Page 63 of A Witch in Notting Hill

“Ol, come on,” she said. “All you were meant to do was stall. No one asked for a fight.”

“That was before he started running his mouth about Willow,” he said, and I froze where I stood. “Telling his mates he thought he saw her, talking shite to me and Min trying to get by. Saying she needed a real man, like.”

“He said that?” Lola asked. “Ew. Why did he think you two even knew her?” Thank god for Lola, because she was asking all the questions that were stuck in my throat.

“I guess he thought we were her security,” he said. His voice was rough, scraped. Something I shouldn’t have found impossibly sexy, especially in that moment. “We just told him someone was busy in that room and he could go in in a minute, and things just, they escalated.”

“Since when do you have confrontations with strange blokes in public places?” she asked.

He looked at me with such intensity I was certain there would be a shadow on the floor when I stepped away. The shape of my body, seared into the carpet.

“Since I’ve had something to give a shit about,” he said eventually, dropping his voice to something low and sultry. Like he wasn’t talking to Lola at all.

“Well, if you don’t mind, can you give a shit outside before we cause any more of a scene?” she said, looking back and forth between us but fortunately sparing us the commentary.

Oliver raised his hands above his head, letting Lola shove him out the door.Iwas the thing Oliver gave a shit about? Why hadn’t he given a shit about anything before? And whyme? It was no secret we’d be terrible for each other in the long run. And the short run, quite frankly.

Not that that changed how I was beginning to feel about him at all. But surely he had a better grasp on his emotional state than I did, didn’t he? I didn’t really have him pegged as the type to follow his heart instead of his head.

So many conflicting thoughts pinballed through my head, it made my teeth ache. I was losing track of which way was up, caught on the edge of a landslide riddled with caution signs screamingMUTUAL DESTRUCTIONandTURN BACK.

But out on the sidewalk, watching Oliver’s breathing return to normal as he looked me over, clocked that I was okay, I couldn’t help but take another step toward the edge.

“Thank you for that,” I said, touching my fingertips to his forearm. Letting them linger. “When you said you’d protect me from the fans, I didn’t quite expect you’d go toe-to-toe with them. I’m sure that’s not at all in your job description.”

“Willow, we are so beyond my job description.”

The heat that spread through my body at the sound of those words was another warning sign, and I tried to listen. Tried to put some space between us. If I kept this up, there were going to be consequences.

And right now, those consequences were coming in the form of squawking birds.

“What the hell?” Lola asked, turning her face toward the sky only to quickly lower it into her elbow. “Where did all these birds come from?”

It wasn’t quite Alfred Hitchcock, but it sure as hell wasn’t normal. A whole flock circled lower and lower, fluttering through the trees lining the sidewalk and screaming like it was end of days.

“Jesus,” Minho said, trying to look up and flinching away.

“Come on.” Oliver grabbed my hand, pulling me in the direction of the Tube stop. “Min, Lola, let’s go.”

I shouldn’t have loved the feeling of my hand in his. Shouldn’t have loved the bossiness in his tone as he made the move to get us out of there. Especially since it only seemed to make the birds squawk louder. Fly lower.

By the time we ducked into the Tube station, they finally swooped back up into the sky, and we doubled over to take deep, heaving breaths.

“What the fuck was that?” Oliver asked, leaning over with his hands on his knees and breathing slowly. I watched his back expand with every breath, caught a glimpse of a gold chain just beneath his collar.

“Maybe you pissed off more than just those blokes in the museum,” Lola said, fanning herself with the bottom of her shirt.

“Bothered the whole animal kingdom there, did you?” Min laughed. “God, that was weird. Has anyone ever seen that happen before?”

“Not outside of a horror movie.” Lola shuddered.

“Are you okay?” Oliver asked, returning to his full height and taking a step closer to me.

“Fine,” I said. The last thing I needed was to cause any more drama today, which meant the last thing I needed was Oliver this close. Even if it did feel good to have him check on me. To be the one he gave a shit about. “Ready to call it a day on step two.”

“Yeah?” he asked. “You’ve got whatever it is you need?”

I nodded. “We’re headed northwest for the ritualistic cleansing, and that’s about all we need to know.”