^“You look like shit.”

“Great, thanks Josh, just what every girl wants to hear,” she muttered, shooting daggers at him over the rim of her coffee cup. Really, what did he expect when he’d taken every opportunity to cock block her last night? Well, him and Leth, whoever Leth might actually be. She guessed she’d find out at dinner.

“That’s not what I meant, E…”

“Just save it,” she snapped, and instantly regretted it. She knew that realistically it wasn’t Josh’s fault that she’d gone too long without. She could have gone out without him and found someone, it wasn’t like she’d ever struggled to before. But she hadn’t. And she didn’t like examining why she hadn’t much either. She knew that her feelings towards Josh weren’t returned, but that didn’t stop her wanting to remain as faithful to him as possible. If he was with her, then he was giving permission. Well kind of. She’d rather he didn’t to be honest. Unless it was with Rueben. Or Leth. Damn, she really needed to pull herself together.

“E...” He reached out towards her and she took a step back, stumbling slightly and sloshing her coffee onto the floor.

“Hell,” she muttered. As if the day was actually getting worse. She felt awful, apparently looked awful, and now she spilled things all over the place. It might not ever come out of the cream carpet.

“Let me,” Josh said gently. She scowled at him.

“Let you what? Wave a hand and clear it up? Cause you can’t do that. Or can you and you’ve just never told me about it?” Her words flowed out of her without a thought, and Josh’s face blanched.

“What?” His voice shook, and she knew that she’d maybe pushed a little bit too far. She shouldn’t have let on that she knew he was a witch. Stupid girl. She should have waited for him to tell her; otherwise how would she explain it?

“You’re a witch, right?”

“Well, yes, but...” He rubbed a hand on the back of his neck, clearly looking uncomfortable.

“So you can just clear it up with a wave of your hand?”

“Well, yes, but...”

“Then do it.” She tried to channel her anger through her eyes, and from the look on Josh’s face, it worked. He held out a hand and green sparks danced along it. With one flick of his wrist, he cleared the coffee from the floor, making the carpet good as new in a fraction of the time it would have taken Eira.

Happy her carpet was saved, she turned on her heels to walk away from him. “

“E, please,” he begged, but she refused to turn around. He’d lied to her. Through omission sure, but it was a lie all the same. “Eira...”

“What Josh?” she bit out, trying to keep her voice steady so that it didn’t betray the tears that were pooling in her eyes. This whole thing was beginning to be too much for her to cope with. And as if it wasn’t enough, she had whatever was wrong with the frosts to contend with as well. She just hoped that whatever Leth had to tell her later wasn’t too bad.

“Why are you mad?” he asked softly. She could feel his body heat as he stepped up behind her. Instead of moving away, like she intended to, she leaned back into him. He reached round and took the coffee mug from her hands, placing it on the side table that she kept by her sofa. Josh rested his hands on her arms and stroked a thumb over her skin, calming her a lot more than it had any right to.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispered. She’d thought she’d come to terms with Josh not telling her about his powers, but it turned out she was wrong.

“It’s not exactly an easy thing to bring up,” he spoke into her ear, his hot breath sending shivers down her spine. This wasn’t doing anything to help curb the attraction she felt for Josh, or keep her inner-succubus satisfied. In fact, that part of her was beating to get out just as much as it had when Leth had been in her flat the night before.

“You knew about me.”

“I’m sorry, E. I didn’t think it was that important.” She took a deep breath, not wanting to say something that she was going to regret. Once she felt like she was back under control, she turned in his arms so that they were facing one another. His sparkling green eyes met her grey ones, and there was so much emotion in them that it took her so much by surprise. “I thought that if I didn’t tell you, then it would help me deny the way I feel.”

“The way you feel?” Her heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t have heard right, surely?

“Yes. Since the moment I met you, you’ve been the most beautiful woman in the world to me. I’ve wanted you every second of every day. But something has held me back. Something that doesn’t seem to be there anymore. Now I feel like if I kiss you, everything will be alright. Whereas before...” he shrugged.

“Before?”

“It’s hard to explain. Precog powers run in my family, but I never got any, but even so, ignoring a gut feeling didn’t seem like a good idea.”

“Like Izzy?”

“Yes, like Izzy.”

“But you want to kiss me now?”

