Page 43 of Bad Witch

“I’m outside your place, can you let me in? We need to talk.”

She was silent.

“Temp—”

“I’m not there. I’m at the clinic. I told you I had a shift tonight.”

She had, hadn’t she? Shit, I’d completely forgotten. “So, what’s the deal between you and Luka?”

“The deal?”

My eyes were glowing red and there was no stopping it. “Are you and him more than friends?”

She laughed, a sweet sound that sent tingles dancing over my skin. “No, we’re not even really friends.”

“Do you want to be?”

“Friends?”

“More than friends?”

She was silent again for several seconds. “Well…I guess he could be a good candidate.”

I froze. “What?”

“For a lover.”

“Tempest,” I snarled.

“He might actually be perfect in fact. Thanks, Fender. I wouldn’t have thought about Luka like that until you mentioned it.”

My head was going to explode, just self-combust and splatter bone and brain all over the fucking ground. “That’s not what I mea⁠—”

“I need to go.” There was a commotion in that background.

“Tempest, hang on a minute.”

“A patient just came in. Talk later.”

She disconnected, and I stood there staring at my phone like it’d turned into a venomous snake in my hand. What the fuck just happened? There was no fucking way that I’d just convinced her to ask another male to be her lover? If it was any other female, after the time we’d spent together, the obvious vibes I’d been sending her way, I might think she was pissed off with me or trying to make me jealous. Not Tempest. She didn’t play games. I didn’t think she knew how. She’d been serious.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. How did you win over a female without telling her she was yours or staking a claim on her? How did you make a female want you? I had no clue. Mine currently saw me as a friend. The word was like ash on my tongue.

She was still skittish in a lot of ways. There was a risk that if I tried to be more forceful and let her know I wanted her, that she might not be ready to hear it. I might make this a whole lot harder. She wanted a lover, but I wasn’t even on her short list. What the hell was I supposed to do with that?

First things first, I’d stop her from propositioning fucking Luka, the prick. Getting back on my bike, I started it up, and tore off toward the clinic.

I paced around outside the clinic for hours. The staff often took breaks outside, using the bench seats. I just had to wait. I didn’t want to go in and make some big scene. I learned from my mated brothers that doing shit like that never went over well. Best to talk to her out here or maybe follow her home and explain? Explain what? What was I even going to say? I was positive I was losing my damned mind. The ache for Tempest was like a full-body heartbeat that throbbed through me constantly. I wanted her so badly that I didn’t know what to do with myself. Add in the new emotions unfurling inside me, swirling and stabbing and twisting, demanding I listen to every one of them when I barely understood what I was feeling—it was like being tugged on, torn at, slowly and steadily pulled in a million different directions.

The clinic door opened and I stepped into the shadows across the parking lot. Tempest walked out with another female, and fucking Luka was with them. They chatted for a bit, obviously on their break.

Luka leaned against the low brick wall edging the lot. “You said you wanted to talk to me about something earlier?” he asked her after the other female had headed back into the clinic.

Tempest froze for a split second and folded her arms, then unfolded them. Her cheeks were so pink I could see it from here, and so were her lips. She’d put on lipstick. Had she done that especially for him? I dragged in a rough breath, trying to hang on to my control. No way she was going to ask him. No fucking way.

“So, I was wondering…”

“Are you okay?” he said. “You look worried. Is this about that big male you were with? Was he bothering you?”