As the mirror finished its story, Logan turned toward Polina. “After all of that, after losing your…” He couldn’t even say baby. The thought was too horrible. “Ronin didn’t believe it was you. He tried to kill you.”
“Yes,” Polina said.
Logan was conflicted over what he saw. On the one hand, he’d wanted to jump into the mirror and shake Ronin, to force him to listen to reason. On the other hand, he wanted to kill the already dead Ronin. Mine. From the moment Polina had appeared at his door, he’d considered her his. It didn’t matter that the man had lived over four hundred years ago. Just seeing him raised Logan’s hackles.
“What happened next? Did he come around?” he asked.
“We needed each other to survive. In time, he accepted our circumstances, although he would never accept what I was. We lived out our lives as a brother and sister might. I loved him dearly. He tolerated me. Still, he would not accept a cure from me when he contracted smallpox in 1585. By then, he was old and I hadn’t changed at all. He died in the fall, and I buried him on our land.”
“Polina…” Logan’s face betrayed his sympathy for her.
“Ronin made his choice. I could have cured him, but he refused me. Some part of him believed I was wicked to the very end. So, you see, when I left you in the kitchen that night, it was because I know what happens when a human and a witch fall in love. The human dies, and the witch is never the same.”
“I understand why you left, but it doesn’t have to be that way.”
“It doesn’t?” Polina scoffed. She leaned her elbows on the table. “What way can it be?”
Logan took her hands in his and kissed her fingers. “First difference is, I know what you are, and I don’t think you’re wicked.”
“Do you think you could trust me after what happened with Tabetha?”
“I trusted you enough to invite you inside.”
She laughed. “I’m not a vampire. It doesn’t matter.”
“No. After Tabetha, Grateful placed a protective enchantment around my apartment. Nothing supernatural can come in without an invitation. It’s why I didn’t invite you in the first night you came to my balcony. When I carried you through the door tonight, I was letting you in.”
“Oh, Logan.” She pressed her fingers into her lips. “Thank you.”
“Trust is built over time. We’ll never know if this is real unless we give it a chance. I’ll take a chance on a witch if you take a chance on a human.”
“Take it day by day and see where it leads?”
“Exactly.”
She searched his face, the pull of the positivity potion driving her toward him. “I don’t think I have a choice. You asked me what changed, why I came here tonight. It’s like someone has tethered me to you. The longer I’m away, the tighter the tether becomes until I can’t stand the tension. I have to be near you. Can you feel it? This thing, drawing us together?”
He nodded, swallowed hard.
She rose from her chair and walked around the table to stand in front of him. Hiking her skirt up, she straddled his lap. Logan inhaled through his teeth with a hiss. He was instantly hard. If he made it through the evening without coming in his pants, it would be a miracle. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her breasts grazing his chest. He closed his eyes in an attempt to try to keep it together.
“Make love to me, Logan.”
“We should wait,” he murmured. “Shooting stars burn out fast.” He couldn’t risk it with her. He wasn’t sure what was happening between them, but he had the sense it was gravely important. It would take will power, but in the long run it would pay off.
“You don’t understand. I’ve got this hunger in me,” she pleaded softly in his ear. “I won’t be able to function unless it gets fed. I can hardly hold a thought. Please.”
He lifted both hands to cup the sides of her face and searched her eyes for any hint of uncertainty. There was none. Fuck will power. Just this once, Logan was going to have dessert first.