Pulling back so I can look into her eyes, I notice her pupils are heavily dilated despite the well-lit room, and her normally golden skin is an inviting shade of pink. She licks her lips.
“You do look flushed,columba mea,” I agree as if I’m not the cause. “You’re right, we should go so I can do something about that.”
“Like make it worse,” she mutters, twisting around with her back against my chest. “Can you walk?”
Whatever sedative I was feeling has burned off, leaving me pleasantly loose and uninhibited. “I can walk… or fly if you like. Take us somewhere remote, perhaps?”
She releases a small moan when my hands drop to her waist and I subtly shift my hips upward, making her aware of the length and girth of my desire for her. I don’t know why I was so obsessed with saying the right words when I can show her all that I feel. I will worship her like the goddess she is.
“You are really,reallytempting.” She gasps, her hands gripped tightly over mine. “Normally, this would be—”
“It’s only a temptation if you deny yourself,” I whisper into her hair. “Let me show you all that I can offer. Let me show you what lives under the facade.”
“And we’re going now,” she chirps, leaping from my lap and pulling me to my feet.
She drags me out of one of the side entrances to the hospital. I’m amused by her urgency and wonder if I should remind her that she was going to call the front desk. Eh, they’ll eventually figure out that we left, assuming we get out of the parking lot.
She tugs me along to Mildred’s car, which sits distantly from the other cars and streetlights. The air is frigid in the pitch dark of night, but I barely feel it, burning inside with the heat of my love and desire for Callie. When we’re right next to the car, I spin her around and pin her hands to the roof with mine.
“Oh, shit,” she whispers, her eyes wide and lips slightly parted.
This time I’m very careful with where we touch, or in this case, don’t touch. We’re close enough to feel the heat radiating from each other’s skin, but far enough away that our hands are the only place of contact. I know she’s weak to my voice and sensitive around her ears, the slightest breath making her shiver.
Leaning down so my lips are close to the right side of her head, I confess in a deep baritone, “I love you,columba mea.”
“Oh, Kaleb, I love you too,” she murmurs while tears gather in her eyes.
I clasp her wrists with one hand so I can brush her tears away with the other. My desire for her is compounded by the sheer joy over her returned feelings, her love a fire that burns away at my restraint.Focus. Control. Give her what you promised.
My hand drifts to her mouth, my thumb stroking her bottom lip. “I’m going to kiss you now. Not like the last time. Not frustrated and out of control. This is the beginning of a long dance that will end when I believe you’ve been properly satiated. But only with your consent. Yes or no?”
“I want to. Ireally do,”she responds, each word coated in the roughness of longing, “but there are things we should talk about first, preferably when you’re not magically whammied into whatever…”
My hand drags down the column of her throat, feeling her excited pulse against my fingertips. In a tone that denies arguments or excuses, I command, “Yes or no?”
“I know I’m going to regret this, but… no.” She sighs like it wounds her to deny what I offer.
“Unexpected,” I reply, releasing her and stepping away. Her answer perplexes me because her body language and reactions speak to the exact opposite—erratic breathing, lust-weighted eyes, and even as I move away, she unconsciously leans toward me. I love her and she loves me. Why does she resist when she said our last kiss wasn’t a mistake?
Callie tucks her hair behind her ears again, and with a huff, crosses her arms under her breasts. I take a moment to appreciate the view, my eyes falling to her breasts, down her body, and then back up to her eyes. I smile invitingly.
“Don’t flash those bedroom eyes at me. This is hard enough,” she grumbles, her gaze dropping from my eyes to my mouth, then down the rest of my body clad in an indigo ribbed turtleneck and dark denim jeans. “Reallyhard.”
“Can’t say I’m sorry,” I comment, tucking my thumbs into my pockets and tugging my jeans lower down my hips.
Her eyes follow the motion. She stares for a full beat and then blinks a few times.
“It sucks being responsible.” She sighs tragically, doing a full body shake as if to regain her faculties. “Look, if you still want to kiss me stupid after what I have to tell you, then I will happily oblige.”
“I’m listening,” I announce cautiously, shifting most of my weight to my right foot. Before, the spell made me feel free, but now I feel exposed. She said she loved me.
“Okay, here it goes,” she begins, uncrossing her arms so she can pull her sleeves over her hands. Her fingers fidget with the stitches on the cuffs. “I love you. I do, but… I don’t loveonlyyou.”
“The rest of the guys,” I supply, knowing this was a possibility. I take a fortifying breath, while I try to calm the possessive wave that goes through me.I can beat the others. I’ll show her I’m worth it.“So you need time to decide which one of us—”
“No,” she interrupts with crushing finality. “I’m not choosing. I’ve talked to the others about this. Connor, Donovan, and Felix have agreed to all date me. Nolan still has hang-ups about my magic.”
“Left me for last, huh?” I ask rhetorically. A sudden bitterness sharpens the edges of my words for maximum damage to us both. “Figures. Everyone wants the perfect, cardboard cutout version of me that does whatever they need, but no matter what, it’s never enough. I thought you’d be different, that I could show you the real me, but I guess I’m not as interesting or exciting as the others.” She looks devastated and opens her mouth to deny it, but I cut her off with a final biting reproach. “I don’t need your pity. I get it. I’m not your first choice. We’re not in elementary school anymore, Callie. You don’t have to share with the entire class.”
