to face the questions in his eyes so dropped her gaze to his chest. “So, yeah, it turned out pretty great. You, ah, gave me a glass rose as a birthday present. Made it out of the beach’s sand and your fire, said it would be a reminder that you’d always show up for me, no matter what.

Eighteen-year-old me swooned.” She laughed so she didn’t feel the weird burn in her throat.

“But we were kids. Work and your dad took you away more and more, and you stopped being able to show up.” She should’ve stopped there.

But the words slipped free from their locks.

“I stopped being the person you wanted to show up for.”

“I doubt that’s true,” Henry said, the words rough.

She cleared her throat, trying to remove the emotion clogging it. “Yeah, well. Past is past, right?”

He didn’t say anything for a long moment, too long, so long that she battled the urge to vault out of the bed, run to the bathroom and lock the door behind her.

As if sensing it, he tightened his grip on her hand. He moved closer, bending to trace his free hand down her cheek. “No wonder I love you in red,” he murmured. And kissed her.

She took the outlet gladly, spearing a hand through his hair and yanking him down.

The bittersweet memory beat like a pulse, bleeding into her chest, and she licked her tongue along his, desperate to feel the burn of lust, the vibration of his groan as he settled more weight on her.

She shaped his erection through his loose pajama pants.

“Wait,” he gasped with a half-strangled groan. “Slow down.”

“No,” she countered, locking her mouth to his and squeezing him firmly. She didn’t want to think. Only feel.

His skin heated against hers, almost burning as he took the kiss deeper, as he slid his own hand down to cup her. She arched, relieved he was going with it.

Her toes curled as he toyed with the line of her panties, knuckling the dampening center.

And the door flew open.

Tia grunted as Henry bit her lip in surprise.

“Whad the thuck?” she lisped, touching her throbbing mouth and peering over his shoulder.

Isabella, clad in pastel pink pants and a white cashmere sweater, beamed at her. “I’m ready for our drink.”

Henry muttered something, pained as he slumped onto the mattress, facedown.

Tia tried to calm her racing heart, unfulfilled lust fueling her glare at Bianca, who leaned in the doorway. “Seriously?”

Bianca shrugged.

Tia looked back at Isabella. “First rule of friends,” she said tightly, hiking the covers up so her nipples weren’t on display. “ Boundaries .”