Read Serpent's Kiss: A Witches of East End Novel for Free Online

finally see you again.”
    “You, too. I mean me, too. I mean you look amazing as well and I was looking forward to seeing you, Matt.” Ingrid blushed, embarrassed for being so voluble.
    For a moment, Matt didn’t look sure whether to sit beside her or across from her, and finally decided on the latter. They sat. Ingrid stared into his clear blue eyes. “So, uh, that author of The Cobbler’s Daughter’s Elephants has a new one. Should I place it on hold for you?” she asked. He looked stricken for a moment, and then saw that she was teasing him and they laughed together.
    She took a sip of her drink, and when she placed a hand on the table, Matt stared at it as if he was contemplating whether to touch it or not. She sort of wished he would. “I really am sorry for making you read all those boring books. I’ll make it up to you. I have a bunch I think you’d really like,” she said.
    “Ah, I would have gone on reading them just because you recommended them.”
    “Really?”
    “Truly.” He smiled. “I’m glad we finally got together. It’s pretty obvious that um … I mean at this point, I’d say it’s a pretty incontestable fact that …” He shook his head. “I mean I want to apologize. Clear the air. It was lousy of me to date Caitlin when I wasn’t interested in her … and I don’t want you to think that that’s the kind of guy I am … because I’m not.” He looked down, shaking his head.
    “You don’t have to explain. I understand. I was sort of awful to you, and I’m sorry.”
    “No, no you weren’t.” He looked up at her.
    “What?” she said when he didn’t say anything after a long time.
    He grinned. “You’re just so adorable, Ingrid. Can I ask you something?”
    “Sure, anything,” she said, feeling a bit flushed. How many glasses of champagne had she had? Two?
    “I’d really like to kiss you right now. Can I?”
    How formal of him. She liked it. There were tiny beads of perspiration on his forehead. He was nervous, probably as nervous as she was. This brave man was nervous about kissing her. Ingrid felt even warmer toward him.
    “Here?” she asked, looking around.
    But either he’d decided to stop being shy or not to wait for an answer, because Matt was already leaning over the table toward her. She leaned forward to meet him, and he cupped her chin with his hands, gently pulling her face toward his, and Ingrid closed her eyes, feeling that same trembling sensation as the first time, even with the table between them. It was even sweeter than she remembered, the warm, melting softness of it all. When they parted Ingrid sat back down, a little dazed after the experience. She’d always thought kissing came at the end of the date, not the beginning.
    Matt exhaled. “I just needed to get that out of the way. I couldn’t get that first one out of my head.” This time when he saw that Ingrid’s hand was on the table, Matt reached for it and clasped it in his.
    Ingrid wanted to say, Neither could I . But she was breathless, and she also thought she might need to—what? Slow things down maybe? She had no clue how to go about any of this. “You know, I was attacked the other day,” she blurted out, not sure why she was mentioning it now.
    It caught Matt off guard. “Excuse me?” His expression changed, and Ingrid saw a sudden spark of anger in his eyes, but when he saw her distress his face softened. “Did I hear that right? You were attacked? When? Are you okay?”
    Ingrid pulled her hand away from his and took a nervous sip of her drink. “Sorry, it occurred to me just then. It was nothing, just a harmless homeless person,” she lied.
    “What happened?”
    “I was walking through the park at night, taking my shortcut home from work—”
    “You were walking through the park alone at night? What time was it?”
    “I don’t know. After midnight?”
    “Ingrid!” Here Matt did the strangest thing: he took out a small, rectangular leather-bound pad and began