“But it’s a Christmas present,” I whine, pouting and fluttering my lashes at him.
Felix starts shaking with laughter, and through his snorts, concurs, “You can’t reject her gifts. We’re her friends.I’mwearing my gift.”
“This isn’t quite the same,” Kaleb mutters, wincing as he turns on the battery pack and Rudolph’s nose starts blinking in a bizarre Morse code.
Connor sighs, takes in my pouting lip—which is really hard to keep when I’m nearly choking on laughter—and starts to unbutton his flannel. With Connor relenting to my whim of ugly sweaters, Donovan and Kaleb sigh and start taking their shirts off as well.
“You could wear it over your shirt,” I supply when Donovan tugs his dark green Henley up over his head.
“It’s too hot for that,” he mutters, pointing at his shirt on the ground. “Let alone this thing too.”
“Idiots,” Nolan breathes, shaking his head while watching his friends put on the hideous garments. “How am I the only one who remembers?”
Felix and I start hooting with laughter as Donovan and Kaleb freeze with the sweaters half on. Connor is already wearing his.
“Remember what?” Kaleb questions cautiously, the sweater stopped halfway down his torso.
“Nearly perfect memory, my ass,” Nolan mutters, rolling his eyes while dropping the box with the sweater like it’s radioactive. “Morning after Halloween. Whole lot of skin on display, which overloaded our dear Callie’s delicate sensibilities.”
Donovan snorts at the idea of my sensibilities being delicate, and I stick my tongue out at him.
“Deodamnatus,” Kaleb breathes, putting the pieces together.
“There was a Latin lesson too,” Nolan comments, laughing now that the others have figured it out. “But the threat I think is the more important part to focus on. What was it? She’d spell them so we couldn’t take them off.”
“You didn’t,” Donovan exclaims, still stuck with the sweater half on.
“I did,” I giggle wickedly, playing with the stone hanging around my neck. “But only for the night. Good prank, huh?”
“Evil, I think is the word you’re looking for,” Donovan mutters, his foot tapping against the floor.
“How does the spell keep us from trying to take the sweater off?” Kaleb asks. I notice he’s sweating, and his hands haven’t moved.
“Nothing too sinister,” I assure him, which probably loses some of its impact since I can’t seem to stop giggling. “Try to think about taking it off.”
“I don’t want to,” he replies automatically, then frowns.
“Exactly. It’s a small persuasion spell,” I answer with a grin. “It doesn’t do anything crazy, like convince you that this is your favorite sweater of all time. Just leaves you disinterested at the idea of removing the sweater.”
“Is that why I can’t lift my arms up?” Donovan asks, his gaze a squinting promise to get back at me.
“You can as soon as you put the rest of the sweater on,” I promise, but that doesn’t appear to be the answer he’s looking for.
“And there is no other way to remove these until the spell runs its course?” Kaleb inquires, letting go of the remaining fabric so he can pull on the itchy collar.
“Well…” I trail off with a suggestive smirk. “Thereisone way besides waiting for the spell to finish.”
“Oh?” Kaleb hums, looking up at me hopefully.
“Really? It’s that bad?” I exclaim, rising to my feet so I can walk over to Kaleb’s side.
With a pleading look, he complains, “It’s really itchy and doesn’t breathe.”
“Fine. You’re all no fun,” I mutter, then move so I’m in his direct line of sight. “Look straight ahead and lift your arms up.”
Kaleb does as requested, swallowing heavily, because looking straight ahead means right at my boobs—which was the point. Leaning over and looking up at him from under my lashes, I reach my hands underneath the sweater. My palms skate over lean muscle thinly covered by a cotton undershirt, and his breaths grow shallow. I can practically hear Mei cheering, ‘You go, girl! Get yours,’ as my hands slowly slide up his body, the sweater following—pushed up by my wrists.
I can feel the others’ eyes on me, especially Connor’s conflicting gaze. Not wanting to drag this out in front of the others, I quickly slip the rest of the sweater up over his arms and toss it to the ground.
