Free The Professor Woos The Witch (Nocturne Falls Book 4) by Kristen Painter Page A

the landing. Gertrude was right. He really was a stud muffin. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just coming back down.”
    “Were you talking to someone?”
    “No. Yes. I don’t know.” She rubbed her forehead. “I don’t know where to start.”
    He walked over, his gaze on the book in her hand. “Please tell me that book wasn’t on the floor when you came up here.”
    “No. Why?”
    “It kept falling off the shelf earlier.”
    Pandora nodded. More like it kept getting pushed off the shelf by a crazy old woman with drawn-on eyebrows and a penchant for glitter. “I think I know what’s going on with you, but you’re not going to like it.”
    “I don’t like it now. Tell me your thoughts. I’ll be as open-minded as I can be.”
    Gertrude’s words rang in Pandora’s brain. “This is going to sound crazy, but you might be something called a familiar.”
    “Familiar with what?”
    “No, a familiar. A witch’s companion.”
    His expression didn’t change for a moment, then he started laughing. “Okay, you got me. Good one.”
    “No, I’m serious.” She held out the book to him. “You should read this.”
    He held his hands up. “Pandora, c’mon. That’s so bananas I don’t even know where to start. Certainly not with that dusty old book.”
    Reluctantly, she put the book back on the shelf. “You said you’d be open-minded.”
    “Yes, but a witch’s companion? As in your companion? Is this your way of trying to get me to believe? It’s cute, I’ll give you that.”
    Kiss him , a voice whispered in her ear.
    So she did.

    Cole registered Pandora getting closer, her eyes closing, her lips puckering. He knew on some level what all those things meant. And yet he was still surprised when her mouth made contact with his.
    Not so surprised he couldn’t react. His growing desire to be near her, to touch her and hold her, spiked into incalculable territory. His arms slipped around her of their own volition. She was as warm and soft and curvy as she looked. Maybe more.
    Her lips fit his perfectly, and as her tongue brushed the seam of his mouth, he groaned in pleasure, unable to hold back the sheer joy of tasting her. Kissing Pandora was torture in the most amazing way.
    She kissed with the kind of tentative pressure that made him realize she had no idea how he felt about her. And why would she? He’d been a jerk.
    Then, maybe because she’d figured out he wasn’t resisting, she leaned in and really kissed him.
    Heat rose up through his body like he was standing on a steam vent. Every muscle and nerve came alive. He wasn’t even sure he was still touching the floor.
    The rush of air stripped the heat from his skin and everything changed . No matter which way he turned his head, his field of vision was filled with the sprawl of forest and rising hills. He flapped his wings and— he flapped his wings ? Cole opened his mouth to cry out.
    The screech of a bird filled his ears.
    Pandora was gone. He couldn’t feel her or sense her presence. All he saw was sky and the earth below. Things started to contort, and his vision went blurry. His heart pounded, thundering with the unknown and the known. More bird cries filled his ears. Everything about this moment was strange and, somehow, déjà vu.
    There was a brief pinch of discomfort, then all went black.
    He opened his eyes and saw the wood ceiling of the attic. And Pandora, looking down at him with big eyes and a slightly awed expression.
    “Are you okay?”
    He blinked up at her. “I don’t know. What just happened?”
    She glanced down the length of his body before making eye contact again. “For about thirty seconds, you were…a raven.”
    “It sounded like you said I was a raven.”
    “I did.”
    He really didn’t want to unpack that, but somehow it made perfect sense. And no sense. “An actual bird.”
    “An actual bird.”
    He stared at the ceiling for a long, quiet moment, hoping he would suddenly awaken and realize this was all a dream. No such