She couldn’t even convince herself of that anymore.
She didn’t hate Jared. He’d rescued her, after all. He might have lied to her—but not about the most important thing.
He really does care for me. Otherwise he’d never have followed me, or brought me here after we found the new map. And he kept his promise and stuck to his side of the bed.
Until Chiara’s body had apparently decided to rub all over him in her sleep.
The thought made her blush again, even as something tightened low in her belly, her entire body aching for something she hadn’t known in a long, long time.
How long had it been since she’d felt like this?
Never.
The realization came immediately. At any other time, the thought would have crushed her—she’d never experienced the sort of love other people seemed to feel all the time. The huge, passionate romances, the butterflies, that one person you wanted to spend your entire life with.
All her attempts at dating had been awkward. She’d never really felt at ease with anyone.
People always told her that she was too picky. She’d even started to believe it herself: that falling passionately in love was a lie. That all she could hope for was to find a not-too-boring man who’d be happy to settle down with her in a small house and pay off a mortgage for the next thirty years.
She hadn’t been able to make herself search for that sort of man. And then, with her soul-crushing job, she barely had the energy to pop a meal into the microwave when she came home from hours of people shouting at her while her manager demanded more, more, more.
And now there was Jared.
Jared, who was everything she hated. Who was everything she’d thought was wrong with the world.
And who set her heart on fire with his smile. Who made swarms of butterflies beat their wings in her belly whenever his hand brushed hers.
She’d thought it was impossible to feel like this. Yet here she was, hopelessly in love with a man who could turn into a griffin.
He’s a good guy. He might be a shifter—but he’s a good guy. If I pull back now, if I decide to end this here, he’ll let me. He’s not the sort of man who’d hurt a woman.
Her heart was still pounding in her chest as she looked at him.
If she pulled back now—what then? She’d left her old, boring, normal life behind. She’d given up everything she’d known to hunt for information about the supernatural.
It had been the scariest thing she’d ever done. But it had also been unexpectedly freeing.
Instead of being the timid, mousy call center agent who cried in the bathroom at work at least three times a week, she’d sold her car, quit her job, dyed her hair, and left the country for the first time in her life.
She was no longer the person she’d once been. And she was sick and tired of the past Chiara who’d let chances slip by. The old Chiara’d allowed others to work her to exhaustion, until it felt like she would live and die in that gray haze of numb tiredness. She’d be working, paying the bills and sleeping on her rare days off until she was old and gray and no one would want her anymore.
But that Chiara was dead now. She’d killed her herself.
The new Chiara was perhaps a bit weird, or so people said—but she was strong and brave. She traveled. She went into old bookstores to look through books on magic. She followed treasure maps.
And why shouldn’t she love?
Sure, it might not work out. But she wouldn’t know until she tried it. And even if it didn’t work, at least she wouldn’t die without having loved.
Really loved, butterflies and all.
She took a deep breath. Then she reached out, resting her hand on Jared’s.
Again, a surge of heat went through her, her entire body tingling with a desire much stronger than anything she’d felt before.
“I still don’t know if I should trust you,” she said softly. Her heartbeat was as loud as a drum in her ears. “But I want to. I want to trust you, Jared, with all my heart.”
His gorgeous, azure eyes darkened. At the same time, spots of light seemed to flicker in them like stars. Distant suns burning far beyond, their light traveling even through the coldness of space.