“What’s there to be embarrassed about? You’re head over heels for him; he’s head over heels for you… I say go for it.”

“Can you please just give me the earrings so I can get out of here?” I demand, holding my hand out for them.

“Stay still and I’ll put them in for you. The clasp is kind of tricky.” She leans over and slides one of the earrings into my earhole. “Wow, you smell good enough to eat… Oops. I mean drink.”

“I swear to God, Macy…”

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop messing with you.” She moves to put the second earring in. “It’s just so fun to watch you blush.”

“Yeah. So much fun,” I deadpan as she struggles to fasten the second earring.

Finally the clasp slides into place, and she steps back. “How do you stay so still?” she asks as she straightens out the skirt of my dress. “I swear you’re a statue. It barely felt like you were breathing while I was putting that earring in.”

“Terror that you were going to slip and rip the thing out of my ear. Or poke me in the eye,” I tease.

She makes a face at me as I slip my feet into the one nice pair of heels I brought with me. They’re nude and strappy, so they go with almost anything. Including, thankfully, this yellow dress.

“So how do I look?” I do a little twirl in the center of the room.

“Like you’re going to need another blood transfusion by the time Jaxon’s done with you.”

“Macy! Stop it!”

She just grins as I make my way to the door. “Seriously, you look amazing. You’re going to knock that vamp’s socks off.”

This time when I blush, it’s from excitement. “You really think so?”

“I know so.” She motions for me to twirl around again, so I do. “Also, I’ll bet you ten bucks that dress is going to be missing buttons when you finally make it back here.”

“Okay, that’s it!” I give her a mock glare as I head for the door.

But she just grins and crosses her eyes at me, all of which makes me laugh ridiculously hard. And calms me down, which I know is exactly what she was intending.

It’s so strange. Before this week, I hadn’t seen Macy in ten years. We were virtual strangers. And now I can’t imagine going back to life without her.

“Don’t wait up,” I say as I make my way out the door.

“Yeah, like that’s going to happen,” she tells me with a snort. “FYI, I’m going to need all the details. And I mean all. So you should probably pay really close attention to everything that happens so you get them right.”

“Absolutely,” I agree, just to tease her. “I’ll take notes. That way I won’t forget anything.”

“You think you’re being funny, but I’m serious. Notes would be extremely helpful.”

I roll my eyes. “Goodbye, Macy.”

“Come on, Grace! Let a girl live vicariously through you, will ya?”

“Why don’t you go find Cam? Do a little non-vicarious living of your own?”

She considers it. “Maybe I will.”

“Good. And you should totally wear the red dress when you do. After all, guys love it when you’re obvious.”

She flips me off and throws a pillow at me that I only narrowly manage to dodge.

“Temper, temper,” I tease, then hightail it out the door before she decides to throw something at me that will really hurt. Or, you know, cast some kind of spell that makes all my hair fall out. There are perils to living with a witch, after all.

My palms are sweating and my heart is beating a little too fast as I make my way to the tower room. Maybe I should have come up right after classes, like I wanted to, because all the preparation—the hair, the makeup, the dress deliberation—has done is give me more time to think.

And more time to get nervous.

Which is ridiculous. This is Jaxon. He’s seen me falling out of a tree and nearly bleeding to death. He’s saved my life several times since I got here. He’s seen me looking my worst—why am I suddenly so determined that he see me looking my best? It’s not like I actually think he cares if I straighten my hair and put on high heels.

I tell myself all of this on the way to his room—and I even believe it. But my hands are still trembling when I knock on his door. And so are my knees.

Jaxon opens the door with a sexy grin that turns to total blankness the second he sees me. Which is definitely not the reaction I was hoping for after spending the last two hours getting ready.

“Am I early?” I ask, discomfort suddenly racing through me. “If you want, I can come back later—”

I break off as he reaches for my wrist and gently tugs me into his room—and his arms. “You look gorgeous,” he murmurs against my ear as he hugs me tight. “Absolutely beautiful.”

The ball of tension in my stomach dissolves as soon as he wraps himself around me.

As soon as I smell the sexy orange and fresh water scent of him.

As soon as I feel the strength and power of his body against and around my own.

“You look pretty amazing yourself,” I tell him. And he does, with his ripped jeans and bright-blue cashmere sweater. “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you wearing something other than black.”

“Yeah, well, let’s keep that between us.”

“Absolutely.” I keep my arms wrapped around his waist as I grin up at him. “Wouldn’t want to mess up that badass reputation of yours.”

He rolls his eyes. “What is it about my reputation you’re so obsessed with?”

“The fact that everybody feels like they need to warn me against being with you. Obviously. I’ve never dated anyone like you before.”

I’m teasing, but the second the words leave my mouth, I want to take them back. After all, it was only this morning he was telling me how worried he is about hurting me. Just because that fear seems ridiculous to me, considering he’s never been anything but gentle with me, doesn’t mean he doesn’t take it very, very seriously.

Sure enough, Jaxon pulls away. I try to grab on, but there’s no holding him if he wants to go.

“I hurt you once, Grace,” he says after a second, eyes and voice deadly serious. “It’s not going to happen again.”

“First of all, let’s be clear. You didn’t hurt me. A piece of flying glass hurt me. And secondly, I know I’m safe with you. I already told you. I wouldn’t be here if I thought otherwise.”