He laughed softly.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you for years, E. The difference is that now, I’m going to.” Her pulse raced as Josh closed the gap between them. The moment his lips touched hers, it felt like sparks traveled through her. It was everything that she’d ever imagined and more. It wasn’t as passionate as the kiss she’d shared with Leth. Instead, it was gentle and full of unexpressed emotions that had built up over the years on both sides. This was her and Josh, and there was something completely magical about that.

They broke apart and stared into one another’s eyes, which was when Eira noticed that the sparks hadn’t just been in her imagination. Green sparks like the one’s Josh had used to clean up the coffee earlier, were dancing up and down their skin, causing a soft green glow to light up the room.

“Josh,” she said, feeling breathless.

“Yes, E?” His voice cracked with unvoiced emotions. She didn’t actually know what she wanted to say. Or what she wanted him to say. The moment was too perfect for interrupting with anything.

“You’re sparking everywhere,” she said eventually, a slight giggle escaping as she watched the sparks dance over his shoulder. Without meaning to, she thought of how the sparks would feel against her naked skin, and how they’d look against his. She couldn’t wait to find out what that was like. And she no longer had any doubt that she would find out. Not like before when she was convinced Josh would never feel the same about her.

“It seems I am. I thought that would happen.”

“What?” she asked.

“It’s supposed to happen when I...”

“When you?” she prompted. Josh sighed and pushed a hand over his face before settling it back on her waist. He didn’t look like he wanted to say whatever it was that he was thinking, but he was going to. She’d make him if she had to.

“When I kiss my life partner for the first time,” he said, his eyes holding hers steady. She mulled the words over, trying to make out what he was truly saying.

“Your life partner?” she asked, feeling kind of dumb.

“Life partner, mate, other half, call it what you will.” He shrugged but didn’t move away, for which she was glad.

“And you think that’s me?”

“You don’t?” he countered instantly.

“You haven’t touched me for years, Josh.”

“I didn’t feel I could.”

“But why? If I’m your mate, then surely you shouldn’t have been able to keep your hands to yourself?” She almost wished that she wasn’t in his arms at this point so that she could put her hands on her hips and level him with a stare that told him that whatever he said next had better be good.

“I don’t know, E. It’s weird. Most other witches I know have done the whole instant sex thing. But it just felt wrong before, and now it doesn’t. I can’t explain it, E. But I just know you’re it for me.” He lifted a hand and pushed a lock of pale blonde hair behind her ear. She had to admit that the gesture, and his words, were melting her annoyance at an alarming rate. “You look better already.” He frowned at her.

“I feel better actually.” She’d almost forgotten just how bad she’d felt when she’d first woken up, and a kiss shouldn’t have been enough to sort her out. Yet a lot of the sick lagging feeling had already disappeared.

“If that’s what a kiss does, just imagine how you’ll feel when we finally have sex,” he whispered, having leaned in close so that his breath tickled her ear. Eira shivered in anticipation.

“We’re not going to now?” she half-whimpered, almost hating herself for it, but if what he was saying was true, and she had little doubt that it was, then whimpering was going to have to be allowed.

“I have to go to work, E. But later.” She nodded once, before stopping as she remembered about her dinner plans. She bit her lip, not knowing how much she should tell him. But if they really were mates, then they had to be honest, right?

“I can’t, I have a date.” A curious look crossed Josh’s face. Like he didn’t know what to make of that.

“With who? Rueben?” he asked, not sounding jealous in the slightest. Which was odd. Surely he should be? But then, he hadn’t acted jealous when she’d almost kissed Rueben the night before. She filed away the thought to consider later. There was clearly something else going on.

“No, a guy called Leth. He broke in last night and...”

“What?” Josh broke in, and she gave him a look. “Sorry,” he mumbled. She nodded, then filled him in on what had happened the night before. She stumbled when she got to the kiss, but wanted to see how he’d react to that one too.

“So he wants to go on a date, tonight. And then he’ll tell me what he knows about the frosts being missing. I didn’t even realise they were until he told me.”

“It’ll be fine, E. He’ll tell you and we’ll do everything we can to sort out the problem. No matter what it is.” His voice was steady, and like before, he didn’t sound jealous. It was odd, especially as she’d just admitted to trying to seduce the man that she was going on a date with later, but she’d roll with it for now.

“We?”

“Yes, we. You don’t think I’d leave you to go through everything alone now did you? We’re in this together.” With that, he lowered his mouth back to hers and kissed her deeply, she pushed her body against his, already regretting that he needed to leave and that they couldn’t carry this on until later.