Page 91 of Black Willow Witch
‘Sudden?’ Paisley scoffed. ‘There’s been zing between you and him for years. She obviously didn’t notice.’
Eyeing her friend, Emberlyn unwrapped her sandwich. ‘I didn’t realize thatyou’d noticed.’
‘I didn’t bother mentioning it because I didn’t think anything would come of it. I’m happy to be mistaken, because you deserve to have something good in your life.’
‘You talk as if it’ll be permanent.’
‘You don’t think it’s heading in that direction? Because you’d be wrong – it totally is.’
‘Not necessarily.’ Emberlyn bit into her sandwich, frowning when some egg slipped out of the other end. ‘Though CeCe’s doing a good job of getting on Rip’s last nerve, he still cares for her. Not that I believe he’d choose to build something with her – she screwed that pooch too badly. I just mean that those feelings might get in the way of him building something with someone else.’
Chewing some of her sub, Paisley shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. Ripper would be a fool to let you slip through his fingers. And he’s no fool.’ Paisley tilted her head. ‘You seeing him tonight?’
‘Yup. He’s picking me up later. We ate at my place the past couple of evenings, so he declared that it’s his turn to cook. He’s rather good in the kitchen.’ And in the bedroom, but that was off-topic.
‘I really do think you should keep him.’
Biting into her sandwich again, Emberlyn frowned. ‘Like he’s a dollar I found on the floor?’
‘Yes. Because youwantto.’
Conscious of some egg sticking to her cheek, Emberlyn plucked a napkin from the table dispenser and wiped at it. ‘Actually—’
‘You want to,’ Paisley repeated. ‘Admit it.’
Sighing, Emberlyn conceded it with a brief tilt of her head. ‘I never expected him. I mean, I always knew he was super protective, but I didn’t think that trait would ever be centered on me this way.’ She crumpled up the napkin and dumped it beside the dispenser. ‘He gets so mad when anyone gives me issues. If he thinks something is playing on my mind, he prods and pokes until I talk about it; he wants to fix it, make me feel better. And he’s always goddamn feeding me.’
Paisley’s eyes gleamed with suppressed laughter. ‘It bothers you that he wants to get behind your walls, because it’s working very well. It also weirds you out a little as you’re not used to people angling to get close to you.’
‘It would be annoying if it was in any way patronizing. But it’s not.’ Emberlyn grabbed her bottle, unscrewed the cap and knocked back some water. ‘It’s like . . . he knows I can quite easily handle my own shit and take care of myself. He just doesn’t want me to have to do it alone.’
‘How is that bad?’ asked Paisley around a mouthful of food, covering her lips with her hand.
‘I didn’t say it was bad.’ Emberlyn placed her water back down. ‘It just makes it hard to be okay with knowing that this might not be something he intends to make permanent. And honestly, the idea of “more” is a little scary. The last time I had a werewolf in my life, it didn’t end so well.’
‘That was a whole different beast. And the probability of it happening again is super low, as we once already covered.’
‘Ripper feels the call of the moon more than most.’
‘But he’s strong enough, especially with the aid of your elixirs, to fight it. And he’d damn well never use it as an excuse to cheat.’
Emberlyn took another bite of her sandwich. ‘I told him what Michael did.’
Paisley’s eyes went wide. ‘Really?’
‘I wasn’t going to. But he guessed, and he pushed me to admit it. Then he called me “baby”, and apparently I’m a total sucker for that because the next thing I knew I was blurting out the story.’
Her lips twitching, Paisley opened her can of soda. ‘Hearing that, I like Ripper more than I already did. What did he say?’
‘Something about wanting to punch the piss out of Michael.’ Which had been . . . touching. ‘He said I deserved better.’
‘You do.’ Sipping her drink, Paisley watched Emberlyn carefully. ‘You trust Ripper. You’ve been super secretive about Michael’s betrayal – you even kept it from Kage, though we both know it’s because I’m your favorite.’
‘I kept it from your brother because he wouldn’t have agreed to keep it secret,’ Emberlyn countered. ‘Kage would have been too furious at Michael to protect his reputation. He would have talked everyone into letting Michael rot in Bloodhill.’
‘Don’t think I wasn’t tempted to do the same. The only reason I didn’t is that I make a point of never breaking my word, unlikeKage. Anyway, for you to have told Ripper that Michael betrayed you, you must trust him.’
Emberlyn hummed. ‘I guess I do.’ Which said a lot, because she didn’t put her faith in people easily. ‘So much so that I didn’t even ask him to promise not to repeat what I told him.’ She’d automatically known that he never would. ‘But I trusted Michael, too.’
