Simeth's Bride (Crystal Glass Dragons 2)

2

Mara

I’d skipped through half of my work playlist before I finally settled on a song. My grandma used to say that this only happens when you are trying to get distracted from something and none of the songs are distracting enough.

Maybe that was true.

Shewas what I was needing a distraction from.

A nagging cough she attributed to allergies had lasted throughout spring and into summer, fall, winter, and another spring, and it was only getting worse. I needed to figure out what she needed, but she refused to see any of the witches in town about her cough.

I just wanted to be sure she was okay.

Lowering myself to the gauze floor, I sat comfortably in Louie and let my legs sway in the wind. Louie was my grandfather’s cherry-picker when he did electrical work, but when he’d passed it had kinda just become mine. It was great for sign painting—or just getting up and away from the world. Biting my lip, I turned up my music a little louder and started sketching out the design for the hotel’s new sign. The wolf shifter that owned the hotel was really specific about what she wanted, but I couldn’t be upset since she paid so well.

I loved my job.

I knew not many people could say that honestly, but painting signs and windows for businesses was the best job I could ever have. Eventually I wanted to move into illustrating children’s books, but for now the daily fresh air—and fresh paint—were more than enough to make me feel good.

I erased portions of my sketched lettering, making sure that it followed the ‘70s style that had been requested.

Opening my first can of paint, I let my thick brush suck in a lot of pigment and skipped another song.

Below, the city sprawl seemed slow and content.

I had views of Ember Abyss a lot of people couldn’t imagine.

Smiling at the thought, I stood and started painting in my first line. As I reached down to gather more paint, I realized there was someone down there watching me. From fifty feet in the air, it was hard to make him out, but I could tell he was looking at me.

Pulling out one of my earbuds, I leaned over Louie’s rail and shouted down.

“Can I help you with something?”

“Just thought I’d watch you paint, is that alright?” he asked.

His voice had a strangely attractive accent to it; I couldn’t place it, but I liked it. There was this energy around him that seemed to catch on the wind and envelope me. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was strong and unlike anything I’d experienced.

“That’s fine, but if any paint falls, I’m sorry about your suit,” I warned.

As he nodded his fiery red hair bobbed with him.

I smiled and rolled my eyes. It wasn’t the first time I’d painted for an audience, people always seemed to be interested in someone putting up a sign. Ignoring him, I shoved an earbud in and got back to work. Swirling out big loops with varying linewidth, I kept to my initial design.

By the time I was done, I’d gotten through half of my playlist, coated my old tee-shirt and denim shorts with splatters of paint, and forgotten my worries about grandma’s cough.

I sealed off my paint buckets and tossed my brushes into a plastic bag to be washed off later.

The sign looked good. It had only taken about five hours, and I’d made enough to take my grandma out for a few nice dinners. She wouldn’t let me pay rent, but I could at least make sure she ate like royalty.

I toggled with the controls, and Louie creaked, groaned, and clicked as I slowly began to lower. Glancing down, I realized the man from earlier was still there.

I was a little too surprised to really be annoyed.

He was leaned against a sleek black car, and the afternoon sun worked like a glowing filter on his angular cheekbones and jawline. I tried not to stare, but when his green eyes flit up to me, I felt it. My heart beat a little faster, and my mind spun loosely around. He was wearing a suit, I had that right from two hundred feet away, but I hadn’t seen how extremely well-tailored to his body it was.

It fit him like a second skin.

If a suit could be lingerie, made to make the wearer look sexy as hell, that’s what this suit was.