RISING (#2, of Crows and Thorns)

Chapter 93

Freezing water sluiced through my fingers as I raked my hand through my hair, pushing it from my forehead and startled, caught off guard by how short it was. It took a moment to remember that Rosa had cut it all off yesterday. Beneath all that shaggy facial hair I'd hidden behind for far too long was a face I knew was good-looking and like a sad fucking sap, I'd done it in the hopes I'd impress Tabitha.

Afterward, as I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I looked the same but it wasn't me. Not the guy I remembered. How I'd failed Gratian had changed me fundamentally. Though the custom suit fitted perfectly it felt different, I felt different. Vibrant color saturated the world around me. And the reason for it all was standing before me—a girl with sunshine smiles and a wicked sense of humor—flicking the tartan rug to shake off dry bark and wet leaves sticking to the material, folding it up neatly, and tucking it into the canvas bag.

I scooped up the book that had fallen on the ground and wiped the cold beads of moisture from its tattered cover. "What are you doing out here reading, anyway?" It seemed like a miserable place to read. On a day like today, sitting by the fireside seemed a cozier way to enjoy a good book.

Tabitha surprised me once again when she answered. "I like being in nature. It's invigorating." She drew in a deep breath as she turned to face the clearing, her gaze flitting about the trees with their vivid and glistening greens and dark stained trunks. "Smell that? Rain brings the forest to life."

I almost outwardly startled at how she'd seemed to have read my earlier thoughts.

She looked my way, and astonishment, I suppose, at my open and awestruck expression, had her eyes flaring wide. Big white teeth bit down on her bottom lip as she tried to dampen her smile. In the end, it matched mine—broad and beaming. With one last swift glance at me beneath her lashes she twisted away to collect the mushrooms, quickly bundling them up in a muslin cloth and placing them carefully on top of the rug.

I looked down at the book in my hands. It was clearly a romance, thankfully Fabio wasn't on the cover, but it still had some dark-haired broody guy, all bare-chested and brawny. I raised an eyebrow at Tabitha's profile. "Do you like brawny guys, Miss Cat?"

Her wide-eyed gaze sliced to mine and to the book. Her posture slouched as she tipped her head back and made an ugh sound at being caught out.

"Are brawny guys your thing?"

Her mouth twitched with a smile. "On occasion."

"Because I'm all brawny," I purred with a cocky wink, tugging at my sweat and rain-soaked t-shirt. "Anytime you want me out of this, let me know."

She rolled her eyes and turned her attention to squeezing the thermos into an outside pocket of her bag.

Then I really took in the book cover. "What the hells kind of book is this?"

Tabitha pursed her mouth and her nose scrunched as she made a thoughtful humming noise as she came closer to peer at the cover as if she'd never seen it before. "Well, hmmm...it's the third book in a series of Princesses trying their hands at a new career?"

The Princess and the Mechanic—literary, it was not.

"She's barely wearing anything."

Tabitha scoffed. "She's got a t-shirt on."

A really tiny t-shirt that barely conceals anything.

"And his hand is right there," I pointed out to her.

Right between her legs.

"Is this an erotica, Miss Catt?"

"Nooooo," she said, shaking her head slowly from side to side. But I caught her crossing her fingers as she tucked a hand behind her back.