Read Protector (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 5) Online
Authors: Christine Pope
Protector (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 5) (26 page)
Afterward, once they’d gotten themselves more or less pulled together, they settled back down on the couch, Caitlin with her head on Alex’s shoulder. She knew she should call her parents to tell them the news, but she wanted to work out a few more things first.
“What about school?”
“Transfer to U of A. It might be a little hard this late in the game, but my clan has a few people who work there. I’m sure some strings can get pulled so you can still start in the fall.”
The McAllisters weren’t all that good at string-pulling, so she’d have to take his word for it. But the University of Arizona was an excellent school, and most of her coursework should transfer straight over, since both universities were part of the same system. And if she ended up having to take an extra semester to get caught up, well, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. After all, she’d be living with Alex. That would make everything a lot easier.
But still, her conscience pricked at her. She’d just come to terms with being the McAllister seer, and now she was going to pack up and go off to de la Paz territory?
“The clan elders won’t be happy about their seer going to live outside McAllister lands,” she said. “I mean, I’ve just started really functioning as a seer, and now I’m going to bail completely?”
Alex lifted an eyebrow at her. “You’re going to Tucson, not Siberia. And this is the twenty-first century. Haven’t your clan elders heard of Skype? Facetime? Email? I don’t know, a telephone?”
She stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed.
“Now you’re just teasing me.”
“Maybe I am, a little,” he admitted. “But you brought it on yourself.”
That could be true. But she had one last question to ask. “What about a job?” she asked.
“What about it?”
“I won’t feel right, freeloading off you.”
At that remark, he pulled away slightly and gave her a very direct look. “First of all, Caitlin, I wouldn’t call going to college full-time exactly freeloading. Besides, I thought you said your book sales were picking up.”
“They are,” she admitted. It wasn’t as if she was going to hit the
New York Times
bestseller list anytime soon, but her monthly earnings had inched past fifteen hundred dollars or so.
“Well, then,” he said, as if that covered everything. “It’s not like I need you to help me with a house payment or anything, and if you’re earning your own money, then you’ll be able to buy the little things you need for school and whatever. Isn’t that enough?”
She watched him carefully for a few seconds. He was telling the truth. All he wanted was her with him. Nothing else. No strings.
“I love you, Alex Trujillo,” she said.
Another of those blazing smiles. “That’s the first time you’ve told me that.”
No, that couldn’t be right. But she reflected on the time they’d spent together and everything they’d talked about, and she realized she never
had
said those three important words aloud. She’d thought them plenty of times but never quite got the nerve to say “I love you” to Alex, always telling herself that it was too soon, that they needed more time together. A silly notion, really, to believe that you had to spend a set amount of time with someone before you could take that next step. She’d known almost from the beginning that there couldn’t be anyone except Alex, that through all the fear and terror and worry, he’d been there for her, the one person, the one true match to her soul, that she’d thought she would never find.
Taking his hand, she pressed it against her cheek. “Well, I do love you.”
“Oh, I know. And I love you, too. I think I was in love with you from the moment you collapsed in my arms in the store.” She gave him a disbelieving look, and he went on, “It’s true. I didn’t know who you were or what kind of trouble you were in, but I was…drawn to you, I guess. And even though I knew I had other things I should be focusing on during that whole nightmare, I couldn’t stop thinking about you. About being with you.”
Caitlin could understand those feelings all too well, because she’d been thinking the same thing about him. What they shared wasn’t exactly like a consort bond, because that sort of connection was only for a
prima
and her soul mate
,
but it seemed something almost as powerful had brought her and Alex together. Her mother had said it was like that for witches sometimes, that they were somehow able to recognize in another person the quality that would make them their perfect pairing, but Caitlin had dismissed the notion as overly romantic, and had thought it couldn’t actually be like that in real life. Not when she’d had such bad luck before when it came to men.
Or guys,
she amended mentally.
Before Alex, they were all just guys.
He was something different, though. Something special.
She tried to keep her tone casual as she said, “I couldn’t stop thinking about you, either, but I just thought it was because of your outstanding gorgeousness.”
“Oh, now you’re going to give me a swelled head.”
“That’s not such a bad thing,” she responded, moving her hand down to the crotch of his jeans.
He gusted out a breath. “That’s dangerous, Caitlin.”
“I know,” she said. But he made no move to rub against her and escalate things. She withdrew her hand and asked, “What is it?”
“You’re going to think it’s crazy.”
“I grew up in Jerome, Alex. It takes a lot to make me think something is crazy.”
Smiling, he took her hand and kissed it. Shivers ran down her spine, and she could feel her pulse beginning to speed up. Funny how even the little things he did could cause such a strong physical reaction in her.
“The next time we’re together, I want it to be in the house.
Our
house. I know it’ll take a while to make the transition, but — ”
She leaned forward and kissed him. “I don’t think it’s crazy. Besides, I know you hate how your feet hang off the edge of my crappy little bed.”
“So you’re willing to wait?” He sounded surprised, and she couldn’t blame him. At least half the time, she was the one who initiated things between them. He’d once said he didn’t know what blazed hotter, her blood or her red hair. Then she’d teased him for only being attracted to her hair, whereupon he’d taken it upon himself to prove that there were actually a great many things about her that attracted him.
“Oh, hell, no, I’m not waiting. Not that long, anyway,” she replied at once, pushing herself up from the couch and thinking furiously. “I can pack a few things, and come back for the rest whenever. It’s not like I have to be here for school — finals were last week. And if we leave in the next fifteen minutes, we can be down in Tucson in time for a late dinner. You still owe me that chimichanga, you know.”
She headed off toward the bedroom, Alex only a few feet behind her so he could get the duffle bag he’d brought up for the weekend. Clearly, he didn’t want to wait, either. And why should he? They’d both been waiting their entire lives for one another.
The time for waiting was over.
The Witches of Cleopatra Hill series will continue with Danica’s story in
Spellbound
, due out in Autumn 2015.
To be notified of new releases in this series and other new titles by Christine Pope, please sign up
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Protector
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Thank you again for reading!
T
HE WITCHES
OF CLEOPATRA HILL
(Paranormal Romance)
T
HE DJINN WARS
(Paranormal Romance)
T
HE SEDONA FILES
(Paranormal Romance)
The first three books of this series are also available in an
omnibus edition
at a special low price!
T
ALES
OF THE LATTER KINGDOMS
(Fantasy Romance)
T
HE GAIAN CONSORTIUM
SERIES
(Science Fiction Romance)
C
hristine Pope has been writing
stories ever since she commandeered her family’s Smith-Corona typewriter back in the sixth grade. Her work includes paranormal romance, and fantasy romance, and science fiction/space opera romance. She fell in love with Sedona, Arizona, while researching the Sedona Files and now makes her home there, surrounded by the red rocks. No alien sightings, though...not yet, anyway!
To be notified of new releases by Christine Pope, please sign up
here
.
