Free War-N-Wit, Inc. - The Witch by Gail Roughton

until we
both melted like a candle whose light is temporarily extinguished by the wax
turned liquid by its flame.
    He lay
against me, his mouth gently kissing my eyes, his fingers running slowly
through my hair. I opened my eyes and smiled.
    "No
man outside the pages of a romance novel knows how to do things like
that," I said.
    He smiled
back at me. "You taught me. Through many years."
    Through the
rest of the night we dozed, we roused, we merged again. During one sweet
episode when he'd urged me on top with the titillating whisper, "Claim
your throne, princess," I felt something slide onto my finger, but I was
way past the point of caring what or being capable of ascertaining such if I
had cared and finally, before dawn broke fully through, we slept.
    I woke with
my head cradled on his shoulder, my arm thrown over his chest, and filtered
light beams streaming in through the bedroom curtains. I stretched, lazy as any
cat, and caught a glint of brilliant light. Coming from—my
hand? Surely not. I stretched my hand out in
front of me and shrieked.
    "OH!
MY! GOD!" I furiously punched his shoulder.
"Chad!
This—this—"
    He
stretched and yawned. "It's called an engagement ring, baby girl."
    "Oh,
hell no, it's not! This is—this would buy a freakin' car !"
    I gazed in
mingled horror and admiration at the marquis solitaire sparkling in its circlet
of white gold, smaller diamonds running down the band on either side.
    "No,
it wouldn't."
    " Yes! Yes, it would! Mostly
anyway."
    "I
told you, baby girl. Man puts a ring on your finger, it needs to be big enough to blind folks while you type. While you give your two-weeks ' notice. Stones are from the Miami market. One of a kind
ring for a one-of-a-kind witch-bitch. You don't like it?"
    "I'm
too scared of it to know if I like
it! This is—what if a stone comes loose? The solitaire gets chipped? It gets lost for heaven's sake?"
    "Called
insurance, darlin'. Just enjoy it. And, uh, small request, please? Don't take
it off without warning me?"
    "I
can't wear a ring like this all the time! It has to come off when I'm cleaning,
or—or—making biscuits! My God, what that would do to it!"
    " Which is why the wedding band is plain, so it doesn't have to come
off. But until it goes on, just warn me if you're taking this off,
okay?"
    "Because?"
    "I'd
feel it," he said simply. "And you'd scare me."
    "You
wouldn't—" I broke off, remembering the night of his hydroplane incident
when my own neck muscles had knotted into ropes and I'd almost hyperventilated.
"Okay. But if you feel it go off and you're out of calling or texting
range, just know it's going right back on as soon as I finish doing whatever it
is I don't want to do with it on."
    "Deal."
    I looked up
and ran my fingers through his hair. "Magic Man, you're more silver than
you were at Christmas."
    "Bother
you?"
    "Nothing
about you bothers me. And damn, I never thought I'd say that when we were sitting in Rosita's and you announced you were a
warlock. And we were long-lost lovers. But you really are goin' to be
completely silver at a very young age."
    "Yeah,
I've used a lot of power since—when did this start? Let's see. October 5, I
think."
    I laughed
in delight. "You remember the exact date? First time you talked to
me?"
    "Hell, yeah."
    "And using power—that—oh shit ! I'm starting to use power! Aren't I?"
    "Hell, yeah."
    "So am I going to start going silver?! I mean, it looks great on guys, but on me—"
    He laughed. "Damn. You looked at
yourself lately?"
    "Sure. Every time I
brush my hair."
    "And you haven't noticed
anything?"
    "Like what ?"
    "Damn. Goin' to make me get up,"
he threw back the covers. "Oh, well, we won't be gone long enough for it
to get cold."
    "What are you—" He took my hand
and pulled us over to my dresser, putting me in front of him.
    "Look."
    "Look at— oh. Oh." I breathed, staring at my eyes. The blue rim, which
had heretofore been only a tiny rim, visible only to me, or so I'd thought,
until he'd made it