With every heartfelt word, one of my threads grows brighter until it glows a brilliant gold. The one that leads from Donovan to me. I immediately follow it, pouring myself down the line, until I’m once again me and only me.
“If you’d ignored me, it would’ve been awkward. Especially after the whole wing thing,” I mumble, opening my eyes to find our faces are far closer than I realized when I was him.
Yeah. That’s not weird at all.
“Fucking, damn it, Callie! Don’t scare me like that!” Donovan growls, pulling me hard against his chest. As attractive as his sculpted muscles are, they don’t really give much when a gal needs to breathe.
“Sorry,” I wheeze, patting at his arm. “I got a little lost. That’s all.”
“A little lost? What the fuck did you do?” he demands, his thick fingers digging into my far more fleshy self.
“Air. Need air,” I rasp, wheezing.
He immediately releases me, his hands moving to rest on my hips. His eyes—so bright they gleam like precious stones in the waning light—are filled with more open fear and concern than I’ve ever seen before.
“I’m okay,” I promise, with my hands braced on his bare chest. His skin is so warm in contrast to mine that it feels like I’ve placed them on scorching stone. “Like I said, I just got a little lost after I, uh…well when I…kind of made us one spirit for a little bit. I mean, I was still me and you were still you, we just occupied the same, er…body?”
“You possessed me?” he drawls slowly, his eyes narrowing to where those gleaming precious stones now look more like hard chips.
“That’s one way of looking at it, I guess,” I fumble.
Thinking it best to move away, I try to wiggle myself onto the grass, except Donovan still very much has a firm grip on my hips. Meaning all I do is move around on his lap and not really go anywhere.
Resigning myself to the uncomfortable task of explaining, I release a pent-up breath, and do my best to make it sound less like possession and more like a nifty healing tool. “Okay, here’s the thing. I can heal any injury in me—it’s like magical muscle memory. I tell it go and it goes. However, I don’t actually know how to heal anyone else. Still working on that. So…I just made me you, and then let my magical muscle memory do the rest.”
“So, it’s magical healing possession,” he deadpans, but even though his words are harsh, his touch gentles—moving from my hips to slowly running up and down my sides.
“It worked, didn’t it?” I defend, my voice getting a little wobbly when his hands skate over my ribs. “I healed everything. No bruises, broken bones, and you have full feeling in your legs. Normal people would say thank you about now.”
“Thank you,” he echoes, but it isn’t thanks that stares back at me. It’s a knowing gaze that has a way of dismantling me. “But that wasn’t all you fixed, was it?”
“I, uh…w-what else could I have possibly fixed?” I stammer, only now considering I might have done to Donovan what Connor did to me.
Shit. Shit. Shit. I don’t feel anything out of the normal from him. No new empathic connections. Oh fuck, please don’t tell me he feels my emotions! One of them is bad enough.
Donovan’s hands move over my shoulder blades, the fabric of my shirt pulling with the glide of his fingers, and tingling chills run down my spine. His gaze drifts to my mouth then back to my eyes.
“If you didn’t do anything else, then why do I have this feeling if I kissed you right now, you’d kiss me back?” he murmurs, the gravel in his voice turning his words to a purr.
Swallowing heavily, I stutter, “B-Because you always a-assume that? Kind of your MO.”
The corner of his lips twitch and he shakes his head side to side. “Except I’ve never really known with you. One minute, I think you’re into me. The next, you’re innocent as can be, and I swear it’s all in my head. Until now, that is.”
“Me?” I exclaim, my right hand thumping against his chest. “You’re the one that gets all handsy then pretends nothing happened!”
He glances at my hands on his chest without comment, choosing instead to return to his original point. “You have feelings for me. I don’t just think it. I know it. How?”
Crap! I didn’t think about that part.Way to go, Callie. Now another one of your friends knows you’re in love with them, I chastise myself.
“Everyone deserves to know that they’re loved,” I whisper, my gaze drifting downward while my heart pounds in an uncomfortable rhythm. Too many beats then suddenly too few.
His hands reach over my shoulders, and one flows back down my side while the other reaches for my face. His thumb traces along my lip, tugging it free from my teeth, then lifts my chin so I can’t escape his eyes.
“You love me,” he states the words like reverent truth, but I still answer them like a question.
“Yes,” I breathe, too vulnerable to lie.
“I don’t understand it, but I know it’s true.” His hand draws me closer, until I can feel his breath against my lips. “Kiss me.”
