Magic Burns

Page 70

 

 

 

I waved my hand around my face. “Fur.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Your face has no fur.”

 

Curran touched his chin. And just like that all traces of the beast vanished. He sat before me fully human.

 

He massaged his jaw.

 

The beast grew stronger during the flare. Curran’s irritation caused his control to slip just a hair.

 

“Having technical difficulties?” I asked and immediately regretted it. Pointing out loss of control to a control freak wasn’t the brightest idea.

 

“You shouldn’t provoke me.” His voice dropped low. He suddenly looked slightly hungry. “You never know what I might do if I’m not fully in control of myself.”

 

Mayday, Mayday. “I shudder at the thought.”

 

“I usually have that effect on women.”

 

Ha! “Is that before or after they pee on themselves and show you their furry bellies?”

 

He leaned forward. “I’m leaving. Last chance.”

 

“Myong came to see me.”

 

“Oh,” he said. “That.”

 

The muscles on his jaw went tight. We sat in grim silence for several minutes. I waited until I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Myong,” I said gently.

 

“You know who she wants to marry?”

 

She wants to marry my “ex–could have been” boyfriend whom I accused of kidnapping, sexual torture, and cannibalism. “Yes.”

 

“And you’re okay with it?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Bullshit,” he said.

 

“Maybe I’m not as okay with it as I want to be. But I don’t want to keep them from each other.” Seeing Myong, well, it stung. I shouldn’t have cared that Crest clearly thought she was better than me, but it did bother me a little. She was without a doubt more beautiful, elegant, refined. But she was also so…so dying swan. The kind of woman who, if asked to make tea, would return from the kitchen to tell you the water was boiling and expect you to deal with that emergency while she waited demurely next to you.

 

“I think I’ve been rather reasonable about this whole situation,” Curran said.